d12, the LEAST used die

[ZappoHisbane]

I couldn't figure out what a platonic solid was so I googled it. Ah Ha! A reference to Plato...convex ployhedra....math....fuzzy math!

And here I thought he was insinuating that the d10s sleep around.

 

[Siberys]

basically, a platonic solid is a polyhedron where each face is the same shape, and on each point on the polyhedron a number of shapes meet.

d4 - tetrahedron - equilateral triangle - three faces meet at each point.
d6 - cube - square - three faces meet at each point.
d8 - octahedron - equilateral triangle - four faces meet at each point.
d12 - dodecahedron - equilateral pentagon - three faces meet at each point.
d20 - icosahedron - equilateral triangle - five faces meet at each point.

Non-platonic solids, at least when talking about dice, usually have identically shaped faces, but irregular numbers of faces meet at each point. Take a d30, for example. Each face is a parallelogram, but at some points, 3 faces meet, where as at others, 5 do. This VERY subtly messes with the probability to get a fair roll - it's very easy to choose whether you want an even or odd number on a d10, and actually get it. You just hold it with that side of the shape facing up.

There are, of course, dice with differently shaped faces - d6s made of six octagons with parallelograms at the corners, or those spindle-shaped d3s or d5s or d7s, etc.

Anyways, I'm sure most of you already knew this. I just like ranting about stuff I know about.

To the point, though, I agree. replace the d10 with the d12. My only question, though, is how to do d100? 9d12-8 does give a range of 1-100... otherwise, we'd need to keep the d10s for the purpose of percentiles, or just get rid of percentile rolls.

 

[Gloombunny]

To the point, though, I agree. replace the d10 with the d12. My only question, though, is how to do d100? 9d12-8 does give a range of 1-100... otherwise, we'd need to keep the d10s for the purpose of percentiles, or just get rid of percentile rolls.

How often do you really need probabilities of less than 5%? A d20 can do the job perfectly well.

 

[Kwalish Kid]

I'm fond of those 20-sided d10s where each number is printed twice.

Do you know how many times my PCs have missed hitting or have failed saving throws because of these dice?

 

[Gloombunny]

Do you know how many times my PCs have missed hitting or have failed saving throws because of these dice?

I almost used one as a d20 in a fight last game. It is definitely a problem.

I'd say they should be a different color or something, but the regular d20s don't come in standardized colors. I guess the best method is to pick the colors of dice you buy carefully.

 

[Asmor]

How often do you really need probabilities of less than 5%? A d20 can do the job perfectly well.

Depends on what you're going for.

It's nice when you're making tables, because it allows you to have more than 20 options.

It's also nice in different game systems. The only one I can think of off the top of my head is WFRP, which probably could have used a d20 instead since all the advances are in 5% increments.

However, I'd be interesting a game where lots of equipment gave small bonuses, which stacked up. So you might get +3 str from your hat and gloves, +2 str from your armor, +1 str from your sword, for a total of +9 str. This would work well, I think, with a percentile system, because you can have large numbers of insignificant bonuses which add up to a significant bonus.

Compare this to a system where most tests are resolved with a roll of a d20. The least you can get is a +1 here, and those +1s add up really quickly.