Thursday 9 July 2020

Aegis of Hope


Liquid crystal technology has a prestigious and revolutionary history. Invented in 1964 it is now in fact in its 11th generation with the introduction of flexible displays over the last year or so. This is going to be an interesting tech and may well be a milestone on the path to fully blown e-paper - a single portable sheet that can change its surface detail all the way up to fully blown animations. With a sheets of extremely large e-paper there is the possibility of replacing wall paper to give an emergent if not perhaps nauseous experience of something akin to virtual reality. I very much suspect there will be implications for the usual role playing tools - books and modules certainly but also for interactive maps and playing surfaces.


Nevertheless, as interesting as all this is, it transpires that the acronym now has another derivation - namely Liquid Crystal Dice. I always think I have seen it all every time I post a dice review but yet again there is seemingly no end to the mesmerizing craving that role players have for their plastic jewelry. Metallic Dice Games have carved out a niche for themselves in the high end production of rolling polyhedrons and the panache of their website https://metallicdicegames.com/ purveys the air of quality and artisan finery.


Their latest 'Elixir' product range consists of precision cut crystal gem dice, which I have seen before, but they have managed to seamlessly seal the plastic around a liquid core so that as and after they roll the contents continue to swirl causing light to continue dancing off the suspended metal fragments. The kickstarter was funded in under an hour and with an initial goal of about 7k has now surpassed over a third of a million dollars!


The different product lines have names befitting their pedigree such as Aethar Abstract, Mana Extract, Vanishing Oil and Aegis of Hope. With an eye popping $20 for a single D20 and close to $100 for a full set we are now far off in the realms of retail Narnia....but they are sooo precious and I wants them.

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