D12 Clock

I was digging around for links for Mad Quickies and found these domino clocks. I liked the idea but thought it might work better to use dice instead (dodecahedrons are way cooler than rectangular prisms). That was my first thought. My second thought was, where the hell am I going to find a bunch of D12 dice?

See, I don’t really do tabletop gaming (don’t tell Wil Wheaton) so I actually had to Google for a supply shop. I found one nearby – OK, I found a whole bunch nearby and picked one – and headed over. I wandered in and started looking around. The guy behind the counter seemed to sense I was an outsider and asked if I needed help. I told him I needed twelve D12 dice. Based on his reaction, I’m guessing that’s a bit unusual but he helped me pick out some suitable ones anyway. I got a few extras just in case I screwed some up.

For the clock body, I found this wall clock with some sort of French travel design on the face. It had a good frame and the hands looked like the sort that would work well with the design I had in mind.

I took it home, pulled it apart and tried out the dice with it. Notice anything wrong?

So, I cut down the clock hands a bit and tried again. Much better. But that face design had to go.

I Googled around for a dungeon map generator and found one that would make circular maps. That got me this map.

A bit of playing around with textures and stuff, and I came up with this. I marked the position of each of the numbers on the image and used that as a drill guide for bolting the dice in place. I had to print it off in 2 sections (I really should get a large format printer one of these days) and paste them onto the clock face.

Here’s the finished product hanging on a wall. I was a bit worried I’d have to remove the glass but it worked out that there was just barely enough clearance for the dice. Rumor has it this may end up being someone’s birthday present.