Set of Elemental Dice (5e Equipment)

A five-count set of elemental dice, each with 10 sides with a symbol inscribed.

Elemental dice are used in various games among various kinds of people. They're incredibly popular within magic academies and other magical institutions. Cheap sets often make for easy gifts for students, while more expensive sets may be given as prizes by the schools. On the less respectable side of things, gamblers and swindlers like these dice for their abstract but familiar symbols and common usage, allowing for them to be used inconspicuously for scams.

The standard set includes generic symbols representing each type of primarily-magical damage. Other sets may have letters, runes, or other means of communicating the damage types.

Cost: 3 sp
Weight: 0

Games

Kerimbo. The gambling-derived game kerimbo's name comes from thieves' cant, although the popularity has lead to changes in the language so the words don't become common knowledge. Players collect points by locking in a roll of the dice, with the goal of getting all of the elements on the dice to match or to fit within a specific category. Each element matches with itself and with one other element.

Kerimbo used to have many variations, with different ways of matching up and categorizing the dice. Swindlers would often change the rules on the fly, using the abstract nature of the dice and existence of multiple variations to convince their targets they'd simply mistaken the rules for another version of the game. As it became more popular, the rules began to solidify, though variant rules do still exist and it's not uncommon for different settlements to have slightly different categories.

On their turn, players roll the 5 elemental dice once, and can reroll as many dice as they choose two more times. The player must then choose one of the scoring categories to use their roll in, even if it will not give them any points. The game is generally played with up to four players, and the winner is the one with the most points once all categories are filled for all players.

Mage's Throws. An elemental dice game played among mages to narrow down options when making a decision, or for - although less-encouraged by the academies - betting purposes. There are three popular versions of the game: Elimination, burst, and duel.

Elimination Mage's Throws can be played by up to 10 players. Two dice are thrown at once, and the losing element is eliminated. If playing with more than two people, the player with the losing die rotates out as well. If there is a tie or an eliminated element is rolled, both dice are rerolled. The game ends when only one element remains. Ideas or money are typically assigned to each element, leading to decisions or payouts.

Burst Mage's Throws are usually played between 2 players, but can be played by more or less. Each player throws 5 dice at once if enough are available, or in succession with a note of the previous rolls. They then count up the wins and losses between each of their dice and each of their opponent's dice. The player with the most wins or least losses is the winner, with any overall ties being sorted by the tied players each rolling a single die and taking the result as the winner.

Duel Mage's Throws is the simplest and quickest version to play. Two players throw an elemental die, and the winner is determined by the result. Duel can be played multiple times in a row, allowing for more than two people to play.

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