Armory Dice Markers

As a hoarder of old RPG dice, I am constantly “inking” my dice. Either to add color to the dice for the first time or to replenish their readability after years of neglect. I use two of the more accepted methods for doing so.

One is using a very fine tip marker. This requires a very steady hand, patience and a bit of boldness. About 30% of the time, I do a decent job with a marker. Even when I do, my hands and everything around me is often covered with ink afterwards.

The other method I employ is the tried and true crayon method. Where you just go nuts with the color of you choice on the side of the die, trying to get crayon into the fine lines of the number. Then you just wipe the die down and you have a nice looking and easy to read gaming tool. If the die has divots or blemishes those will also pop using this method, but with patience you can get the crayon out of those areas.

My standard crayon for the job is the Crayola white and I buy them by the box. This was not always my preferred crayon. Years ago, when at my local game store, I would pick up a set of Armory Dice Markers. Don’t let the name fool you, they call them markers, but they are just crayons. They were also a bit more expensive than standard crayons. So why did I buy them?

They were a lot more durable than a standard crayon. So I could work them more roughly around the die without them breaking. Secondly and thirdly, they were cooler looking and they were made by Armory, a brand I generally liked.

Sadly they don’t make Armory Dice Markers anymore. So if you are looking for a set, you will need to trawl online auctions or get lucky at a flea market or garage sale. The set featured above appeared on eBay briefly and were in such good shape they quickly floated above what I was willing to pay for them.

Still, they are great looking artifacts from a different time in gaming. So it is nice to see that someone preserved them up until now and that people value them enough to pay a ludicrous amount of money for 4 used crayons.

Never played Dungeons & Dragons and want a little background on this amazing game? Check out the Retroist D&D Podcast.