Dice and Minor Accesories Role-Playing Games 2012 06

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Dice For Pencils and Paper Role-Playing GamesCopyright ©2013 J.D. Neal * All Rights Reserved.

Some games do not use dice. And some claim to be"diceless", but use other random systems that have thesame purpose as dice.

Dice are random number generators. By combining dicein different ways, a huge (if not limitless) variety of randomnumber ranges can be created. Numbers can be used alongwith dice to model game concepts. For example, a creaturethat can take 100 points of damage is tougher than one thatcan only take 10. A hazard that does 1 to 6 points of damage is not as dangerous as one that does 3 to 18.

Die rolls are not skill rolls. Skill is exerted throughcreativity and decision making.

The referee exerts skill through the decisions theymake. They use dice for variety (random outcomes, randomtable picks, random hit points, and such) and to remainneutral in certain things: whether or not a character hits amonster in combat can be left to the result of a die roll, for example.

For the players, dice help create limits. Players exertskill by learning what those limits are and deciding what todo in face of them. For example, if the player characters seea monster in a room, they could rush in and attack, and assuch risk being defeated by random die rolls. Smart playerswill stop and analyze the situation: can they trick or bribe themonster? Can they use a clever ploy to get the upper handon it? Can they sneak past it or trap it in place?

If the outcome of any situation is based entirely on theroll of a die, the players are not needed to play it, sinceanyone can roll dice.

How to Roll DiceYou will have to look at the dice you have to see how

they are supposed to be rolled. Many give a number on atop surface when rolled.Most four-sided dice are pyramids and are spun in the

air to land on the base. The result is a number standing up;on some types, it will be placed at the top vertex of eachside, and on some it is at the base of each side. It might beconvenient to make your own d4 by marking an eight-sideddie 1 to 4 twice.

Many ten-sided dice are marked 0 to 9 and when anumber from 1 to 10 is expected, the 0 is counted as 10.Others are marked 1 to 10 or 00 to 90. In the case of 00 to90 dice you would ignore the trailing 0 when using them asa d10.

Some suppliers do sell three-sided dice (d3s), but mostpeople use six-sided dice and either mark them or interpret

them for use as a three-sided dice.Most makers put a dash or dot at the bottom of the 6

and 9 to indicate the baseline, such as: “.6”, “6”, “.9”, or “9”.

Dice DesignationsMany games abbreviate die rolls. The single letter "d" is

used in place of "die" or "dice" and is followed by thenumber of sides the die has. Examples follow:

DieAbbreviation Means...d2 = two-sided

d3 = three-sidedd4 = four-sidedd5 = five-sided

d6 = six-sidedd7 = seven-sidedd8 = eight-sidedd9 = nine-sidedd10 = ten-sidedd12 = twelve-sidedd14 = fourteen-sidedd16 = sixteen-sidedd18 = eighteen-sidedd20 = twenty-sided sidedd30 = thirty-sided sidedd% = one-hundred sidedd100 = one-hundred sided

How many dice to roll is usually placed before theabbreviation (if it is not specified, it is often assumed to be 1,if it is not specified in nearby text). If you only have one diebut a roll calls for more than one, you can always roll it thatmany times. For example: 3d6 means roll three six-sideddice, while 2d4 means roll two four-sided dice. A referenceto "roll a d20" means roll 1d20.

The abbreviation means "the total of the dice rolled":3d6 means roll and add up three six-sided dice, while "2d4"means the total of two d4 rolls added up.

The plus sign ("+") can be used to indicate additions tothe roll, and the minus sign (“-”) subtractions. Someexamples:

1d6+2 = roll a six-sided die and add 2, for a result of 3 to

8

2d10-1 = subtract 1 from a roll of 2d10, for a result of 1to 19

1d4+1d10 = add a roll of a d4 to a roll of a d10

d6+d8 = roll 1d8 and 1d6 and add them together

In some situations, 1d6-1 may be used to generate anumber from 0 to 5: in others 1d6-1 may be limited toproduce at least a 1; a result of 0 is treated as 1. You haveto read the game being played and look at the intent of thesituations; sometimes the gaming group might have todecide such things.

Sometimes a die roll is multiplied by a number, such as3d6 x 10, where the total of a roll of 3d6 is multiplied by 10,giving a result of 30 to 180. Another roll is 1d6 x 1d8 wherea d6 and d8 are rolled and multiplied by each other.

