Writer's Dice


[UPDATE: Writer's Dice are now available!]

Oh, you know, just an idea. Partly inspired by Mathematicians' Dice, Rory's Story Cubes, and this lesson on plots from Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

In that lesson, they talk about arranging the beats of a story. They emphatically recommend that you not join any beats with the words "and then." Instead use conjunctions like "therefore." These force you to explain consequences and examine motivations that enrich a story. Just watch the video, I'm not doing it justice.

But here's a humble proposal for you writers out there. A simple six-sided die with interesting clauses and conjunctions to help you figure out the plot of your story. When Protagonist A finds out Antagonist B is his father, roll a die to lead you to the next beat. This die can easily fit into any storytelling game, too. Heck, the pips let you use them as regular dice.

I've looked at Koplow's catalog (which really ought to be digitized) and not found anything like these. For example, here are all kinds of speech and language dice. Koplow even offers these shape dice, which obviously didn't discourage Rory's Story Cubes from going into production.

So, based on my past experience with custom dice, I'm seriously weighing the opportunity to release a Writer's Die via Kickstarter, in the same model and spirit as the Mathematicians' Dice.

What do you think?

Comments

  1. Nick BateSeptember 29, 2011 at 7:39 PM

    I would sign up for that Kickstarter in a flash.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eric & ScottSeptember 29, 2011 at 7:39 PM

    depending on price, I would be willing to back this as a Kickstarter project.

    My soon-to-be wife is also the Director of Education at a Museum (attheworks.org) and I'm relatively sure they could be convinced to pick up a copy or 2. Rory's Story Cubes have gone over quite well, so something similar would definitely pique their interest.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Daniel SolisSeptember 29, 2011 at 9:56 PM

    Heh, perhaps I should think about how this will look on a retail shelf. Hadn't thought that far ahead. :P

    ReplyDelete
  4. Mur LaffertySeptember 30, 2011 at 8:50 AM

    Yes please. I'll promote the crap out of it on my show. This is needed.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Daniel SolisSeptember 30, 2011 at 9:03 AM

    Hot damn! :D

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jesse CoombsOctober 2, 2011 at 1:38 PM

    As a customer, I'd be pretty interested. I gotta thing for customized dice.

    ReplyDelete

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