I've been into EDC for years. Knives, wallets, fidget trinkets, what to have on your keys, torches. The lot. But one thing I've always carried is some form of dice.

I have all sorts. Golf dice, poker dice, Zombie Dice, six-sided dice with ducks on. Not all of them are pocketable. What usually ends up in my pocket is two six-sided dice, Owzthat, and Pass the Pigs. Every time they come out I get funny looks and questions.

Pass the Pigs is always a winner. Gets even the most uncompetitive people praying for a double Leaning Jowler. Owzthat usually gets pushed to the side, but they're my crown jewel. an old school hexagonal metal double dice game. From the 40s? 50s? Classic pub game.

I think the humble dice needs a glow up. Someone to big it up. Get them back in the limelight.

The Beach Lunch

As my kids have got older, our insistence on avoiding phones when we're out for a meal has given us very few successful meals out. We mostly just avoid going.

Not long ago, out by the beach, we decided to go somewhere for lunch. 10 minutes in, the kids were restless, trying to pull the flowers out of the plant pots.

Then I remembered I had Owzthat.

For two small children it went a dream. A full-blown game, all four of us against each other. Batting and bowling, hoping for the highest score before Owzthat appeared and you could be bowled out. The kids practised their counting while taking great delight in my triple roll of Owzthat and not getting bowled out.

What could have been a stressful moment turned into a fun meal. Not relying on distracting them with a phone. All of us involved. We're in a world where we can't, and don't need to, completely escape or avoid streaming. But having intentional games where they're learning, having fun, whilst also being part of the social aspect of going for a meal? That can be lost by placing them in front of a screen.

Dice at 3am

I remember working night shifts and pulling out six dice while one of my colleagues taught us how to play Yahtzee for the first time. Someone getting Yahtzee at 1am and the person teaching us getting over-excited and screaming "YAHTZEE!!"

Another occasion: twelve people huddled around the staff room playing Zombie Dice to see who could eat 15 brains before the others, on our break.

A friend of mine has Star Realms. If you haven't heard of it, look it up, it's great. Whenever I meet up with him I tell him I won't meet him unless he brings it along.

The Middle Ground

It's funny. I've had friends who say "let's meet up and play Warhammer." I reply "great, I can bring them to the pub and we can have a game there?" Always met with "how about your kitchen?"

Warhammer's brilliant. But it needs a table, an evening, and a kitchen. You can't play it in a pub. You can't play it on a beach. You can't pull it out of your pocket while you're waiting for food.

Games are a social interaction, no matter what they are. Big or small. And I feel like a few dice in your pocket really meets that middle ground of EDC and play anywhere. You always carry a knife because you might need it. Why not carry a game because you might want it?

Are We Losing This?

I walk into a staff room at times and ten people are sat there. Phones glued to their faces. Nothing being said.

I'm not saying I'm a saint. My screen time review each week is nauseatingly high. I don't want to be addicted to that dopamine-driven scroll every day. I know I struggle. That's why I actively look for hobbies, tasks, activities to try and fight against it, so I have more intentional interactions in my day-to-day. Despite the fact that on my days off I thrive off several hours of no interaction and silence.

Now listen — I'm not saying you should go out and search out these things (except for Pass the Pigs, that's the GOAT and we should all have those tiny pigs in our pockets). But wouldn't it be great if some of us carried a game, a physical game, not Clash of Clans, and when meeting up, pulled out poker dice to play while catching up?

Want to Start?

Here are my recommendations. Simple games, pocket-sized, and each one has got me out of a scrolling slump at some point:

Golf Dice — Quick, simple, surprisingly addictive. Roll nine holes, count your strokes, lowest score wins. The sort of game you can play twice in ten minutes. Dead easy to learn, proper hard to stop playing.

Pass the Pigs — The GOAT. Tiny plastic pigs you toss like dice. Each landing position scores differently :- Razorback, Trotter, Snouter, and the legendary Leaning Jowler worth 15 points. Risk vs reward in its purest form. The tension when someone's sitting on 20 points and decides to roll again is unbearable. Fits in any pocket. Perfect for restaurants. If you only get one game on this list, make it this one.

Owzthat! — Classic pub cricket dice game played with a hexagonal metal case. Roll to bat, roll to bowl, hope you don't roll Owzthat and get bowled out. Mine's old (40s? 50s?) and it's got more character than any app on my phone. Great for families because even young kids can count the runs. My kids still talk about the time I rolled three Owzthats in a row and didn't get out.

Ship Captain Crew — All you need is five dice and a target number. Roll a 6 (ship), a 5 (captain), and a 4 (crew) in that order, then score with the remaining two dice. Sounds simple. Isn't. The ritual of shaking the dice, the table slapping when someone nails all three in one roll. It's the ultimate "fancy a quick game?" icebreaker.

Beetle — Be the first to build the bug. You need a 6 for the body before you can add anything else, then legs, antenna, tail, each number on the dice corresponds to a body part. It's daft, it's quick, and kids absolutely love it because they're drawing while they play. Grab a napkin and a pen and you're off.

Zombie Dice — Eat brains, avoid shotguns. That's it. Roll three dice at a time, count the brains, bank them or push your luck. Green dice are safe, red dice are dangerous, yellow are a gamble. Perfect for groups we've had twelve people huddled around the staff room playing this. It's the game that made me start carrying dice on night shifts in the first place.

Koplow has more games that are all dice-driven if you want to go deeper. But honestly? Grab Pass the Pigs and a couple of six-sided dice and you've got everything you need to stop reaching for your phone next time you're waiting for food.