Louvre D20

Archeologists believe that this die was used in conjunction with divination handbooks. There is a 2nd / 3rd century Greek oracle book, the “Homeromanteion“, preserved in papyri (papyrus scrolls), which refers to throwing lots to obtain a number, which can be used to look up ready-prepared oracle questions and answers. Sounds a whole lot like an ancient encounter table to me. “You rolled an XII traveler, (furiously flips papyri) that’s not good. You’d best be on the lookout for a cyclops on your way home tonight.”

The Louvre tells us this die is tiny at just under 1/2 in diameter and its made of rock crystal some time around 2000 years ago placing it firmly in the Roman period. Each face features a Latin letter (regular old alphabet), and a corresponding Roman numeral (as shown in the diagram below). The ten lateral belt faces bear the letters A to K, and the numerals 1 to 10. The upper hat faces are engraved with the letters L to P and the numbers 11 to 15. The bottom face are inscribed with the letters Q to V, and the numbers 16-20.

We have engraved these dice with faces designed to closely resemble the originals, flaws and all. The dice are machined from the same polymethel-methacrylate as our “crystal” optically clear dice are crafted from. Each face is then infilled with golden ink. And while we’d love to stay true to the original, these dice are not 1/2″ scale as we just despise tiny dice. Instead, they are crafted at same 3/4″ scale as the rest of our dice.