I went out yesterday and bought some new dice. I am hoping they will be ready for playing by tuesday, but you never can tell with dice. Dice, like the gamers who use them, are all different. They have different personalities, some dice roll extremely well in practice, but during a game they choke under the pressure. Some dice roll badly because they have been treated badly, or because they were introduced into a setting with dice they don't like. I prefer not to take those kind of chances, and I don't let my dice mingle until they have gotten to know me and I have earned their trust.

I have a friend who once put his dice in a torture chamber for bad behavior. The chamber was a small glass box filled with coke, and I think he may have left them in their for over a year. While I don't condone such practices, I can see where he is coming from. I myself have hurled dice into a woodstove for bad rolls, and have more than once thrown them out the window and into traffic.

A lot of people have rituals for breaking in new dice. I always store mine with the high value up for at least an hour a day after getting them. I talk to them sometimes, and I like to carry them in my pockets for a few days before using them for the first time. I hardly ever do any practice rolls with them, I like to save it for the game, and I don't introduce new dice into my dice bag until they have become old dice.

For this particular set of dice, I have constructed a treasure chest to be their home. I use the word constructed loosely, because what I have actually done is taken a red plastic treasure chest and painted it.That's it. For the next two or three weeks I won't use dice other than these new ones, and I won't let these new ones see my old dice. Once we understand each other, I will begin introducing my older dice one at a time, so as not to stress out the new ones too much.