[MR] History Blog: Cheater's Dice

[Garth Groff and Sally Sanford]

Noble Friends,

Lady Spophia sent me this very interesting article from the History Blog
about a pair of medieval dice found in Bergen. The dice are missing the one
and two indicators, but have an extra four and five in their place. The
article speculates these were used by cheaters:
http://www.thehistoryblog.com/archives/51158

I'm dubious about the cheating aspect, since the extra faces would be
clearly visible to at least some players when the dice stopped rolling (see
the illustration for what I mean). "Hey, there's two fours on that die!",
and out comes the dirk. It would take a deft hand to substitute these dice,
or to snatch them up after a throw before the deception was noticed. Well,
professional cheaters are usually very practiced at this sort of stuff.
Wouldn't it be simpler just to get the mark drunk and then roll him (rather
than the dice) after he left the tavern?

The alternative explanation is that there was some sort of now-forgotten
game that didn't need ones and twos. Possible. Consider the weird dice used
in D&D and similar games today.

Yours Aye,

Mungo Napier, Laird of Mallard Lodge  🦆