Custom Dice?

I get a lot of emails asking whether or not I will make custom dice for people. The short answer is: "maybe". Here are some frequently asked questions about my custom dice. Please read this page completely before sending me an email about custom jobs. It will save both of us lots of time.

  • What types of dice can you make? Right now I only make 4-, and 6-sided dice (d4, d6). Eventually I might get around to creating jigs to help me make other sizes (d8s, d10s, d12s, d20s), but I do not currently do those shapes.
  • What colors and sizes do you make?
    • d4s: IVORY (standard size); ink can be black, blue, red, or green
    • d6: more options here: 5/8" (16mm) in red, blue, green, brown, yellow, white, or ivory (the first four will have white numbers/foreground, the last three can be inked as the d4s above). I can also do 1" (jumbo) sized d6s in red, blue, or green (with white foreground). I do not make black dice.
  • How are your dice made? I buy blank dice (of the above colors) and engrave designs on their faces with a laser-cutter. Most of the dice on my dice main page are engraved at a 400dpi resolution. I can go up to 1000dpi resolution for very detailed designs, but this takes the machine much longer to do. If the dice are white, yellow, or ivory in color, they must then be inked so that the white under-material contrasts enough to be viewable.
  • How much do you charge to make custom dice? This varies greatly with each request, but here are some guidelines as to how I calculate custom fees:
    • A basic design fee is going to start at at least $20. This is essentially the base cost for me to just answer your inquiry (I'm not trying to sound flippant here... it's just that it always takes some time to get the details straight for even the most basic request... and this is what my time is worth to me).
    • That $20 fee above will cover only the most basic design requests. Say, if you just ask for a design for a 6-sided die with six different words of each face (and you leave the font choice, size, etc to my discretion).
    • If you want custom images, then you'll have to supply the artwork. Files should be PNG format, at 1000dpi, black & white (not grayscale; black and white). The black portion of the image is what will be engraved away and appear as the foreground. I will not design artwork from scratch for you. I will be happy to do simple words, numbers, or pips/dots; but anything more complex than that, and you will have to provide the art to me. Even when you provide the artwork, you should expect the design fee to be at least $30 (since I'm going to have to run at least one test job after I layout the images on my templates). If you are ambiguous in your descriptions, change your mind after I start design discussions, etc... you can expect that fee to go up quickly, or for me to politely decline the job. Have a clear idea what you want before you contact me.
    • Whatever that design fee is (we will settle on that before I actually make any of your final dice), it is a one-time fee. If you were to return and ask for the exact same dice, then I would not have to jump through the design-hoops, and I could just engrave more dice for you.
    • Beyond the design fee, then there will be the cost of the dice themselves. These prices are discussed at the bottom of my main page.
  • How long will it take to make the dice? Once the design and costs have been finalized, and assuming I have the proper blank dice in stock, I can usually get an order made and ready to ship within a day or two (unless the quantity requested is in the hundreds... that might take longer).
  • Do you give discounts for large orders? I can, but not huge discounts. If you want over 20 of a particular design, then I can start coming down some... but don't expect more than, at most, a $1.00 discount on each unit... and that's if you get to 100 dice or more.
Given my price guidelines above, chances are, my work will suit you if you are looking for a "midrange number" of custom dice. If you want only one or two... well, you're going to be paying a lot for them. If you want thousands of dice... you'll probably want to contact a professional manufacturer. I'm just a guy with a laser-cutter, some spare time, and a lot of blank dice. My prices are most reasonable for custom prototypes when you need about 20-200 dice, I'd say.

If you think the above makes sense, and you are still interested, email me and let me know what you'd like. I'm not guaranteeing that I'll accept to job, but if you've read this webpage it is much more likely that I will find the time to respond to your email [grin].

Thanks.

Eric's Main Dice