Here is a Roman D20 carved from crystal in the 3rd century AD. These were used, historians suspect for telling fortunes. However, no one can *prove* they weren't used for some kind role playing game. Which is what getting a fortune told with a die is kind of like anyways if you ask me.
"roll for initiative"
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GeoWend
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •At least we know how this polyhedron was used. The "Roman Dodecahedrons" continue to confuse people. But, I don't think that is all that shocking.
There are many durable but baffling objects.
sauropods.win/@futurebird/1141…
myrmepropagandist (@futurebird@sauropods.win)
Sauropods.winPaul Cantrell
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •@inthehands
It's for drying the tea pot and lid after you rinse it with hot water.
Paul Cantrell
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •@inthehands
uh... i guess??
Paul Cantrell
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Paul Cantrell
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •Cainmark Does Not Comply 🚲
in reply to Paul Cantrell • • •@inthehands
"It's all about the cones."
- Ben Wyatt character as played by Adam Scott in the TV show "Parks and Rec" referring to the role laing game he made, "The Cones of Dunshire"
Rory
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Luci Scissors
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •The Doctor
in reply to Luci Scissors • • •Luci Scissors
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in reply to Luci Scissors • • •Luci Scissors
in reply to The Doctor • • •The Doctor
in reply to Luci Scissors • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to The Doctor • • •@drwho @bri_seven
Having used a jig like that to make fingers for gloves I don't understand the utility of having different sized holes. The hole size isn't what controls the size of the finger, it's how many stitches there are in the round (and the thickness of the yarn) and if you use these things it's always 5.
If I wanted a tool to make various glove fingers it'd need to have a way to adjust the number of pegs.
And then you have the icosahedron versions... they don't have holes.
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Luci Scissors
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to Luci Scissors • • •@bri_seven @drwho
I have several decorative dodecahedrons around my house. I just like them.
I know it's not exciting but they could just be nice things to have on a shelf?
Vereesh
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to Vereesh • • •@temporal_spider @drwho @bri_seven
You can do it with just two extra needles. And fingers go so fast... all that set up just to do like 30 rows tops?
Vereesh
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Solved? The Roman Dodecahedron
YouTubeThe Doctor
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@bri_seven I don't know. When we used to have stitch and bitch evenings it never came up in discussion. And I was to busy sewing to think to ask.
If I had to make a wild guess.. I would add them so that I could string them on a piece of string or yarn to keep them together and maybe hang them up on a hook for storage.
Sam Easterby-Smith
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •🐦⬛
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Mobile Suit Larry
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Joana de Castro Arnaud
in reply to Mobile Suit Larry • • •@funkula RPGs also need a theme, and the realization, from the players, that they can *create* their own theater play, instead of only watching.
I think that RPGs weren't created in Roman times or the Middle ages, because of lack of critical mass: too few people knew how to read/write, and paper was expensive. It would be much harder to find someone able to create a RPG system - an endeavor much harder to do than, say, create a theater play.
myrmepropagandist
in reply to Joana de Castro Arnaud • • •I think it depends on what you'd accept as "an RPG"
When I was 8 I was desperate to play D&D, my older brother, 17 ran a game, but wouldn't let me play because I was 8.
So, I decided to try to start my own game. Only. I didn't have a rule book, or anything.
I got my friends from school excited about the idea "it's like getting lost in a story"
And we made up characters I designed places for them to explore and was kind of a DM
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myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@jcastroarnaud @funkula
We used dice for random events. Argued a lot. But had a wonderful time.
It went on for like three months.
This wasn't "home brew" it was "no brew"
Basically collaborative story telling with a leader and rolling dice every now and then.
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myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@jcastroarnaud @funkula
The campaign was about rescuing Prince (not a prince. The guy. Prince, the singer.) who was also king of the Fae. Only his court was planning to kill him and he didn't know this.
So, we had to break into the castle through the tunnels below which were full of various giant insects that could either eat you, or you could tame them and they'd help you.
You can guess which parts I was responsible for in all of that.
myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@jcastroarnaud @funkula
Only the purple rain could remove the glamor from the court and expose the ones who had turned against him!
Then my brother totally STOLE one of my custom bug monsters and used it in one of his games and I'm still salty about that.
Luigi
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@jcastroarnaud @funkula I loved this story! Did your brother eventually let you join his games, or you kept playing with your friends?
My brother is 9 years younger than me, and my sister 18 years younger and I got them to play as soon as they wanted. I was not around often while they were growing up, and they ended up GMing for other friends etc, but every time I went home I made a point to have at least an evening to play a one shot with them, for years.
Now we play online.
myrmepropagandist
in reply to Luigi • • •@luigirenna @jcastroarnaud @funkula
He did not! My brother is the worst. LAMO.
Luigi
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Virginicus
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Moss Wizard
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edhaswell
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Love this. I played D&D in high school, the first version with six booklets. Very loose framework. Always thought the later AD&D was too proscriptive. It's really about the story and characters.
