Roman d20
From Christies, a recently auctioned authentic Roman twenty-sided die, c. 2 A.D.:
“Several polyhedra in various materials with similar symbols are known from the Roman period. Modern scholarship has not yet established the game for which these dice were used.” Apparently it was from the collection of a Maryland Fine Arts professor. Hmm.
nate_combs said,
June 14, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Are you suggesting yourself or someone you should have known?
Matthew said,
June 14, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Nah, it’s not me. I wish. 😉
John Rice said,
July 29, 2008 at 5:14 pm
It just goes to show how little we know about ancient gaming. Traditional 6 sided dice we understand. Ancient games like checkers we understand. But something like this for which no rules or tradition survives is an intriguing mystery.
JR
Rob Winslow said,
November 23, 2008 at 11:10 am
It seems evident the ROmans were playing an early variant of Dungeons and Dragons!
Drew said,
June 30, 2009 at 5:33 am
They weren’t playing Dungeons and Dragons, at the time it was d20 Modern. XD