March 13, 2006 11:03am by Steve | 
Does anybody know what the crayon was used for in the original Dungeons & Dragons set by TSR in 1981? You know, I’m talking about the white, unmarked crayon that came in the little bag of dice. I’ve been wondering about this for 25 years and it’s about time I found out.
I recently sold this old set on eBay and the fact that I don’t know what the crayon is for is still bugging me. Before I let it go, I looked through a lot of the material in the set and they don’t mention it anywhere. The TSR catalog description says that the set comes with 6 dice, but says nothing about the crayon.
I seem to recall a friend of mine stating a long time ago that the crayon should be used to “color in” the numbers on the dice. Like you would rub the crayon vigorously on the sides of the dice and then wipe off the excess… leaving the white wax in the crevice of the numbers. While this seems plausible, it is seriously ultra-low-tech, even by 1980s standards.
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How will you and the wife spend your Friday nights now?
How about tracing paths on a map? If it was a laminated map, I’d imagine you’d be able to wipe the crayon off the map to use it again… possible?
the crayon was used to fill in the indentations of the numbers on the dice. This improved readability greatly.
From my friend, Emmett, back in Ireland – a big D&D fan of many years:
“Sadly I do know what it was for. It was for colouring in the dice!”
But sometimes low tech can be the best. Dice that came with clear painted numbers would not be that way forever. With frequently handling the pigmant would wear off.
With the crayon, the dice could be touched up anytime the color wore off. In the early days, many people could not go down to one’s hobby store and find four, eight, twelve or twenty sided dice for replacements.