What are your thoughts on TTRPGs with non-standard dice?

[Micah Sweet]

More than 3-4 is what, 5? You're not really clarifying your position in a way that informs us here.

With four players and a GM, let's be real, if you're playing WoD games, owning about 50 d10s is a pretty good idea. If you're playing Shadowrun, and you don't have at least 50 d6s, you're probably going to regret it. If you're playing D&D or Shadowdark, and you don't have 10 d10s, you're going to be sad in my experience. With Daggerheart, you need at least 8 d12s, and they need to recognisably different from each other, and ideally one looks good or light and one looks evil or dark in each pair. Call of Cthulhu - I think you'll want probably 5 normal d10s and 5 two-figure d10s for a five-person table.

I think just from the above we're really talking a dead minimum of 10 "complete sets" plus extra sets of d6s and d10s. And if you want to play that weird game someone told me about that uses a dice pool made of d12s and then strikes all the odd rolls from the pool (or whatever it was), you're probably going to need like 30+ d12s, which even I don't have!

Maybe you could give some more precise guidance on how many is too many lol? I'm sure most of us do have "too many" - I'm not sure it's by as much as might be implied though.

Other people seemed to get what I meant, or in any case only you have expressed confusion.

Of all the games you listed, the only ones I've played are D&D (various games under that name) and Shadowdark (only once). You hardly need as many dice as you suggest, though in limited circumstances it would be nice.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Of all the games you listed, the only ones I've played are D&D (various games under that name) and Shadowdark (only once).

I see.

 

[Ulfgeir]

The definition of "complete set" depends a lot on which game it is. For Savage Worlds, I'd want to have two sets of d4 through d12 plus a distinct d6 as a wild die. Maybe an extra die or two if I have some weapon that deals a buttload of damage, but that's situational. But if I'm playing Pathfinder... well, my 13th level sorcerer can cast spells that deal 8d10 fire +8d10 positive (only vs undead, so ideally I'd have two differently-colored sets of 8d10, but I could reroll in a pinch), 16d6, 9d12, 15d4 or 8d8 damage. So yeah, that can vary a bit. At higher levels I'd need even more.

Edit: Also, whomever came up with brass dragons using buttloads of d4s for breath weapon damage should spend their days dancing barefoot on said d4s. Probably whomever was in charge of the 2e Monstrous Compendium (as IIRC pre-2e dragons just did damage equal to their hp?).

I mean we had in Exalted 2e a situation where one guy rolled 34 D10's with I think 7+ counted as successes. The result: not a single success on that roll...

And I have as the GM in Shadowrun 1e in a published adventure rolled 26 d6 for one attack (and this is "exploding dice", so roll a 6, then roll again and add to that die) . My players knew I only had 20 (well Technically I had loads more, but I had 2 sets of 10 each of small dice that I used) at the time so they were not happy when I counted successes and then rolled some dice again...

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I mean we had in Exalted 2e a situation where one guy rolled 34 D10's with I think 7+ counted as successes. The result: not a single success on that roll...

SOUNDS LIKE EXALTED 2E ALRIGHT. PLEASE DONT PRINT IN THE PAPER THAT IM STILL MAD ABOUT EXALTED 2E.

EDIT - On a happier note I still remember rolling like 18d10 for Aggravated Damage to a werewolf in VtM and watching as 10 after 10 after 10 appeared. I think I got 6 or 7 10s and most of the rest were successes. That may be my best roll.