(no subject)

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

strange_selkie, tell me more about the dice. Four animals, six sides- what are the doubles? What do the carvings look like, stylistically (any kind of era you're thinking of here?) How big are they? Anything else I should know?

Luck promises to give them back eventually, but she's having fun right now and offers any of her toys in recompense. ;)

Comments

[kassandraloxias.livejournal.com]

I based my conception of Kassandra's brother's dice on who would devour who: luck-theory drawn from the natural world. They are about a third bigger than modern dice-you-get-in-Monopoly, and exquisitely wrought of human bone, which has weathered slightly darker than ivory but which also lets the carvings be better seen. They were the grown-up toys of a man who was going to be War King; they were not at all cheery.

To keep things even, one die has faces of lion/egret/serpent/salmon/serpent/lion, and one has faces of salmon/egret/lion/serpent/salmon/egret ; a 'weak' one and a 'strong' one.
Possible games, then, include Doubles, and Eat, Be Eaten, which is the dice equivalent of rock-scissors-paper and involves who would likeliest eat who. Other than those, I haven't imagined.

They rattle and click like skeletons walking on stones. The animals resemble Egyptian ones more than what you'd think of as Greek, because Kassandra is not a Greek girl.

[miscellanny.livejournal.com]

Marvellous- that was how we'd divided the faces, in any case. Thanks very much for the insight there.

*grins evilly*

Things to do with Hector's dice

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Would Eat, be Eaten always favor the person with the strong die, or is there alternation?

I could see the animals used as augury tools, but Kassandra certainly doesn't need that. Lyra would be interested in the dice for augury - I don't have a full list of the symbols on the alethiometer, but they probably contain at least a lion, a serpent and a fish of some sort.

Another game: Fire and Water. One player is Fire, the other Water.
Lion and serpent are Fire-beasts, and egret and salmon are Water-beasts.

The Rules:
The players alternate throws. If Fire throws his/her winning rolls, lion/serpent, lion/lion and serpent/serpent, he/she wins the wager; if Water throws the same rolls, he/she loses the wager. Conversely, if Water throws egret/salmon, salmon/salmon, or egret/egret, she/he wins the wager, and if Fire throws these rolls, he/she loses the wager.

Salmon/serpent wins half a wager for Water and loses a full wager for Fire; egret/lion wins half a wager for Fire and loses a full wager for Water.

Egret/serpent wins a full wager for Fire and loses a double wager for Water; salmon/lion wins a full wager for Water and loses a double wager for Water.

Re: Things to do with Hector's dice

[kassandraloxias.livejournal.com]

You (have studied early gambling far too much)
(are brilliant)
(are too too utterly Borgianly Byzantine in your thinking)
(squeeee)

Re: Things to do with Hector's dice

[rymenhild.livejournal.com]

Have not studied early gambling.

Will accept the accusation of borgian byzantine thinking, though. :)