Why no d18's?

[RogueJK]

The only game I've played where the D3 was used often enough as a d3 to make having a physical one was Hero System.... Tho' Fudge and Fate technically uses 4d3-8 by default...

D&D 3/3.5 and Pathfinder used d3s. Off the top of my head, some 0-level spells had d3 effects, and Medium weapons with 1d4 damage did 1d3 damage when sized for a Small character, or when a character was under the effect of Reduce Person. There are probably a few more examples.

I have a couple of the rounded triangular ones laying around, though they tend to roll kind wonky. d6s halved and rounded up, or even custom d6s labeled 1-3 twice, work better.

But then, I don't like how d4s roll either (especially in a dice tower), and prefer d12s labeled 1-4 three times. So maybe I'm just weird.

Here's a photo of the type of d3 I have:

 

[aramis erak]

D&D 3/3.5 and Pathfinder used d3s. Off the top of my head, some 0-level spells had d3 effects, and Medium weapons with 1d4 damage did 1d3 damage when sized for a Small character, or when a character was under the effect of Reduce Person. There are probably a few more examples.

Not common enough, for the limited play I had of 3.x, to justify a physical, especially since the cases where it was needed, it wasn't usually combined with other dice. But some, especially halfling players, might be using it enough to want it.

Hero, however, often has 4.5 or 5.5 or some other n.5 die rolls for damage, all dice being d6's or d3's. And, if you have a power that (due to point increases) is at a half die, and one you use often, it's just so much easier to use the doublemarked d6 (1,1,2,2,3,3) than to remember "this other die is the half-die"...

I'll note that Mongoose RuneQuest also has d3 weapon damages, but... the damage modifiers are one of: -d8, -d6, -d4, -d2, d0, d2, d4, d6 ,d8, d10; Chaosium RQ3 used: -d4, d0, d4, d6, 2d6... there are some d3 weapons. If I'd run more of it, I'd have wanted one for it.

my "physical" d3's are all doublemark d6's. I still have the "d10" that came with RQ3... a d20 doublemarked. I used red and black lab markers to make it useful as a d20....

Which raises another reason d5's were rare in earlier games - the d10 as we know it now was not readily available; use as a d10 was already nuisance enough for many.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I would like a serie of d14, d16 and d18 for my own homebred system.

 

[Fanaelialae]

I would like a serie of d14, d16 and d18 for my own homebred system.

They're out there. I got mine from Impact Miniatures (look under Specialty Dice Singles), but they are probably available from other places as well.

 

[MNblockhead]

I wonder if there is a psychological component. d4, d6, d8, d12, d20 map to the platonic solids, which have symmetries that make the aesthetically pleasing many/most people.

d10s give an easy way to do percentiles.

There are many things from OD&D that have benefited from adjustments, but the original dice set have stood the test of time.

While I enjoy DCC and enjoy the funky die, they never feel "right" to me and that alone would keep that system from being my main go to. I don't even like non-tetrahedron d4s and my main die set have the colors match the medieval alchemy colors for the platonic solids, except that I use black for my d12.

 

[der_kluge]

From what I understand, Gygax ordered the dice from a teacher's supply outlet. They sold the set of dice we currently use, mostly because those were all the classical 3-d objects. I forget what math term they use for them - all faces are the same shape and size.

 

[aramis erak]

From what I understand, Gygax ordered the dice from a teacher's supply outlet. They sold the set of dice we currently use, mostly because those were all the classical 3-d objects. I forget what math term they use for them - all faces are the same shape and size.

Actually, the ones Gygax ordered originally lacked the d10.

While the modern shape d10 was patented in 1907, it wasn't widely used, and wasn't readily available, until the 1980s; even into the 80's, many 20-sided dice were numbered 0-9 twice. Space Opera, for example, included 1cm d20's with no 10's place indicator. (And they were not durable... they were soft plastic, and the clothes dryer was hot enough to melt them.)

By 81, the standard $4 TSR set had the modern shape, and other companies followed suit.

 

[Hussar]

Hey, I still have one of those d20's numbered 1-10 twice.

But, yeah, I think we can point to D&D for the reason why you have the "standard" dice set. Economies of scale and all that.

 

[tomBitonti]

It doesn't look like all of the faces on a d18 have the same chance of being rolled. The two distinct sets of faces, six of one and 12 of the other, each which will have different odds than each other.

D3 isn't that common, and can be rolled as a D6 mod 2. Or, by rolling a D4 until a number other than 4 is rolled. My experience with other players is that they rather don't like either of these mechanisms. That seems to have to do with high verses low facility with numbers.

I don't know if I've ever had to roll a D5. Maybe, if to pick one item out of five. Instead of rolling a D5, I suspect the vastly preferred alternative is to convert the range into a D10 (or D20 or D100) and roll that instead.

Thx!
TomB

 

[MNblockhead]

From what I understand, Gygax ordered the dice from a teacher's supply outlet. They sold the set of dice we currently use, mostly because those were all the classical 3-d objects. I forget what math term they use for them - all faces are the same shape and size.

They are platonic solids. That's one reason there were no d10s in the set Gygax bought. While a d10 does have faces the same size and shape, it does not have same number of faces meeting at each corner.