Dice factoids for Xmas

Have you ever opened a cheap board game or Christmas Cracker and got a D6 with a weird pattern of pips, and the one and four painted red?

If so you are in receipt of a Chinese, or at least Asian made dice.

The red one is due to the inauspicious meaning of a single black circle on a white background; whilst the red four is thought to be of indian origin and is beleived to signify death.  However, another tale suggests Emperor Chong Tsung (AD 684 - 701) whilst playing sugoruku (Japanese Backgammon) with his queen was about to lose and desperately needed fours to win the game. He cried out, threw the dice and they came up accordingly. He was so glad that he ordered that fours be painted red from then on.

The size of the one may be to balance out the weight loss of the six pips on the opposite face, though no similar consideration is given to the other faces.  Personally I find that Chinese dice seem very reluctant to roll well and not keen on rolling sixes at all, so idea for Warhammer break tests!

So if you get any of these in you stocking fillers tomorrow, now you know a little more about them!

Happy Holidays folks.