Eric Harshbarger, a mathematician and senior lecturer at Auburn University, was challenged during a dinner conversation at a 2012 gaming convention to create dice that could determine the starting player without the possibility of a tie. This simple idea aimed to save time and get players into the game quickly.

After almost 15 years of effort, Harshbarger and his team have successfully developed the Go First Dice for five players. These dice ensure a fair decision on the starting player with a guaranteed winner from a single roll.

Initially, the team devised four 12-sided dice that worked for two, three, or four players, providing a statistically fair outcome. However, developing a solution for five players proved to be a more complex challenge.

The researchers explored various theories to reduce the number of sides on the dice. Eventually, a breakthrough came when a researcher from Australia proposed a practical solution using five 120-sided dice. Subsequently, a Canadian software engineer named Paul Meyer joined the project and found a solution with five 60-sided dice.

The dice are designed to be perfectly fair based on mathematical principles. While some have raised concerns about practical implementation, Harshbarger asserts that any imperfections in the outcome would stem from the manufacturing process, not the underlying mathematics.

The team continues its research, investigating the feasibility of using fewer sides for a five-player set and the possibility of expanding the concept to accommodate six players. Despite the challenges, Harshbarger remains fascinated by the mathematical beauty and complexity of the problem, open to unexpected solutions from new theories and researchers like Meyer.