Polyhedral Dice in Everyday Life

[Brain]

The trainers at the gym where I work out are very friendly and creative. A couple of days ago they were talking about how they could roll dice for random workouts for people and I overheard. I talked to one of them and brought in a d10 for them today to use. They made a chart and I was the first person to roll on it and do the workout. I just thought it was cool and wondered if the rest of you have brought polyhedral dice (other than d6) into use in your everyday life outside of gaming.

Anybody done it or have a good suggestion for someone else or want to try it?

 

[Humanophile]

I have a geek-ish friend who doesn't game, but has enough contact with the subculture to be less-than-ignorant. I gave her a D20 just so she could actually have one. I don't know if that counts as non-gaming or not, though.

I also know someone really into crafts, who thought that sparkly dice looked pretty and asked me to get her some. I have no idea if they became jewelry, or who wore them if they did, but the basic concept's there at least.

 

[Hida Bukkorosu]

i heard about a gaming group that has a "restaurant chart" where they decide where to go out to eat by rolling a d20.

 

[RichCsigs]

I belonged to a D&D group that had a "random pizza toppings generator" that was based off a d8. It included a "special" catagory for things like "hawaiian" and "klingon pie" (garlic, onions and anchovies).

 

[Angcuru]

Criminals could sharpen d4s and use them as caltrops to slow down the coppers. But for that to be everyday, you'd have to be a gangster or something.

 

[Elton]

When I was in the navy (more years ago than I care to admit), in electronics school. I used a D4 for multiple choice tests. Was great for the questions I had no idea on. And just to be really obnoxious, I rolled on every answer whither I knew it or not. Drove the instructors nuts, because I routinly scored 95-98%

 

[Umbran]

I just thought it was cool and wondered if the rest of you have brought polyhedral dice (other than d6) into use in your everyday life outside of gaming.

Hm. I haven't managed to even bring the more common six-siders into my everyday life, much less the less common polyhedrals. Just don't have all that much need for random numbers, I guess.

 

[knitnerd]

The trainers at the gym where I work out are very friendly and creative. A couple of days ago they were talking about how they could roll dice for random workouts for people and I overheard. I talked to one of them and brought in a d10 for them today to use. They made a chart and I was the first person to roll on it and do the workout. I just thought it was cool and wondered if the rest of you have brought polyhedral dice (other than d6) into use in your everyday life outside of gaming.

Anybody done it or have a good suggestion for someone else or want to try it?

I use my dice in knitting all the time. A D20 makes a good row counter. Just turn it over whenever you finish a row. When I had to add beads randomly to a sweater, I rolled a D10 and knit that number of stitches between beads.

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Sometimes when I am in a mood to watch a movie or something, but I dont know what I want to watch I roll a couple of dice to find the category of the movie:

1D8 =
1 - Western
2 - Horror
3 - Fantasy
4 - Science Fiction
5 - Super-Hero (X-Men, Spiderman, Superman....)
6 - TV Series
7 - Comedy
8 - Animated

Then I roll on a subchart and that determines the specific target.

 

[Xath]

Our group will use dice when we can't come to an agreement on something...

Evens Applebee's, odds Five Guys

1-2 "Ocean's 12", 3-4 "Life Aquatic", 5-6 "Spanglish"

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Don't get me wrong, I like Adam Sandler, but I do not like the way Spanglish looks. I'm guessing it is not going to be a huge success....

 

[Yhsrock]

I've been playing random numbers and dice for the last 20 years. A few years back, I bought a few d&d dice (100, 60,40). I use them for selecting which movies to watch and for random stuff. I find it fun and found a lot of unique results. For example, I'll watch a movie with a certain actor and a week or 2 later, another dice number will pop up with the same actor. I don't own alot of movies with the same cast. So it's funny how I watch something on Netflix and the number gives me one with the same actor. In all, it's a fun game of fun.

 

[aco175]

@Yhsrock welcome to the boards, hope you stay and enjoy.

I once used some of the dice to teach fractions and percentages to 3rd graders.

 

[TheLibrarian]

I've used them similarly in a martial arts setting for creating sparring and bag combos.

 

[Thunderfoot]

d4s make great rests for home improvement projects when you have to paint a board and let it dry. Just set the painted project on the d4 tips.

 

[Blue Orange]

Random number generators on the web have the advantage that you are not limited by physical dice--you can roll 1d13 if you have to pick 1 of 13 options.

I did actually roll an 8-sided die when I had to pick which of 8 people was going first and needed the appearance of absolute unbiased randomness.

Spoiler: NC-17

I've used 6- and 8-sided dice in more...intimate settings for the appearance of randomness. I am not sure how much more detail the rules allow me to go into...

 

[Ryujin]

Polyhedral dice would have help me understand Statistics in high school much better. At the time it was like trying to memorize Vancian Magic formulas and I'm a First Principals guy, not a memorizer.