2015.08.24 Ken Whitman Tells Us More Pencil Dice Lies

Yesterday Ken Whitman posted an update to the Pencil Dice Kickstarter covered a bit by Don't Fund Ken Whitman or D20 Entertainment, and that blog does an excellent job of pointing out that the "sample" pencils shown and "finally" approved by Ken Whitman look like the same pencils he's shown before on one of the last times he "finally" had pencils he approved of.

Basically, Ken Whitman can't even get his lying straight. The common perception is that Ken Whitman is lying and trying to placate or confuse his backers to push them past some self-imposed timeline. My guess, and this is ONLY a guess, is that Ken Whitman wants backers to remain inactive until at least August 28th, which would be six months after their credit cards were charged for the Pencil Dice Kickstarter project.

You see, many credit card companies have a six-month limitation on charge-backs and disputes. There are exceptions, but 180 days is generally the timeline. Now I don't have the ability to post in the Kickstarter comments, but some kind soul might want to give those suckers, er backers a head's-up on this.

Some folks have noted how the pencil dice...how shall I put this...kind of suck. They seem to be a bit wobbly at best. Sources tell me that this is due to the inclusion of the eraser, which throws off the balance. The original pencil dice specifically lack an eraser so they roll better. I can't find the link, but I've been told twice now Ken Whitman was specifically aware of the original pencil dice because he claimed his were better because of the eraser.....hard to know the originals were sans eraser if you hadn't seen them....

The original comments evidently had been taken down, but I think this bit from the Pencil Dice Kickstarter Campaign is "good enough" (emphasis mine):

"What is UNIQUE about our Pencil Dice?

There have been other Pencil Dice out on the market, but with your help and the help of Kickstarter, we are adding some awesome sauce never seen before...

Our Pencil Die comes with an Eraser!
Our Pencil Die is heat foil stamped and NOT silk screened.
Because you guys are helping us raise a large amount of funding, we can offer you Pencil Dice at low cost (some others cost as much as $5 each)."

Hmm.....so we already know he saw the "other Pencil Dice" because he freely admits it. He also references specific attributes of those other dice AND mentions a cost. I thought he claimed this all came to him in a dream? And the price.....he must have also been looking at some other pencil dice on the market because the "original" he is comparing these to are half the price quoted.

Oh...and you can find Pencil Dice on the market for sale, which makes this Kickstarter fraudulent by their own rules...just like the Dice-O-Matic

Again, another time I have to call bullshit.

1st off, some of those "features" are actual deterrents to smooth rolling. The eraser for one and stamping vs. silk screening. Sure, stamping might be cheaper, but silk screening creates an even distribution of paint without compacting parts of the pencil and laying down some foil. That HAS to effect rolling ability, no?

Anyway, look at the corresponding rolls and you decide which is better. The uploaded video doesn't want to always show, but this link should work....





Pencil Dice from Sebastian Bergne Ltd. on Vimeo.


.....and I still find it interesting that we haven't heard one peep from Chessex.....just more stalling?