Fancy a D20 that’ll make your party sit up and take notice? There’s something faintly hypnotic about these floating DnD dice, which hover, gently turning, several centimetres above the ground.
The ‘Ascendice’, as the D20s are dubbed, rolled out onto Kickstarter on October 18, raising close to $70,000 in just a couple of days’ crowdfunding. Made by tabletop RPG accessory store The Shop of Many Things, they’re advertised as the perfect dice to break out for that climactic roll, when the fate of a campaign hangs in the balance.
Of course, while they look like some kind of magic item or ensorcelled trinket, it’s magnets not magic that power the Ascendice. Each die floats above a base containing four electromagnets which turn off and on as sensors dictate, in order to keep the D20 stable. Meanwhile, the D20s themselves contain a neodymium core, which the Kickstarter says “ensures the highest possible levitation, as well as extreme stability while floating”.
Shop of Many Things owner Hale J explains, in a video for the Kickstarter: “We’ve created an entirely new production technique to allow us to perfectly centre the neodymium core inside the Ascendice. This means the dice are perfectly balanced.”
According to the Kickstarter, the Ascendice come in one of six colours: black, red, blue, green, white, or purple. (They’ve been given fancy-pants names like ‘Envy’s Cut’ and ‘Voidheart’, however.) There are also three ‘dragon eye dice’ with reptilian eyes in their centre, created in partnership with Spidermind Games.
However, not every variant has been unlocked yet. Instead they are stretch goals. Backers can pledge for their Ascendice (selecting either a walnut or matte black base) and then, in a “post-campaign survey” will be able to pick the colour of their choice from the options unlocked in the crowdfunder.
Originally announced in January 2022, on the Shop of Many Things YouTube channel, the Ascendice took months of development work, and is the store’s first product that uses electronics. They were named through a vote among the store’s Instagram community, who also helped select the shape for the Ascendice base.
The Ascendice Kickstarter campaign will run until November 17 and the Ascendice are estimated to ship in March 2023. To get your hands on one you’ll have to pledge $198 / £176 for the matte black base with two dice, or $247 / £220 for the walnut base version.
We’ve seen a number of funky, innovative dice in our time – from musical D20s to giant, glow-in-the-dark dice. Check out our guide to the best DnD dice for more.