D&D General On how many dice we use

[David Howery]

I have a big white dice bag which I used to just shove all the dice I had into. Later, I ended up buying a lot more dice bags with complete sets to help out other people in the group I was in, all sorted by color so we'd always know which person rolled which dice... ended up with 6 different sets.

 

[the Jester]

I have a giant bowl of dice that people pick and choose from. I can't remember the last time I separated out a proper set, but I do sometimes choose a color and bring a bunch of dice of that color to the game (when I'm not hosting).

 

[The Green Hermit]

1) Set of metallic dice to keep track of spell slots.
2) Metallic d20s that I hand out for inspiration.
3) A bunch of different colored d20s to roll initiative for several monsters at once.
4) About 4 sets of red dice, because that's my color and they don't get grabbed by other players.
5) Other random dice that rarely get pulled out, but I have just in case.

 

[Oofta]

I have 2 D20s that match color but different styles (pearl vs solid or vs semi-translucent). Then I have damage dice that match the color. The number of sets I have depends on the PC and how many attacks I have. By doing this I can roll everything at once, since I like playing PCs that get a lot of attacks it really speeds things up.

 

[Orius]

I use one standard set of polyhedral dice, and throw in a few extra d4s, d6s, and d8s. When DMing, which is usually, I'll throw in some extra d20s for attack rolls of different opponents.

I don't allow electronic dice or rollers at my table. I don't trust psuedoRNGs.

 

[Shiroiken]

While I haven't played IRL in a long, long time (been using Roll20 since the start of 5E), I've always stored them in a Crown Royal Bag (it's tradition). When I DM, I pretty much dump them out and use whatever I need at the time. When I'm a player I get out the maximum number of dice I need for my character (max 20). I don't like having to make multiple rolls if I can avoid it, and I don't want to rummage around in my bag during play.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have collected dice since I joined my third group. My first set- purple, sharp-edged, and crayon marked- was all I had for the first 5-7 years I gamed.

I started buying extra sets for myself, and I had almost all of the behaviors in the poll. (I didn’t include it, but we even used a random number generator for playing SFB). Then, in the 1990s, I joined a group where the host had a bucket of dice for everyone to share. Mind. Blown. It was like my inner dice monster was suddenly unshackled.

I bought my own dice bucket when I moved away, and bought MÖÄR DÏCË for myself. Now, my most common pattern is no pattern at all. I even occasionally buy new dice for use with a particular character.

 

[pogre]

Like most old gamers I have a few thousand dice. And like most old gamers I only use three or four sets of really big dice. Not because they are impressive, but so I can read the numbers!

 

[Umbran]

So, having started the thread..

For a long, long time, I worked with the Big Bag of Dice I had collected in the years since I started back in junior high school. Back then, I had come across a rather nice piece of suede, and (very inexpertly, but very solidly) stitched it into a drawstring bag. One sunny summer day, playing outside on a friend's patio, said friend used a magnifying glass to burn my initials in the bag while I wasn't looking. While not skilled or artful, it was still a great gesture, so it has some hefty sentiment attached to it. None of the dice within are matched sets. I just added random dice to it over time. I eventually stopped buying new dice after a while, because I always had enough in the bag, which I still have, sitting at my hand as I type....

Then, a couple of years ago, I started playing D&D with a group at work, and I didn't want to lug around all my dice, so I got a small bag and a couple of sets that I could leave at my desk.

Then, after I inspired him by running Lost Mine of Phandelver for him and his daughter, a friend of mine started running a game, and I repurposed those sets, and was given a set as a gift...

Then covid hit, and I got invited to play in another game online, in which the GM is fine with us rolling physical dice and telling him the results. I bought my wife some dice for that as a gift, as the ones she had weren't thematically appropriate for her character, and while I was getting her some, I got some for myself...

And somewhere along there, I became a guy who runs games out of the old dice bag, but plays them with purpose-bought sets, which is odd, but the way it is...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

One thing I did for portability was I bought mini-6 siders to go with some of my faves.