Custom Dice - Dwarf Needs Food

Ok so I get emails from a website called RPG Shop.  This site provides me with updates on a number of RPG related things like games, dice and so on.  In particular I've been getting a lot of emails on custom dice.

[d12 Personality Dice and d8 Urban Encounter Dice]

These dice are of course a bit spendy for some one who has no money...like me.  Now they aren't that expensive but its still more money than what I can fork out.

But the prospects of using dice like this in games intrigues me.  They act as a good way to deal with players that tend to ask a lot of questions about the people around them or to help add a bit of randomness to things.

Now of course there are easy ways of building dice sets like these.

The first method is to just create a few charts and then roll a die for those charts.

Lets set up an example using a d6 and Personalities, but we'll keep this simple.

Roll____Result
1_______Hostile
2_______Unfriendly
3_______Standoffish
4_______Neutral
5_______Friendly
6_______Helpful

It would be a simple matter to write up some cards with information on them.  Keeping them to something the size of playing cards is simple and would ensure that not a lot of room is taken up on a table.

Another method is to print off words or words & pics that fit on a die.  This is more difficult as the pic and/or words need to be small enough to fit on a die, but still be legible.  Now you might be able to find some templates online but you may find some issues with scaling.  And of course using a d6 for all of these would be easier than a d8, d10, or d12.

Now looking at fonts the Arial font looks like it would be the best one for the job.  Size however is the main issue.  Font size 8 might work for most words for a d6 as you want it to fit into less than 1/2 an inch in size.  The trick seems to be to keep words to being fairly short.  Pics also have to fit into the space if you are planing on using them.

So there are some logistical issues one faces when attempting to create something that will go on a die.

Keeping all this in mind the prices tags they are asking for you to pay for pre-made dice like this doesn't look so bad.

Of course I'm going to try and create some sheets like this anyway and if successful I'll post them here for others to use.

So in the mean time take care readers.