D&D General On how many dice we use

[Umbran]

So, we are all players of games, and for D&D, we need random number generation. I am curious how many dice most of us pull out when sitting down to play.

I recognize that covid-19 has made serious changes in how many or most of us play. Let us, for the moment, treat that as a temporary anomaly. Assume, for the moment, that you are gaming in-person, and sitting down to play D&D, specifically.

The poll is multiple choice, because EN World polls are not terribly flexible.

 

[prabe]

Sometimes, when I'm playing something more-or-less entirely on the computer, I use a dice-roller site. Also, sometimes, if I need to roll a lot of dice with modifiers and don't feel like futzing around with counting and other math.

If I'm playing around an actual table, I have one dice bag I use if I'm playing, and another that use if I'm GMing (especially if I'm DMing 5E, for reasons that will become clear). The bag for playing has seven sets of dice, all darkish. The bag for DMing has ten sets of dice, one for each type of energy damage in 5E.

We have other dice around that we use for board games or other oddments.

 

[el-remmen]

I went into the top drawer of my desk in the game room and counted the dice I recently set aside for use when running one of my groups. There were 21 dice in there: 4 d20s, 1 d%, 1 (other) d10, 4 d8, 4 d6, 4d4, 1 d12, and 1 d6 "reaction die" with different emoticons for a quick base attitude when I need it. I have a lot of dice, but these were picked because the colors fit the swampy theme of the adventure and because they were part of huge thing of about 10 sets of dice I recently bought because I realize I had not bough any new dice in over 15 years.

The other group I run for I have pulled out a different bunch of dice for use in that game.

These change every few sessions, drawn from a huge lot of them.

As a player, I usually have at least two of each die, so if one needs to temporarily go to dice prison I can use the other.

Does that answer the question?

Oh and for the record, even when playing remotely we use actual dice because I trust my players and we all agree, electronic dice are not as satisfying or seemingly random enough (or maybe seemingly too random).

 

[Ath-kethin]

I have a cool d20 I won at a FLGS years ago plus two fulls sets on the table when I play. Which two varies by my mood.

Aside: I'd love to see someone play using an Ouija board sometime.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

When I gamed in person I fit my dice into an old Altoids container.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

Like most D&D players and GMs, I own way too many dice. They're all dice sets. I always stick to one dice sets and change depending on my mood. But I never mix sets.

 

[cbwjm]

I used to just have a bag of random dice but I left it at a friend's place and now it's somewhere Tauranga. Now I've just bought a few sets and mix them together, as well as a few d6 singles or I use DnDbeyond's dice roller.

 

[iserith]

I gave up the math rocks a long time ago in favor of VTTs, even for in-person games.

Prior to that though, I had 10 sets of dice lovingly chosen for their readability at a distance, which I stored in the standard-issue purple-and-gold Crown Royal bag as mandated by the rules of D&D.

 

[DemoMonkey]

I think a really obvious option may have been inadvertently left off the poll (or dumped in "other")

"I have one set of cherished matched dice, period, and I will use them until they are balls."

 

[J-H]

I have a bag of about 40.
One of my players has exactly one set of dice. It's annoying because it makes him a really slow roller.

I don't like electronic dice unless it's for something like "roll 40d10 Meteor Storm dice" or something.