Some die rolls might be based on division: 1d6/2 meansdivide 1d6 by 2. Whether or not to round up or down has tobe specified by the game designer, based on what theyintend to achieve. The example given is often (but notalways) rounded up to give the same result as a d3 roll.

Those are just the basic ideas: gamers can take themand create all sorts of die rolls.



Number RangesThe dash (or hyphen) is often to indicate "to" when

referring to number ranges. Thus 1-6 means "1 to 6" and 1-20 means "1 to 20". Note that this designation does notalways refer to a die roll. For example, in some games acreature might have “1-1” hit dice; this means 1 minus 1, not“one to one”.

Some games express rolls as number ranges. Here aresome of the more unusual ones:

1-2 = 1d21-3 = 1d31-4 = 1d41-6 = 1d62-7 = 1d6+1 (but, you might also roll d3+d4)2-8 = 2d42-9 = 1d8+1 or d3+d61-10 = 1d101-12 = 1d122-12 = 2d6 or 1d4+1d83-12 = 3d4 (rarely, 1d10+2)2-14 = 1d4+1d10 or 1d6+1d83-15 = (2d6+d3)

1-16 = (d16)2-16 = 2d8 or 1d6+1d104-16 = 4d41-20 = 1d102-20 = 2d10 or 1d8+1d125-20 = either 5d4 or 3d6+21-24 = 1d242-24 = 2d12 or 1d20+1d44-24 = 4d61-30 = 1d304-32 = 4d81-36 = 1d361-100 or 1 - 00 = d100 or d%0-99 = d100 or d%

Some early games did not abbreviate die rolls and useda number range instead; it was usually obvious by thenumber range what was meant. And it helped enforce theidea that die rolls are flexible. A roll of "1-4" means any wayof making said roll: a d4, a d8 divided by 2 and rounded up,a d20 divided by 5 rounded up, etc. Or just pick a number from 1 to 4.

Other Designations for Die RollsSome early games used a d20 Marked 0-9 Twice (see

below). The designers were inventing the hobby fromscratch and hence they often used their own diedesignations. They sometimes called for a roll of "2d20"when what they meant was a d100 roll. At other times theymight call for a "2d20" roll when what they meant was a roll

of 2d10 (2 to 20). The user had to look at what was intendedto figure out what was meant.

Some games use only certain dice and assume youknow it; they skip designations or use them simplistically. Agame that uses only six-sided dice might simply use "d" or "D" in place of "d6". Thus, when they say roll "3d" they meanroll 3d6. Some place modifiers in front: "2+3d" means roll3d6 and add 2. Others might use the semi-standarddesignation 3d+2. Some skip the "d" designation, with 2+2

meaning 2d6+2, for example.

Unusual RollsMost people use a small selection of dice (d4, d6, d8,

d10, d12, and d20) and create other die rolls throughinterpretation. You might find custom made dice for certainapplications, or make your own. Current ones the author has found are (besides d30s, d100,s d24s and such):

d6s dice marked 1-3 twice used as a d3d8s dice marked 1-4 twice used as a d4d12s marked 1-4 three times used as a d4d10s marked 1 to 5 twice used as a d5

Six-sided dice (d6s) marked with spots or dots areeasily remarked to create d2s and d3. The excess dots onvarious sides can be scratched off or colored in, or you canuse stickers or print out numbers and attach new numbersto the faces. Some common white glues work well on thedice the author has.

A way of reducing the number of dice to deal with is tomake dual-purpose dice. For example, using a blue six-sided die with white dots, color the dots on the sides with 1,2, and 3 yellow: then one dot on the face with 5; two on the

face with 4; and three on the face with 6. When a d3 isneeded, grab a die with yellow pips, roll it, and read theyellow pips.

