Published in 2004 by author Richard Craze, Decision Dice is a dice-based oracle system consisting of a guidebook, a set of three wooden dice of six sides each, painted respectively cream, brown, and black, and a cardboard casting mat (assembled in the manner of a jigsaw puzzle) divided into twelve radial sections like a clock face. These components all come in a red cube storage box with dice pips printed on each of its sides, to look like a six sided die.

As the title suggests, the Decision Dice exist to help the user make a decision, and Craze provides three tiers of depth and complexity for doing a reading. The first tier gives straightforward answers to "yes or no" questions, similar to a Magic 8 Ball. All three dice are rolled together, and their resulting values are totaled as a sum. Odd numbers mean "no," and even numbers mean "yes." High numbers mean overall beneficial outcomes, even for "no" answers. Low numbers mean overall detrimental outcomes, even for "yes" answers. Results near the middle of the range encourage the querent to put more consideration, preparedness, and caution into the decision-making process.

The second tier of answers is for general questions which benefit from a little bit more nuance. The three dice are rolled at once, and the sum of their pip values is used to select the overall category and tone of the answer (more positive, more negative, more complicated, etc.), while each colour of dice has a different nuance applied to the result. In these quick readings, the black die represents challenges, obstacles, or problems. The cream die stands for achievements or prerequisite skills and resources that are needed in order to overcome the challenges suggested by the black die. The brown die indicates the success of one's efforts, based on how the cream and black dice relate to each other. For example, the value sum of 9 represents a situation which is going to come down to luck, and which has very little ability to be influenced favourably or detrimentally by one's own efforts, but if the cream die's value is higher than the black die's value, it suggests that one has the skills to get past the obstacles present in the situation. If, however, the brown die's value is low in the same roll, it would suggest that overcoming the situation's obstacle may not actually be beneficial in context, as it could be interpreted as a transgression or overreach.

The third tier of answers is for specific questions about a narrowly-defined area of one's life. A single die of the three is selected and rolled onto the casting board, and its position and value are taken together as the result of the reading. The established "obstacles, advantages, and results" categories for the three dice respectively are retained, but each also gains extra meanings: the black die now also pertains to opportunities for growth and maturation, life lessons, and the law; the cream die now relates to opportunities, career, finances, education, and material possessions; and the brown die is used for questions of health, friendships, partnerships, the future, and the unknown. The twelve arc segments of the casting board have the option of being interpreted according to the twelve astrological Houses, but the guidebook provides its own meaning for each, as well:

  1. Harmony
  2. Determination
  3. Action
  4. Analysis
  5. Independence
  6. Discipline
  7. Intuition
  8. Communication
  9. Sensitivity
  10. Flexibility
  11. Creativity
  12. Imagination

I personally consider several of these categories to be redundant due to how much they overlap each other, and I believe the Houses would have made a better basis (as well as a much better established framework, and a labour-saving one for the author), but the author's own design isn't too bad, as such things go. The jigsaw puzzle structure of the casting board, however, is a problem, as it has chaotic effects on how the dice tumble and bounce when rolled upon it. They tend to prejudice the roll in certain directions due to the locations of the connectors between the nine puzzle segments.

The guidebook also suffers a significant problem in how it has been bound: it was printed to be as geometrically compact as possible, in order to fit inside the storage box for display, and this means that it has many hundreds of pages on a very thin and weakly-glued binding. It's distressingly easy for the entire set of pages to come flying out of the binding in all directions, the first time the book's binding is subjected to the stress of opening the book's cover. At this point I am actually tempted to digitise my copy, just so its contents are not lost forever if some pages should go missing. While I recognise this is an out of print publication from twenty years ago, it's still an undeniably abysmal bookbinding effort, to the point of being an insult to the reader.

The dice themselves are respectably well made, but their three different colours are the result of a paint job that can eventually flake or rub off, rather than being made of three different natural colours of wood. I would have been thrilled if their colours came about as the result of being cream-coloured olive or ash wood, black ebony or walnut, and brown rosewood or cedar. I'd have happily paid more for well-finished wooden dice in their beautiful natural colours. The paint job on the actual dice for this oracle system is flat, matte, and rather unfortunate-looking. The only thing classing it up overtly is that the pips have been inlaid with a little bit of gold leaf. This, too, can easily rub off with frequent use, and is not as good as proper brass inset components would have been, but one must not expect miracles from a silly gimmick divination system intended for a single print run, for stocking on the impulse aisle or "gifts for people who have everything" section of a Barnes and Noble or Borders bookstore.

My final verdict on the Decision Dice is that they are passable as an artifact of their time, and a respectable amount of thought went into giving them some complexity and depth, but for anyone who uses cleromancy frequently in their daily life is going to want a system that is more personally intuitive, and less reliant on a guidebook that seems absolutely determined to self-destruct. Being out of print, it can also be tricky to get your hands on a copy of the Decision Dice, so other options are likely to be more readily appealing.

Don't take my word for it, though. Let the dice decide.


Iron Noder 2024, 12/30

Log in or register to write something here or to contact authors.