My Moon Die: An Odyssey

[Marhault]

Well, I made my Moon Die last night.  It was, for me, the culmination of a quest many years long, far longer than I have known about Alyria.  A quest that I didn't even realize that I had undertaken.  Let me explain.

When I was a young lad (maybe 10?) my brother had this cool die.  It was a ten sided die, and it glowed in the dark.  "Wow," I thought to myself, "you can play in the dark with that!"  Obviously, this was not true, but my fascination with this die still never let go of me.  At some point, I came under the impression (I still don't know it's validity to this day) that Glow-in-the-Dark plastic somehow absorbed from it's surroundings, stored it, and released it over time.  It was using this hypothesis that I decided to get this thing supercharged.  I figured that if I placed it near a strong light source, it would absorb more, and therefore give off more!  Brilliant!  So, with this in mind I set the die on top of a high-wattage light bulb, turned on the lamp, and wandered off to amuse myself while it got supercharged.  To make a long story short, by the time I returned, the "1" side was melted, damaging both it's glowing ability, and it's rolling probability.

This die has been in my Dice Bag for something on the order of 15 years now.  It has not been used in a game, the melted side altered the probabilities.  I had not found a use for it in all that time, but I would never simply throw it out, determined, somehow, to find a use for it.  A use that finally materialized last week, when I began reading about Alyria.

When I began to ponder the creation of a Moon Die, the connection came immediately.  "Finally," I thought, "a use for that old die!"  And, even cooler, it would be a Moon Die that glowed in the dark.  I shaved down the melted side to make it as flat as possible, and measured the dimensions of the sides.  The labels were made the following day (an adventure itself, and one I will omit for the sake of length, which is already well out of hand) and returned home ready to complete the act.

The Die was gone.  "My Moon Die!" I cried! "Accursed Cats!" I cried!  I searched high and low, and, after great consternation and despair, (and at great length) it was found.  It was found 3 feet under the stove, giving light to the dust bunnies and several other dice I didn't even know I was missing.  At last, however, My Moon Die was recovered, and the label placing was commenced.

Is it perfect?  No, the labels are not quite even, and it rolls New Moons too often.  After it's all said and done, I see that Ron's way is much easier.

But mine glows in the dark.

[GreatWolf]

You know, I have a couple of glow-in-the-dark d10s.  I bought them to use when playing Call of Cthulhu in the dark.  I didn't think of vandalizing them into Moon Dice.

Neat story, BTW.  It seems that there are some folks who have the hardest time getting Moon Dice put together.  Here's the other story that I've heard:

Sure I used black dice. Just thinking about green moon dice - bleagh. =)
Ok this is my moon dice story. 1st I had to search my apartment for spare black dice. Found my secondary dice bag. (Yes I am a wacko. I have a secondary dice bag.) Two black d10s in there. So far so good. Print out moon symbols on standard paper. Cut them out while watching on TV. Then searching for glue. Find some glue in the rubble beneath my TV. Find out that it is about thirteen years old and hard. Search some more in the rubble under the TV. Avoid attacks from all creatures living there. Find another glue. Find out that it is at least 16 years old and hard as stone. Think. Remember that I once thought it might be cool to make miniatures. Search for my making miniatures stuff. Find it. Along with it, find my last half-painted RoboRally figure, which has to be in that state since 1995. Find 2 component glue. Seems to be the only glue in the house. Mix 2 component glue. Try to bring it onto tiny cut out moon symbols with a needle. Botching while trying to glue the first Blood moon on the 1st d10. Print out a new Blood Moon. Come back to the table and notice that the 2 component glue has become hard. Mix again. Glue the moon symbols on the d10s.
They look pretty ugly, but hey, I'm a GM, not a craftsman.

It must be a curse of some kind.

Now for the important question:  have you played Alyria yet?  I'm heading into final editing, but I'd still be interested in feedback if you have any.

Seth Ben-Ezra
Great Wolf

[Marhault]

Man, I wish I could say that I have.  Right now, I'm without a steady gaming group, but I might try to run a one-shot with my old one this summer sometime.  Also, I'll probably fiddle around some this weekend, just to see how this whole Diverse Lunacy thing works. . .

As far as real feedback goes, I'm still making my way through the old threads and DOL columns.  Once that's done, and I see if my questions have already been answered, etc. you'll be hearing more from me.