"You Design A Game. Which Dice System Do You Choose To Use?" Topic

So, you decide to design your own game. Doesn't matter which genre, can be anything you like. However, if you were given the challenge to design your game using only ONE type of dice (anything from d4 thru d20):

A. Which die type would you use?
B. How many of each and why?
C. Other considerations? Please explain.

Thanks!

Either d10 or d20, easier to work with percentages

A. d6, but not what you think.
B. Dependent on the unit.
C. Each pair of unit designs has a unique combat exchange. No tables or charts. Massive flexibility in combat capabilities design.

The only consideration is what combination of dice will yield the range and granularity of probabilities that is required.

I agree that D10s are perhaps the best die type especially as it makes it easier to figure out percentages and thus make adjustments for results based upon whatever the game variants may be. However, the old stand by six sided die is ubiquitous and almost any household has a few knuckle bones laying about. While percentages may be a bit more fiddly with a D6 you can sill get a wide range of variables by how my six sided dice you throw. Howard Whitehouse uses this to great effect with his fun The Lion Eats Tonight rule system. The only result that is a success is a six; therefore to reflect better ability or skill the more six sided die that unit/thing/person throws thus upping the chance of success. Of course sometime you only roll ones but that is how you create friction in the game.

I will add while the original questions asked to use only one die type I think one of the best thought out uses of various die types in a game system is Fireball Forward. Six sided dice are still the main die type but different color six sided dice set up a nice range of grandularity (thank you War Artisan for that phrase) and when it comes to anti-tanks weapons and tank guns you also roll a combination of eight sided, ten sided, twelve sided, or twenty sided to determine range and effectiveness of the gun. It is an elegant system.

It depends on the game mechanics I plan to use.

For something that needs small increments I'll use d20s, for something that can't have large differences in dice rolls I'll use d6.

For example, in a skirmish game I'll use d20s to represent the chances of hitting per shot. In my ACW rules the regiments fight with opposed d6 dice rolls because the results table makes large differences in the results disastrous.

I'd use d6. They are plentiful, you can model a lot of variation for units with multiple ones and I'd use the bucket o' dice method.

A. d10 percentage-friendly, and easily converted to, well, percentile dice (I'm old school)
B. one up to a moderate handful – tactile satisfaction.
C. The most critical rolls should be a single die (or a pair for % dice).

A D10
B No more than 10 at a time
C Total die rolls for any interaction should be limited.

Six sided dice for all my games. The amount of dice depends on the situation.

D6, like Doug MSC

It doesn't really matter.

I think D6 and D10 are the most universally understood and functional, so for other players, that is what I would go for, but ….

I personally hanker for average dice and also those dice that have a -1, zero and +1 on them, a sort of six sided D3 to act as a further variable when needed. But not everyone has exotic dice in their collection, which s why I think the D6 and D10 are better for shared rules.

If forced to pick just one, D6. Avoids spurious detail, but of course it depends on the specific mechanisms and game aims really.

D6

Whatever needs be for the stats.
But so as not to make people cringe for needing new ones, priority with D6 and D 10.
Then I now use D20 for firing in my napo rules, more finesse.

Not too many at a time as it becomes a mess, and certainly avoid similar ones like D8 D10 as it makes it easy to mix them ( FOF experience)

Not more than 2-3 types.

D6, I use the dice simply as a pass/fail

I once used D8 in a naval game but that was only because it had the number of faces I wanted for both color coding and a numerical value. You used one at one point of the game and the other at another.

D10 and higher never stop rolling.

I use the 4 sided die as caltrops to keep people from leaning on their elbows on the terrain and crushing it.

Haha the caltrop thing!

I tend to use D6's simply because people are more likely to have a bunch of them.

D10's are nice because figuring out probabilities is easy.

One or two D6s or D10s.

One or two D6

Hmmmm, I tend to favor the following:

D10s – and depending upon the need, read as a D10, combined as 2D10 (2 – 10 results), or read as percentile dice (D100).

