These dice use clever mathematics to achieve something remarkable. Imagine the situation...
You and friends need to decide who goes first, second, third and fourth in a board game. So you decide to roll some dice. Highest number first and so on. But if any of you draw, another roll will be needed. This is a terrible situation (for some definitions of terrible). If only there were a set of dice that could determine with equal probability who goes first, second, third, and fourth. Well now there is, thanks to the inventors of the Go First Dice, Eric Harshbarger, Robert Ford and James Ernest.
With these dice all players will have an equal chance of ranking first, second, third and fourth. And only one roll is required. Guaranteed.
In fact, you can pick any subset of 3 or 2 dice and they still work.
So maybe having to roll more than once isn't such a chore, but it's the clever maths behind these dice that we really love.
Other uses for the Go First Dice:
- Decide who pays for drinks first in the pub
- Fairly order people in a conga-line
- Randomise assigned seating for car journeys
- Choose who gets to pick their Go First Dice first
You can read more about the Go First Dice on Eric's page here.
Now also available as 5 player set! This set of five 60-sided dice allows 2-5 players to each roll a different single die. After years of searching for a satisfactory 5-dice solution, a mathematically-challenging problem, this set was discovered by Paul Meyer.
4-player set price = (the 211th prime number) pence = 1297 pence = £12.97
5-player set price = (the 463rd prime number) pence = 3299 pence = £32.99