Do-It-Yourself Lovecraft/Cthulhu Picture Dice

In my last blog post, I lamented that there wasn't yet a Lovecraft-themed set of Rory's Story Cubes. After all, they have many different sets available, as well as licensed sets like Batman, Doctor Who, Scooby Doo, and Adventure Time (later this year). So why not some Story Cubes based on the brain-melting horrors of The Great Old Ones?

So, as I usually do when I want something that doesn't exist, I made it myself.

My Lovecraft picture dice is a mini-set of three cubes with 18 iconic images of a Cthulhu-esque nature. I went online with a list of icons I wanted to find and, sticking to simple black-and-white line art, found some suitable artwork to use. I created a template of 20 1-inch squares, and fit each of the 18 images within. I had a set of spare white 6-siders that were 1/2 inch across, so I shrank my template by 50% (so the squares were now 1/2 inch across), then printed it out on a sheet of label paper. I cut out the squares, adhered them randomly to my spare dice, and now I have my own set of Lovecraftian picture dice to use with my Story Cubes. (I also plan to use them with Untold: Adventures Await upon Kickstarter fulfillment.)

Here's the image I created. I'll leave the descriptions of what each represents up to your imagination:

Oh, and if you wish to create your own set of Lovecraft picture dice, you can either grab the image above of download the original PNG file from my Google Drive at this link. Print it off, cut it out, and glue the 18 images to three spare dice. Then roll up some Lovecraftian nightmares of your own!

How Many Dice Bags Are In Your Dice Bag?

Like most of you out there, I have a lot of dice. (A loooooooot of dice...) Sitting on top of my gaming collection is a big "dice box" that I keep all of my loose dice in. But those dice are not for playing with. No, instead I have a primary dice bag that I keep my "playin' dice" in. Ta-da...

My primary "bring it to the gaming table dice bag" is this big ol' Crown Royal dice bag. The classic gamer's dice bag since the days gaming began. However, I *hate* having all of my dice jumbled up and randomly tossed in, so I keep my dice sub-divided into even MORE dice bags within...

Inside are five MORE dice bags, each with their own set of sub-divided dice for use depending on the gaming system at hand...

My Dungeon Crawl Classics dice bag has a nice set of Koplow polys with all of the various oddball DCC-necessary polyhedrals. (They're also oversized so I can read them a bit easier.

My "onomatopoeia" dice bag (AKA "comic book sound effects") is filled with d12s, which I use to run games of Cartoon Action Hour by Spectrum Games.

When the need for d6s arises, I grab my trusty Ghostbusters dice bag. Though these d6s can be used for any d6-oriented game, my preference is, of course, WEG's Ghostbusters RPG. Even have a couple of laser-etched ghost dice on hand.

My radiation dice bag could be considered my "primary" dice bag, as it contains a full set of standard polyhedrals. If I find myself in a game of AD&D, Labyrinth Lord, Mutant Future, and other d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 systems, this is the bag I use. It also contains my favorite set of percentiles for any games of Cryptworld, Timemaster, or Call of Cthulhu I may find myself in.

Finally, my "dungeon map" dice bag has become a staple at conventions as I use it for any swag and promotional dice I may want to give out at the gaming table. Here you see a small pile of remaining Pacesetter and Savage AfterWorld dice left over from my recent Gamicon trip.

Admittedly, when filled, the Crown Royal bag gets a bit unwieldy. (You could club a person to death with it.) But it's a great way to keep all of my sub-bags organized and out of the way. Anyone else have subsets of their dice on standby for quick action when needed?