d12 system: yay or nay?

[Gundark]

Rogue Games uses the 12 Degree system for all its games, which uses only d12s.

They have:

"Shadow, Sword, and Spell", a sword and sorcery game;
"Thousand Suns", a sci-fi game;
"Colonial Gothic", a a supernatural historical horror roleplaying game set during the dawn of the American Revolution

Your rolling 2d12 if I remember correctly

What is the appeal of the d12? I dislike d10 games (unless it's a dice pool), the d10 seems so close to the d12.

 

[alms66]

It might. In Earthdawn 3e the d20 has been eliminated in favor of the d12. However it's mostly because the system also uses d4, d6, d8, and d10 dice. There's just a too large gap between d12 and d20.

At the very least d12 should replace d4 and d6. The d20 is still useful to approximate percentile dice (and infinitely preferable to the abomination that is the d10 ).

There are d14 and d16 dice out there too...

 

[blargney the second]

The Order of the Stick board game uses only d12s. They no longer cry themselves to sleep at night.
-blarg

 

[Jhaelen]

There are d14 and d16 dice out there too...

Well, yes, but as delericho already pointed out, these dice are not platonic shapes - which is my reason for not liking the d10, too.

Basically, if you're using a barrel-shaped or prismatic 'dice' every number of sides can be created, e.g. a d7. I also have a d30 in my collection because a friend of mine made use of it in a rpg system he created. But these dice 'cheat' by rounding off tiny facets in the former case or by introducing two sides that do not represent results in the latter case.

But since I don't mind doing a tiny bit of math, I prefer using two platonic dice to define a matrix of values instead, e.g. using a d12 and a d20 you have a range of 240 values, which is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 20, 24, 30, 40, 48, 60, 80, and 120 without a rest, so all of these are 'dice' you can simulate without creating a bell curve.

Using 2d12 adds 9, 18, 36, and 72 to the list of easily simulated dice.

Theoretically you could use three or more platonic shapes to represent even more number ranges, but that's where it starts getting fiddly if you aren't using custom dice with sides that are numbered differently.

You can have a lot of fun experimenting with exploding dice (like Earthdawn) or dice pools (like WoD), too.

Btw. does anyone know if there is a system that uses a d12 dice pool?

 

[Rune]

I believe Mazes and Monsters uses a d12.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

Word Nerd used a d12, albeit not a numerical one:

Not an RPG, or really a "system" at all... but it counts, right?

 

[DonAdam]

Cartoon Action Hour also uses a d12

 

[Wightbred]

The One Ring uses a d12, but the 11 and 12 have different images (the Eye of Sauron and Gandalf icons).