The nice fellows over at The Root Dice sent me a pair of dice to preview for their kickstarter. I was very excited to receive them and the moment the package came to my desk, I had to tear them open right then and there.

Unwrapped like delicious candy!

These dice are sexy. Pictures don’t do them justice. This set is made from 5,000 year old bog oak.

“Our Bog Oak was born at the end of the last ice age. Huge oak forests throughout Europe flooded, and the trees died standing and fell into the muck. The swampy conditions have not only preserved these trees, but have turned the wood a deep black color. The bog oak we use is 5,000 years old.”

They’re not kidding about the color. Its not even a “dark brown”, but a deep true black, nicely varnished so that they’re not too glossy. The numbers are unglossed so they show up by contrast. Everyone I showed my dice to assumed the dice were stained/painted black. When I explained they were naturally that deep true black, its surprising because you don’t expect a shade so pure to occur naturally.

Not enhanced, the bog oak dice are naturally this smooth, pure black color.

They roll nicely and they’re not as heavy as they look. They’re not so light as to feel insubstantial, but not any heavier than a set of plastic d6s. They roll with a soft bounce and the corners aren’t sharp enough, nor are the dice heavy enough, to damage tabletops. I feel free to use them on any surface safely.

Altogether these are possibly the coolest dice I have ever owned and they’ve gotten nothing but positive reactions from everyone I’ve shown them to. The Root Dice guys have a fairly straight-forward no-nonsense Kickstarter going with 9 days left on the clock and slots still open for their Founders Edition set. I recommend checking them out if you love cool and unique dice.