How much do you care about "balanced" dice?

There are a lot of videos and discussions on the interwebs about dice balance. Which dice are the best made, how to test dice, etc. I don't want to repeat that discussion here.

What I'm more interested in is how concerned are you about dice balance?

For me? For players not so much. For me as the DM, very much so.

At my table I pretty much only have two rules regarding dice:

1. Everyone must use physical dice

That means no phone apps or other digital random-number generators. Physical dice are a big part of the enjoyment of the game for me. This does mean that most of the dice used are not going to be well balanced.

2. Rolls must be done in the open, easily viewable to other players.

Not because I'm afraid of "cheating" but because see the rolls is part of the fun of the game. It also helps keep folks invested when it is not their turn. Physical dice help add a bit of anticipation to every action resolution in a way that digital dice do not. Even I, as the DM, roll most rolls openly.

One of the only limits we place on what dice a player can use is that they must be easily legible, even from across the table. None of those annoying, overly decorated, dice that make good art but poor game aids.


I think it is fine that players use whatever cheap dice they by at a bin in the FLGS. I don't make them by Game Science dice or Gravity dice. It is fine for them to "shop around". Part of the fun is when a player disgustedly throws a poor rolling die across the room to never be seen again until I vacuum. Similarly, if a player has a die that tends to roll "high", there is still sufficient chance involve that when they rely on it most it rolls low. Having your heart broken by a die you believed in is also part of the game.

But this is all for players.

As a DM, I believe strongly that my dice should be balanced and that I should not be trying to pick dice that roll low or high. Almost all of my rolls are done with precision metal dice from Gravity Dice. When a LOT of rolls are needed I may dig into the bag and roll some cheap plastic dice, but generally all important rolls are done with the most balanced dice I can afford.

I've thought of buying a bunch of casino dice for games that use six-sided dice pools. But those dice are rather large and you need to throw them against a back board to get a good roll. They don't play well when you have limited table space, especially if you have to roll more than two or three at a time.

Yes, I realize this may be overthinking things for a TTRPG, but dice are part of the fun of the hobby.

What about you? Are you in the dice-need-to-be-balanced camp or the I-could-not-care-less camp?

Setting aside the idea of purposely loaded dice....

Statistically, most of us just don't need to worry about the minor bias that arises from the usual manufacturing process for dice. This imbalance is notable when you roll the die a statistically relevant number of times. You can do a Chi-squared analysis on a hundred rolls, for example. For lesser numbers of rolls, you can't tell the bias from just randomness.

I play a cleric in a D&D game at work. I may roll a d20 five times in a session, maybe 10 on a really busy night. And I have three sets of dice in my bag for this game, and I'm swapping between them. I'd have to go through 30 to 60 sessions (at the rate we play, a year and more of sessions) before I'd be able to measure the typical die bias on any of them, much less be able to really blame bad or good fortune upon the bias of the dice, and I am *mixing* several random small biases, which is apt to give me something like average overall behavior.

So, a die has to be egregiously biased before I worry about it.

Whether DMing or playing, I prefer to use my Gamescience dice. Sometimes as a player I’ll use a dice app. Especially if I feel like my luck with the dice is waning (nonsense, I know, really, but still).

I think a lot of players want dice that roll well according to the system they’re playing, rather than wanting dice that roll randomly. When someone says they've got a lucky d20, it's one that rolls highly, not statistically randomly. That being said, you can never totally escape the whims of chance – unless you outright cheat.

When I’m DMing, I don’t really care about being able to see the dice rolls. If I can’t trust a player, I’m not going to play with them. I’m done with tolerating that sort of behavior.

I don't give this a second thought.

I do ask players to roll in the open and leave the dice untouched after they roll them. Like you, this isn't about cheating, but more about referencing results when things are moving fast and we may forget the numbers ("oh, wait, I need your margin of success. . ."

My first D&D box didn't even have dice. It had "chits" that you'd put in paper cups to roll. (Late '70s, I think.) My next set had cheap dice and crayons. (This was before 10-sided dice, so the d20 had 0-9 twice and you did them in contrasting colors.) Eventually that 20-sider was rolled so much that it developed a 21st side. Once it rolled onto that a few times, we decided, grudgingly, that it was time to retire the die. That's the only time I've ever worried about the physical characteristics of a die.

These days, I mostly play GURPS, so it's just piles of six-siders that tend to hold up quite well.

