Although social distancing is keeping people at home to limit the spread of COVID-19, board games and tabletop role-playing games are a great way to pass the time. Although staying at home is far safer than going out to large events, there are still precautions that need to be taken to stay safe, as dice can easily pick up all the germs picked up throughout the day.

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Your Dice Are Gross, Plain And Simple

We love our dice, especially if they are custom made and dear to our hearts after countless campaigns and games, but with every roll, or the time spent being handled while waiting to be rolled, they are collecting all manner of germs.

This is as true for dice as it is for smartphones, which are carried everywhere at work, at home, into the bathroom, and placed down on all kinds of surfaces without so much as a second thought. Cell phones are big collectors of germs, and like dice, require some adjustments to habits to be kept clean.

How To Handle Your Dice

The next time you’re getting ready for a gaming session, take some time to prepare your equipment. The world has been hearing about proper hand washing techniques for weeks now, and it is important for a reason. Start with making sure your hands are thoroughly clean, and then wipe down all your dice with an appropriate disinfecting cleaner.

From there, give the same disinfecting treatment to the space where the game will be played. The table and game board should all get a thorough wipe down, otherwise with every roll of the dice there will be new germs collecting on the surface. Although it can be fun holding and rolling dice in between turns, try to avoid this for the time being to limit how often they’re touched.

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This is especially true if dice are being shared. Most players of Dungeons & Dragons all roll in with their own set of dice, but for board games that use special dice made specifically for a game, players will be sharing.

At the end of a gaming session, give the dice another wipe down before they are stored away for future use. This goes together with wiping down most commonly touched places in the household, as well as smartphones, because it is still not completely clear how long COVID-19 can survive on any given surface, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

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