The same can be done by printing numbers out asfollows and gluing them on. Read the top digits on the lastthree sides when rolling as a d6; read the bottom ones whenrolling it as a d3.

die needed die rolled 1 2 3 4 5 6d2 d4 1 1 2 2 - -d2 d4 1 2 1 2 - -d2 d6 1 1 1 2 2 2d2 d6 1 2 1 2 1 2d2 Flip a coin; heads = 2 tails = 1d2 Roll any die, counting odd numbers as 1 and

evens as 2d3 d6 1 2 3 1 2 3d3 d6 1 1 2 2 3 3

d6/d3 d6 1 2 3 4/1 5/2 6/3d3 d6/2 rounded upd3 d12/4 rounded upd3 d4, re-rolling 4d4 d8/2 rounded upd4 d12/3 rounded upd4 d20/5 rounded upd5 d10/2 rounded upd5 d20/4 rounded upd7 d8, re-rolling 8d7 d14/2 rounded up

d10 d20/2 rounded upd10 d20 ignore the leading digits on 11 to 20 andcounting 20 as 10

d10 d30/2 rounded upd30 ignore the leading digits on 11 to 30 andcounting 20 and 30 as 10

d14. You will likely have to find a ready-made die, or use such methods as rolling a d20 and re-rolling if anything

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over 14 results. If you have a d7 you can roll an adder diefor +0 or +7. A six-sided die (a cube) has 6 faces and 8corners; if you are skilled at arts and crafts you might buywooden blocks or such and carefully saw off the corners tomake your own d14. Hence, you could also mark some asd7s - using 1 to 7 twice.

d20 Marked 0-9 Twice. Older twenty-sided dice (d20s)often did not have faces marked 1 to 20. They had twentyfaces that were marked 0 to 9 twice.

These d20s can be used as a d10 or as a d20. Thesimplest way to use them as a twenty-sided die is to color inone set of numbers a specific color and designate it as the11 to 20 faces, counting "0" as 20. The other sides wereused for the 1 to 10 digits (counting 0 as 10).

Another method was to use an adder die to determinewhether to add 0 or 10 to the face the d20 showed, asexplained later.

You can interpret a modern d20 as one by ignoring theleading digit on the 10 to 20 sides. The author has made hisown 0-9 twice dice by scratching the paint off the leadingdigits on said sides (painting over any remaining paint if need be to obscure it) and putting a dot under the base of the 6 and 9. While not perfect, this is a cheap and easyfacsimile of the original, for those wanting nostalgia.

Some ready-made dice of this type have a "+" besidethe number on one series to help rollers track which oneswere intended to be used as 11 to 20.

d66. Some games only use six-sided dice and (to keepthings simple) refer to a "d66" roll. This does not mean a rollfrom 1 to 66; instead, it gives 36 unique numbers. Dice of different colors are rolled: one is treated as the tens digitsand the other as the ones digits. (Or roll one die twice,treating the first roll as the tens and the second as theones.) A result of 2 on the tens die and 5 on the single digitdie means 25, for example. An example of a table using ad66 roll is:

d66 Result d66 Result d66 Result11 1 31 13 51 2512 2 32 14 52 2613 3 33 15 53 2714 4 34 16 54 2815 5 35 17 55 2916 6 36 18 56 3021 7 41 19 61 3122 8 42 20 62 3223 9 43 21 63 3324 10 44 22 64 3425 11 45 23 65 3526 12 46 24 66 36

This concept can be used with any die combination. For example, making a "d46" roll using a four-sided die as tensand six-sided die as 1s would give the following 24 results:

d4(tens) d6 (ones) Result

d4(tens)

d6(ones) Result

1 1 11 3 1 311 2 12 3 2 321 3 13 3 3 331 4 14 3 4 341 5 15 3 5 351 6 16 3 6 362 1 21 4 1 41

2 2 22 4 2 422 3 23 4 3 432 4 24 4 4 442 5 25 4 5 452 6 26 4 6 46

The concept can be used to make d3d6, d666, d366,d336 rolls and so on. The author tends to prefer thedesignation d3d6 instead of “d36” since d6s can be used tocreate a flat d36 roll.

d100. While hundred-sided dice do exist, most gamesuse ten-sided dice marked 0 to 9. The system is prettysimple: roll two dice and treat one as the tens digits and theother as the ones digit. A result of 4 for the tens digit and 3

for the units digit indicates 43. A result of 0 and 8 means 8,while a result of 8 and 0 means 80. A result of 0 on both dice(00 or double-zeros) is treated as 100.

Use dice of a different color to avoid confusion. If youhave one die, roll it in a specific order such as tens thenunits, for example.

This system can be used to created d1000 rolls,d10,000 rolls and so on by adding more dice to increase thenumber of digits. Decimals can be created by rolling d10sfor the desired places.

