d8's aren't usually the most valuable dice in the bag, altho some systems, like gurps, could benefit from them by using them to allow for bigger damage than a d6 offers without raising the minimum by using the "d6+1, 2, etc" trick.

Still, the funny thing is that altho a d8 isn't that valuable as a dice, a vey valuable thing comes in the form of a d8.

Natural diamond crystals are usually found in 8 sided crystal form that looks just like miniature d8s.

It was kind of funy that I was watching a sicence program re gems and they showed a pile of small, natural diamonds and hey, it looked like a heap of micro-scale d8s.

I'd never known that natural diamonds formed into a perfect d8 shape, made me wonder if anything in nature creates a d10.....:cool:

Not valuable? That's the die I use for longsword and battle axe damage. How would I kill orcs then? With a toothpick?

How is this an RPG thread?

Oops, sorry. Thought I was JimBob.

Interest info.

In my desk at work I have a fluorite crystal that's a perfect Ocathedron, and a Pyrite crystal that's a perfect cube. Perfect crystals are rare and typically if you find one it will have a small imperfection in one spot where it was attached to a larger crystal.

Let's see, I've got Iron Pyrite in cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron (all fairly perfect).  Fluroite in cube, octahedron, and dodecahedron (most of the octahedron fluorite pieces you see are cleaved that way, not natural).  Diamond in a (rough) octahedron. Galena in cube, octahedron, and dodecahedron.  And Chalcopyrite in tetrahedron.  And bunches of others also.

All of those are natural crystal shapes.  Kept planning on doing up a set of them as natural dice, but never could find a large enough tetrahedron.