Ralif Redhammer said:

I think a lot of players want dice that roll well according to the system they’re playing, rather than wanting dice that roll randomly. When someone says they've got a lucky d20, it's one that rolls highly, not statistically randomly.

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No, they have a die they *think* rolls high. Remember, you are talking about a species that thinks that their favorite sports team will perform badly if we wear the wrong socks on game day.

It is much more likely to be perception rather than reality - unless they actually rolled a bunch of times, recorded the rolls, and did a statistical analysis, their perception is subject to all the usual human cognitive biases. That die probably just happened to roll well in a couple of dramatic game moments, and got labelled "lucky". The times it rolls a 2 when it doesn't really matter are probably discarded from consideration.

And you know, that's okay. I used to have a deeply seated belief that one of my dice would roll well for a particular character, so long as I paid no attention to how many hit points the character had left. If I threw caution to the wind, it would be 17+ all the way, and if I fretted about death, I'd get 4s and under. This is, of course, patent nonsense. Humans are weird that way.

I don't care at all. My dice choices are more about the look and feel of the dice than anything to do with whatever possible manufacture bias they might have. I just can't believe that a normal irregular (albeit not purposefully loaded die) is going to have any kind of meaningful impact over the course of a game.

That being said, as for the the physical/digital divide, I tend to prefer physical dice at the table. But that's only because I think that a physical roll involves the table more, and the fewer e-toy distractions there are, the more everyone at the table is able to enjoy themselves.

Umbran said:

Setting aside the idea of purposely loaded dice....

I play a cleric in a D&D game at work. I may roll a d20 five times in a session, maybe 10 on a really busy night. And I have three sets of dice in my bag for this game, and I'm swapping between them. I'd have to go through 30 to 60 sessions (at the rate we play, a year and more of sessions) before I'd be able to measure the typical die bias on any of them, much less be able to really blame bad or good fortune upon the bias of the dice, and I am *mixing* several random small biases, which is apt to give me something like average overall behavior.

So, a die has to be egregiously biased before I worry about it.

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Is your game style heavy on the roll-play and lower on the combat and skill checks? 5-10 rolls seems low to me, even for shorter games.

Still, your point is valid. I'm sure the "good" dice and "bad" dice are just good/bad because our brains see patterns in randomness that are not necessarily there.

And TBH, while I like having gravity dice to say that I'm being as fair as I possibly can, I has more to do with my liking the feel of weight, that they are cool to the touch, and are just general aesthetically pleasing in look, touch, and sound. Also, I special ordered my set so that each die is colored to match the traditional alchemical color associated with the element associated with the shape.

My dice make me irrationally happy. That they are better balanced is just a part of the reason for that.

Ralif Redhammer said:

Whether DMing or playing, I prefer to use my Gamescience dice.

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I like the clear, shiny look of Game Science dice, and their sharp edges. I also love Louis Zocchi's sales pitches, which are must-watches for anyone who are interested in dice. But I don't like the pips on them and I don't like having to color my dice. It is more expensive, but I prefer machined dice. There are lots of options out there. At nearly $20 per die, good machined, metal dice are not cheap, but I would rather have a few nice dice that trays full of cheap dice.

Sometimes as a player I’ll use a dice app.

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I prefer software to generate number when playing remotely on a VTT so that everyone can see the roll, which is part of the game experience for me.

At a physical table, I find that phones don't roll well. And most players chose to use dice rather than drop and try to roll their phones across the table. You roll and show at my table, not tap and announce.

Ralif Redhammer said:

When I’m DMing, I don’t really care about being able to see the dice rolls. If I can’t trust a player, I’m not going to play with them. I’m done with tolerating that sort of behavior.

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For me it is not about cheating, it is about participation.

An example of this is the Acquisition Incorporated games. In the early games they kinda rolled however and announced their rolls and then started displaying the results, then rolling in dice trays, to now having larger dice, in special dice trays with cameras positioned over them.

Why the effort? Check out the audience reactions to a 20 or a 1 being rolled.

At the table, on your turn, the rest of us are an audience for when the spotlight is on your character. It is one of the best reasons to have initiative turns. Rolling in the open with legible dice helps others watch the roll and react to results. It keeps people invested the rolling-player character's actions and the game in general.

I want people looking at dice rolls and reacting to what other players are doing, instead of using other player's turns to check Facebook or whatever. Rolling in the open helps with that.

Umbran said:

Remember, you are talking about a species that thinks that their favorite sports team will perform badly if we wear the wrong socks on game day.

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Yeah, those people are silly. But if you shave during hockey season, your team deserves to lose.