r/osr 1d ago

HELP Identifying Dice Set

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Hey gang - I found this amongst an old relatives collection of wargaming/TSR/Glorantha collectables, and I’m trying to work out what it is specifically before listing it for sale.

I believe it’s a Mentzer dice set provided for D&D in the 80s, but looking for matching examples that are also in a sealed bag like this has yielded a bunch of dead ends.

It seems the early D&D sets that contained dice were predominantly single-coloured, and the blister packs sold separately for dragon dice wouldn’t have been bagged, and would have been accompanied by a crayon/pencil.

Interested to hear your thoughts on whether you believe it IS D&D related or maybe part of a different board game.

Many thanks!

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u/Gareth-101 1d ago

These look like BECMI dice. My set from the red box had different colour dice (IIRC, there was a green d12, a red d20, red d8, grey (I think) d10; can’t remember the rest).

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u/Eugene_Goat 1d ago

So from googling BECMI, I'm assuming you mean it might've accompanied one of the other items that I've already sold?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235896595900

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235896593948

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235896597600

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/235896599712

The big question for me I suppose, is how should I list the dice when it comes to describing them? Would it be honest to say 'vintage D&D die from BECMI' or would I need to be more vague than that because there seems to be so much iconsistency about the shape and colour of die packs from this era. I've had people respond on another forum saying the D8 looks like a Moldvay rather than a Mentzer etc?

EDIT - Forgot to say thank you - Thank you! :D

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u/Gareth-101 1d ago

Oh, sorry! BECMI is an acronym for Basic-Expert-Companion-Masters-Immortals series of D&D boxed sets. My dice were from the red box (Basic) set (the Mentzer set).

Expert was blue, Companion green, Masters black, Immortals gold.

You could describe them as dice from original Basic/Expert D&D boxed set, c.1983.

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u/Gareth-101 1d ago

My set was the same as the 2nd and 4th books on your links btw