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Although I am rather sure dice hate me in general terms, there are few things in gaming more pleasing than a hand full of dice.

Talk to any hard core gamer and you are likely to find they own near bushels of dice.

So why would you want more?

Well past the fact you can’t seem to ever have too many, in the case of the new release Knot Dice, it’s because they are not your typical six-sided dice.

The beauties in Knot Dice have each face of the die showing segments of an Irish knot. The dice, in a dark mottled green, with silver knot lines are truly beautiful.

The dice are also large, not massive, but with a feel of say Vegas table dice.

There are 18 dice.

So the dice themselves are the lure for gamers.

But with Knot Dice you get a whole lot more, as the dice are not a singular game, but rather the platform for a bunch of games and puzzles, which just translates as a ton of gaming options coming with the same dice.

Included are rules for several games and puzzles, including:

* Kells – a cooperative game for 1-3 players (or more with more sets), in which you try to form a complete design using as many dice as possible

* Kells, The Book – a campaign version of Kells

* Knot So Fast – a competitive real-time game for 2 players (or more with more sets), in which you try to form a closed design with your dice as quickly as possible

* Knot So Fast Too – a round-robin tournament real-time game for 3-4 players

* Distance – a competitive game for 2 players, in which you move two tokens over the paths created on the top of the dice to get your tokens farthest from one another

* Osbox (by Cameron Browne) – a 2-player pure strategy game, in which you select the face of a die to use and slide it on to a 4x4 grid trying to complete designs

The first thing you will notice is that there is some sweet variety in the games offered, including cooperative efforts where players need to be on the same page to succeed, through to competitive romps, and even a pure strategy game from Browne, a name abstract fans are likely to be familiar with.

Every game may not be a gamer’s ‘cup-of-tea’ but the likelihood one will please is pretty high.

And there is more. Gamers as a general rule love to tinker with rules and create new ideas. So more games by a number of designers are available on the publisher’s web site www.blackoakgames.com

I would expect the list to grow as people explore with these beautiful dice.

Knot Dice offers a bit more value yet. There are a number of puzzles to try your hand at. As an example, lay the dice out in a defined pattern, and following established rules of movement, transform the dice into a new pattern in the fewest moves possible.

As you might have ascertained Knot Dice are highly visual whether used in games, or as puzzle pieces. You have to like finding patterns.

While that may limit the audience somewhat for designer Matthew O’Malley’s game, there is enough variety here most will find some goodness to enjoy.

Check it out at http://www.blackoakgames.com/knot-dice