by Tina Manneborn

To continue our series of dice identification guides, we’d like to focus on yet two other lines of dice that get easily confused: Crystal Caste Silk and Dice & Games Marble. Both are two-colored styles with one dominant color and white swirls, but they do have some features that can help you tell them apart.

Color spread

While both lines have one dominant color and a portion of white mixed in, the ratio and spread of the colored and the white material is different. Marble has more pronounced opaque white, while Silk has a swirlier, more subtle white.

Closed vs. open 4

Perhaps one of the easiest features to tell Marble from Silk is the number 4. Marble dice have a top-closed 4, Silk have a top-open 4.

The percentile die

The D&G Marble line always comes with a percentile die, where the number alignment is parallel with the die equator. Old Silk sets came with a differently coloured d10 instead (often Jade d10), although percentile dice were made later.

These Silk percentile dice have numbers perpendicular to the die equator, look very similar to the modern Chessex mold, and can only be told apart from the Chessex mold by the fact that the 7 in the Silks is not hooked and the 1 doesn’t have an upstroke. It is particularly the Chessex Vortex percentile dice that can be very easily confused with the Silk ones, which is not helped by the fact that they come in the almost the exact same colors.

Other notable features

The Marble dice are smaller than the Silk dice.

Marble has a dot behind the 6 on all dice, Silk has an underlined 6 on the d10 and d12.

Number arrangement on the d20 is different (8 below 20 for Marble, 12 above the 20 for Silk).

Marble comes only in gold ink, Silk comes in gold, black or white ink.

Comparison with other similar lines

Crystal Caste Silk and D&G Marble are not the only dice out there that mix one color with white swirls, there are a number of other manufacturers and lines that use this design, and could potentially also be confused with Silk and Marble. We have picked out a few below, although the list is not exhaustive.

Chessex Vortex: different font, different mold and number alignment, different swirls, colour of Vortex and Silk similar. (Please note that this Vortex Purple was reinked from gold to light purple.)

Crystal Caste Silk: only die with an open 4, mold the largest (together with Vortex), but font and number alignment different.

D&G Marble: opaque and pronounced white, larger numbers, similar mold and font to Dragon Bones Series 1.

Dragon Bones Series 1: die base distinctly translucent, purple colour veers more towards red.

Chessex Rainbow: smaller font, different number alignment, die colour more purplish pink, more colour variation

in the swirls, only comes with white or black ink.

Dragon Bones has a 14-below-20 alignment on the d20, Silk a 12-above-20, Marble an 8-below-20 alignment.

Silk is the only one of the three lines that has an open 4.

Dragon Bones has a much more translucent die base than Silk and Marble, with milkier swirls.

Crystal Caste Silk Green: only die with an open 4, swirls are white.

Dragon Bones Series 1 Green: swirls are yellow and milky (same for Dragon Bones S1 Red).

D&G Marble Green: green colour is much darker and more opaque.

Crystal Caste Silk Black: only die with an open 4, black is opaque.

Dragon Bones Series 1 Black: die colour is lighter (dark grey rather than black) and more translucent, swirls are milky white-grey.

D&G Marble Black: black and white are opaque, more distinct white.

D&G Marble compared to Crystal Caste Silk