Tarot Dice

A friend of mine sent me this link on Facebook, and of course I had to try it. Tarot (which, if you know me, you know I collect) but as dice rather than cards.

You can click on the pic for a better look at the board.

There are drawbacks. For one, this comes in a tube that you are supposed to retain in order to roll the dice (kind of like Yahtzee). Except my tube arrived partially broken. It's still useable, but it doesn't look very pretty. The dice themselves are large, and there are 13 of them, so it's not easy to roll from your hands (yes, I tried).

Anyway, you're supposed to roll the dice from the tube, one at a time, and then place each dice in the appropriate square on the board in order. The board itself is cloth that rolls to go back into the tube. Like the old Pente boards. Because apparently I'm name checking all the old games today.

A die is only considered reversed if it lands reversed in front of the querent. If it lands sideways, you're to consider it upright.

Okay, so the biggest, most obvious drawback becomes the fact that some combinations will never be possible. For example, the King of Pentacles and Justice will never come up in the same reading because they are two sides of the same die. So if you want all possible combinations when doing a Tarot reading, you're better off with traditional cards.

Also, in some cases, the images on the dice are very similar, and I found myself having to carefully check the die against the booklet to make sure I knew exactly what I'd rolled.

That said, I will admit the two readings I attempted came across loud and clear and seemingly quite accurate.

Overall, despite the various issues, I enjoy this as an alternative to cards. The 13-die reading is a lot of information to absorb, but the booklet points out that one can do a Celtic Cross or other kind of reading with the dice as well. I haven't tried that yet, but I might, just out of curiosity.