d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20. Have any other numbered dice ever been made?


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I recall seeing a d50 once. The Zoccihedron (as the d100 from Gamescience is officially known) can also be used as miniature castanets. If you have one shake it and listen.
 

dead said:
I was just wondering if anybody's made dice of different numbers.

I'm not sure, but I thought I saw a d30 once?

Also, I know I've seen a novelty d100. Yep, that's right, 100 sides! -- not 2 d10.

The GURPS game could do with a d16 which is numbered from 3-18 to simulate rolling 3d6 (I hate adding up those 3d6!).

As I am sure someone has pointed out already, the distribution on that die would be wrong. The chance of rolling a 3 or 18 on that d16 would be a 1/16 chance, while on 3d6, it's a 1/216 chance. Same average, though.

More importantly, you couldn't really make an effective d16 geometrically speaking, unless you went the route of those crystal dice (I personally hate those things, especially when they get up to d12 and higher). A d16 would have to be done like the d10 if I am not mistaken, but putting 8 triangles to a side would probably not roll well (unless the die was enlarged to the size of your average jumbo d20).

The d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20 are the perfect solids, which is why they work out so nicely. Any other number of sides is going to give you a somewhat lopsided die, or have bent or rounded edges (i.e. the d10).

I'd say the current dice are all that's really necessary. d100s have their minimal uses, but I think 2 d10s work better as they roll quicker (ever sat watching a d100 roll for like 5 seconds).

Oh, as another important point, a full set of dice are hard enough to tower-stack as it is, adding more would just make things difficult. :)
 

dead said:
If I buy a d1-System RPG, will it be diceless?

You better hope so because rolling a ball can take a while to come to a settled number. Combat would take ages...

[edit]: Or would it be a mobius strip...
 
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Codex said:
I'd heard that d100s are notoriously annoying to use (they take forever to stop rolling and tend to be a bit unreliably weighted.

Yes, they do take a long time to stop rolling.

My friend had one in high-school and he kept on bouncing it on the ground. I told him he shouldn't do that but he didn't listen.

Then, what do ya know! The d100 spit in half and all these tiny beads came out. That's what's in yer novelty d100, tiny beads. ;)
 

Codex said:
Of course many percentile dice come in pairs of d10s: one is numbered 1, 2, 3, etc and the other is numbered 10, 20, 30, etc.

I don't know why it took them 30 years, but Wizards is coming out with a new kind of percentile dice that you can simply add up (no exception on the 00 0 being 100)

Die 1 is numbered 1-10 (also getting rid of the silly confusion for new players who think they rolled a 0)

Die 2 is numbered 00-90.

00 + 1 = 1
90 + 10 = 100

Much better. I thought of this ages ago...
 

Codex said:
Another friend has been using Fudge dice in an unusual way: he counts the number of lines on each side, so that instead of reading "+ + - +" as "+2" he reads it as "7". (Fudge dice, aka "dF," are six-sided dice with 2 sides blank, 2 sides with a + and 2 sides with a -).

What, exactly, are these supposed to be used for?
 

reanjr said:
Oh, as another important point, a full set of dice are hard enough to tower-stack as it is, adding more would just make things difficult. :)


My player's favorite pastime activity while I set up the game and draw new areas for them to explore.

… and I get my fun by knocking down their stack when they are finally on the last die.
 


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