At Spiel in October, Michael Schäffer from the DMC sat down with Donald Reents from Chessex. The interview lasted 2 1/2 hours, and we’ll be releasing the information in parts. Part 1: Borealis and Part 2: Test Sets were already published. This is Part 3: Speckled Dice!
Background. Sadly, the Chessex family suffered a loss in 2018: Jørgen, the owner of the Chessex speckled factory, passed away. He contributed many named sets in the speckled line and created color combinations for the pounds of dice. He is succeeded by his son, Kasper, who has taken over the speckled line and is eager to start creating new speckled sets.
New Speckled. Donald confirmed that creating new speckled colors is something he wants to do. There haven’t been new speckled colors since 2004. One possible reason why is that the materials come straight from the speckled factory, and their pigments are commonly used in things like toilet seats and switch plates, which aren’t typically in “interesting” colors. But they still plan on experimenting with new speckled combinations in 2019. They thought about doing Funfetti, but couldn’t get them ready in time for Spiel. They made test colors for speckled, but only a couple of them turned out alright. But after Spiel and Lucca (conventions), Donald said that he’d be visiting the speckled factory and mixing new colors.
Jumbo. One DMCer asked about jumbo sets. Chessex explained that the problem is that jumbo dice become cost prohibitive. The reason jumbo dice like 34mm d20s are only in speckled and opaque are because the cost increase for the signature colors causes such a higher price point that Donald doubts he’ll be able to sell them at that price. However, he did state that a speckled jumbo line is a possibility, but it’s all dependent upon cost.
Release. Though Chessex is planning new speckled dice, it sounds like they’d be prototyped after the test colors release, and that release will include only “signature” designs. However, speckled could potentially be in a release after that along with translucent and/or opaque colors. Though Chessex wants to keep speckled separate from signature designs, they wouldn’t release speckled by themselves.
Random Facts: Donald pointed out that speckled dice like lotus, fire, and earth look drastically different from one decade to the next. This difference in consistency is similar to the changes in the scarab lines from batch to batch – they can differ in the exact mixing of the colors. Also, one DMCer brought up color-coded dice sets where each die is a different color. Donald said that Chessex tried that with a speckled Kaleidoscope set (25399), but the set didn’t sell. Chessex thought it would do well since people playing D&D would more quickly be able to identify the dice, but it just didn’t do well in sales.
And that sums up Chessex’s thoughts on the speckled line! We hope you’ve enjoyed this article series. Stay tuned for the final part, where we summarize all other content and provide the complete interview transcript.
Photo Credits:
Featured Image – Michael Schäffer
Picture 1 – Paulina Drozdowska
Picture 2 – Michael Schäffer