@jcastroarnaud @funkula
Joana de Castro Arnaud
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@funkula You created a freeform RPG, which I consider very valid: shared and guided storytelling, with little to no rules.
Now, you had the advantage of already knowing about RPGs, and living in a society with ample variety of entertainment, and where almost everyone reads/writes.
How harder would it be for a person in Roman times to create something like a freeform RPG, with no previous examples, but with access to storytelling, live music, theater, scarce news from outside one's city, and a very limited selection of books?
Medea Vanamonde🏳️⚧️ ♀
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Very Stranger Things
Kim
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@jcastroarnaud @funkula
this is precisely how I started =)
we had 2d6 and a pack of cards. it was enough to get that variety, our dm drew up a random treasure table and a random encounter table.
we had 5mm graph paper, so random square crawls were a common thing in the library at lunch time =)
it is amazing to hear other people stories!
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llewelly
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •the major purpose of the rulebooks and dice is enable people who've been beat to death by "you're too old to play make-believe" to give the games a chance. Without that, about 90% of people won't even try the games. (There are many other aspects of rpg in which the rulebooks and dice are a huge help, but those things only matter *after* you convince people to give the game a chance.)
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hazelnot
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Ancient Roman D&D!!!
Dvngeonvm et Dragonvm
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Robert George 𓇳𓃀𓁹𓏏𓇥𓆓𓀀
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •I only know about a stone one from Egypt with Greek letters, which is currently at The Met: metmuseum.org/art/collection/s…
Twenty-sided die (icosahedron) with faces inscribed with Greek letters | Ptolemaic Period–Roman Period | The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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myrmepropagandist
in reply to Robert George 𓇳𓃀𓁹𓏏𓇥𓆓𓀀 • • •@rrgeorge
I'm trying to track it down. I've seen another example, but not in as good condition. The sources I can find are a little mid:
mymodernmet.com/roman-20-sided…
One claimed it's at "Musee Louvre"
Explore These Ancient Roman Unique 20-Sided Icosahedron Dice
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ℂ𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖@world: /#
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to ℂ𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖@world: /# • • •@celeste_42bit @rrgeorge
So annoying. There are people who make stone dice to this day. It's not a "deep" process, but can be time-consuming for harder stone.
But with something like soap stone it's almost trivial.
1. Mill a sphere
2. Divide it to find the centers of faces.
Turn and flatten forever.
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ℂ𝕖𝕝𝕖𝕤𝕥𝕖@world: /#
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Katzentratschen
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@rrgeorge Yes, it's in the Louvre.
collections.louvre.fr/ark:/533…
Also found a drawing of its sides (its net) in this blog post:
archimedes-lab.org/2021/07/15/…
dé
Musée du LouvreRen
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •myrmepropagandist
in reply to Ren • • •@rogueren
There are a few etsy sellers who make reproductions of various kinds, some from crystal, some in resin ... the later more affordable.
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potpie
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myrmepropagandist
in reply to potpie • • •This is damning.
Might as well have a bunch of character sheets with all the stats in Roman numerals.
"The front face of the tower bears the words: PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI
When read as a sentence reads "The Picts are defeated, the enemies destroyed, play with confidence"
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myrmepropagandist
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@potpie
The "Picts" were a bunch of LARPers IMO
randomgeek
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •David Nash
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@potpie
The legionaries approach the strange tower.
It intones, in a low, but indisputably *mocking*, voice:
“PICTOS VICTOS HOSTIS DELETA LVDITE SECVRI”
The legionaries are genuinely astonished when the defeated Pictish army emerges from thin air, an army of angry specters.
They speak, in flawless Latin, and tell the astonished legionaries they are definitely not defeated. The last thing the terrified legionaries hear, before the Pictish army overruns them, is:
“Romani ite domum!”
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Alexander The 1st
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •@potpie Brutus: "What's your THACI?"
Julius: "...Why do you want to know?"
Brutus: "No particular reason. Anyways, how many daggers can I buy with 70 salt packs? If I can get 60 to 70 daggers, that'd be great."
Pompey: "That'll net you roughly 23 daggers."
Robin Barton
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in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Lazarou Monkey Terror 🚀💙🌈
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zaunkoenig
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🚲
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •There are a bunch of archaeological objects that look like games that archaeologists argue are for religious or other purposes. The Jiroft culture game boards, or the plausible Mancala boards found in various locations dating back to 3-6000bce.
In a similar, modern twist, tarot cards were originally a game and only fairly recently became predominantly associated with fortune telling.
Greg Burns
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🐜
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Karen Strickholm
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •🇨🇦🇩🇪🇨🇳张殿李🇨🇳🇩🇪🇨🇦
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •There's also Chinese d18s, d14s, and d12s from the ancient periods.
Used for games.
Rauli Häyrynen 狼
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Voynich Manuscript
xkcdLuigi
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Jens Finkhäuser
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in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •Frederic
in reply to myrmepropagandist • • •