Some people use ten-sided dice marked 00, 10, 20, 30,40, 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90. This makes a d100 roll easy: rolland add, treating 000 as 0 or 100 as needed. Said die canalso be used as a d10 by ignoring the extra 0 on each side,counting 00 as 10.

Some ten-sided dice are marked 1 to 10; the 10 wouldbe treated as 0 (zero) for this purpose.

And as already mentioned, a standard d20 can be usedas a d10 by ignoring the leading digit on the sides marked10 to 20, allowing you to use d20s for this sort of roll.

d%. This designation means "percentile dice". Somegames refers to "d%" as a number from 0 to 99. Other games use it as an alternate designation for a d100 roll (1 to100). It is generated the same way a d00 roll above is: theonly consideration is whether to count 00 (double-zeros) as100 or 0 (zero). It is interesting how some games do notdesignate die rolls and hence let the user figures things out:a random table might go from 1 to "00" for example.

2d6 Substitute for d20, d100: The following table is anexample of a way of creating percentile rolls using 2d6.Some people understand it at a glance; others may not.Consider the 55% column; when rolling 2d6 you cannot geta 5, 6, 7, or 8, you can only get one number.

This is based on grouping numbers by a certain percentand then treating all numbers in that set as that percent.That is to say, there is a 55% chance that a 2d6 roll will be a5 or 6 or 7 or 8: if 55% is your goal, you succeed by rolling a

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* The group has to approve all dice and can check anydice at any time, refusing to let suspicious dice be used.

* Players must make their rolls in plain sight for all tosee.

* The referee can hide any rolls they wish.

* Players must wait their turn and let everyone see theresult before recovering a die.

* One player cannot roll for another.

* Any die that bounces off the rolling surface mustalways be re-rolled, no matter the result.

* The person making the roll is responsible for cleaningthe die rolling surface before throwing and cannot cryfoul if they dislike the die result because it impactedsomething, hit a sticky spot, etc.

* Dice leaning on one side are always rolled.

* Anyone who wastes too much time rolling dice mustbeat a buzzer/stop watch/egg timer or loose their turn.

* Casually flicking dice without shaking them up is illegal.The group might use a cup to roll them in.

Who Rolls The DiceWho rolls the dice for what during game play isn't as

straightforward as one might think. A common system starts like this: the referee rolls for

the creatures they control in the game and for things thatare obviously within their domain. The referee will also makerolls for player characters when the result has to be secret.For example, when they are searching, being stealthy, tryingto disarm traps, or such. The referee might also make secretsaving throws or other secret rolls.

The players roll for anything that is obvious for their

character, as it fits the referee's playing style. For example,in some older games the referee might keep monster hitpoints secret; they would roll all dice for damage (includingrolls for player characters) and describe the outcome. Other referees let the players roll damage dice for their characters.

Some referees could care less and will let the playersmake all the die rolls, even those commonly reserved for thereferee in most games. It is just a game played for fun, andthe referee is not uptight about any sort of logic. The goal is

to see what happens, not bog down in details.Even if the referee reserves many rolls for themselves,

they might let players roll the dice for monsters attackingtheir characters. This saves the referee time and gives theplayer a sense that they are rolling defensively, trying toavoid being hit and taking damage. And it reduces the us-against-them onus of the game.

Some referees will make all die rolls and describe theoutcome for the players. This creates a narrative experiencelike a video game: the player decides what to do, and thereferee narrates the result, using dice for randomness. Thisworks best for players who dislike numbers and die rolls anddo not want to bother with them if they do not have to; manyplayers prefer to roll the dice when they can.

Stranded On A Desert IslandStranded on a desert island, the author would want a

quick way off and (barring that) ample supplies to makethings comfy.

When it comes to games, he'd be happy with acomputer and printer and endless supplies of toner, power and paper. Barring that, plenty of pencils and paper. He canmake up any game he wants.

And when it comes to dice, he'd prefer as many as hecould get. If he had only one type, it would be a bunch of twenty-siders. He could use them for d4, d5, d10 and 100rolls; and he could make his own d6s (they are simplecubes). Indeed, he could make d8s and d12s given time.

But he personally does not need a huge array of dice tohave fun gaming. The fun of dice is how a few types can beused for a wide number of random rolls; and yet one doesnot need a lot of dice to even do that.

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Dice and Minor Accesories Role-Playing Games 2012 06