Despite the fact that I had two enormous luggages when I first set foot in Scotland (all the way back to 2014), I deliberately chose not to bring anything of value, or particularly sentimental with me. On one hand I was afraid of the prospect of possibly losing the objects; on the other, I wanted a fresh start, and therefore preferred to leave them behind, at least temporarily. So the object I will be analysing will be a relatively recent purchase: a dice set that holds a very special place in my heart.
Description
The object is not actually a singular one: it is composed of seven pieces in total. As the photo above shows, it’s a polyhedral dice set made up of transparent teal coloured polyresin – a popular material for low-end dice sets such as this. These types of sets are heavily employed for tabletop games such as the popular “Dungeons and Dragons”. The dice allow you to perform actions through the interpretation of the rules of the game, and they are therefore essential to be able to play. Because of this (and, of course, for more immediate readability), each die features roman cardinal numbers inked in white on its sides instead of the more traditional dots. The set was bought from a third-party seller on Amazon at a very cheap price, and it came slightly damaged, with scratches on a number of sides. Furthermore, the ink on many numbers is quite faded, and in some cases it even leaks from one number to the other. Overall, it is pretty clear that both the material quality of this set and its production (which was likely handed to a machine) are quite poor, although perhaps reflective of its very cheap value. Most notably, the pyramidal dice’s (commonly referred as d4) quality is emblematic of this: it appears even less polished than the others, and features the number on the sides rather than at the vertex, as it is more customary to do. Upon asking for a return for this product, the seller told me that all of the other sets like this one were equally damaged, and thus refused to change it. Despite all of these shortcomings, the dice set has something unique to it, which separates from the rest of regular dice sets: if one were to compare it to other standard ones, they would find out that mine is considerably smaller.
Deduction
Although some people collect it due to their charming aesthetics, the objects’ main purpose is to be used in connection to tabletop games. Specifically, I bought this set three years ago, in preparation for the beginning of a D&D campaign that I would run with my closest friends from my hometown. As over the years we have scattered between different cities and countries, we were looking for a way to keep in touch with one another. So, when the opportunity to play this game came by, we welcomed it as a wonderful chance to have just one night a week in which we could hear from each other and be together, as if we were still all in one place. Considering how there are now many applications that enable you to roll virtual dice, I like to think that the fact that we still use these physical ones is a symbol of trust, as we do not require to see the results of the die (which could dramatically change the course of the game one way or the other) to know we are going to play fair, and let chance dictate the outcome. So, aside from being a source of unending fun, it has also served to keep each other close despite the physical distance. Having mentioned all of this, it will be perhaps redundant for me to say that this set, despite its imperfections (and possibly because of them) is very close to my heart, as it represents hours and hours of precious moments that I get to share with my friends each week. In truth, they are even more than this: they represent relationships mended, hours and hours of writing, and even emotional moments scattered all over three years.
Speculation
If future archivists or historians were to look at this object, they would probably be able to infer that, given its specifications and the fact that I keep it as a unit in a bag with similar kinds of dice, it is made to be a specific set. Moreover, if they looked back at the resurgence of Dungeons and Dragons as a tabletop game in the years 2014-2020 thanks to the publication of the 5th Edition manual, they might also be able to deduce both that I played at least a D&D game, (or at the very least I planned to) and that I had a definite interest in this game. Yet, due to the bad state of the dice, they might be inclined to think that I used them far more than I actually do, especially considering how prone they are to being damaged. However, I believe that the personal value they hold for me is going to be irredeemably lost. Especially considering the fact that I have other sets too, it would be hard to make a case for what makes this one special more so than the others, even taking into account their unique size. There is also no way of preserving the memories that are attached to these pieces, unless extra documentation is provided alongside them.
sIMPly archivists 