D20s as well.

I prefer the granularity of the above to the D6, which can be a bit limiting, in many cases.

Depending on design, d6s and/or d10s, although been experimenting with d12s.

Decades ago, I bought d16s from Zocchi so there would be a nice progression from d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d16, d20…but darned if I can find the bag with them in it! A friend also gave me a d100 (golf ball), but while good for a chuckle, impractical for rolling and reading, even on a flat surface.

d6s and d10s are different enough that players can recognize them instantly and thus possible to mix. D12s give an extra granularity, but tend to roll a tad more than d10s (and much more than d6s). Tolerable though on a flat surface…sort of…

I'd like some D16s.

Don't think I have any of those.

I do have some D24s though, along with many of the others you mention.

Yea, the D10s don't roll too well, especially on slick surfaces, so the D12s and D20s are better than those. I think they make D20s with 0 – 9 on them twice, which would be perfect.

I'm with the d6 camp, if I am forced to work with only ONE type. For my purposes, a d6 or d6s can be used to craft a wide range of probabilities and types of probabilities, more so than other die types. And they're pretty near universal in terms of access, familiarity, and cost.

I'm becoming more and more a fan of non-transitive dice.

"A set of dice is nontransitive if it contains three dice, A, B, and C, with the property that A rolls higher than B more than half the time, and B rolls higher than C more than half the time, but it is not true that A rolls higher than C more than half the time. In other words, a set of dice is nontransitive if its "rolls a higher number than more than half the time" relation is not transitive." -- from Wikipedia.

A lot of systems and a lot of tactics can be seen as circular, with none absolutely superior.

That said, Roll a 6 is always the fallback. :-)

Hot her considerations: whether you are wanting to depict a fun game set of rules or a more detailed simulation.a simulation tends to be full of percentages and exact distances and troop actions. In these cases percentage dice ,1-100, ten sided or a bell curve based dice d6 or any other polyhedron.

Fun systems tend to focus on fast play which tend to favor the bucket of dice system.

I'm going the exact opposite route – lots of dice types, but you only roll once.

Its based on an idea I had based on firing resolutions. It would work well for naval and space games (I'm doing the later), but anything where the target location matters as well as the hit. So mech, skirmish if you record individual hits to locations like arms, legs, etc. Probably not so good for traditional armies.

Basic idea is you a have a to hit target, say a cruiser with a side of 6 or 7, with each location being a specific area – hull, guns, bridge, etc.

Your firing resolution is based on your weapon, and is given in range bands. Say at 12" you are rolling a d20.

Then you have modifiers to quickly go up and down based on erratic maneuver, advanced targeting, ECM, etc. Say two shifts up from d20 and you are rolling d40 (d4 for tens, d10 for 1s). Two shifts down you are rolling d10.

If I had to pick one dice for all resolution, I'd probably go d10, but why use one when there's so many cool dice out there these days? :D

I just picked up my d16s.

Use whatever makes sense for your game system and easy for the players to interpret the results.

One set of rules I played used d10 then made reference to various modifiers by percentage which resulted in fractions on your d10. Confusing. Don't do this. One solution could have been to change the die to d100 (i.e. 2d10) to derive a percentage. Don't mix and match systems.

Don't care what size, but a given game should pick one size and stick to it.
I really hate rules which use lots of different sized dice (d4/d6/d8/d10/d12) with better modifiers making you use a larger dice.
It sounds elegant, but we find we spend the whole evening rolling the wrong sized dice.

We used numerous dice types in our fantasy rules system to reflect racial characteristics. We ranged from d6 to d12. An odd benefit was that the low d6 Orcs had heavy casualties when fighting d10/d12 Elves but due to their numbers in units, they could still overwhelm the elves.
It was an enjoyable system. We used a similar system in our futuristic Distant World battles which was modeled after DBA. A very fast play system with the variable types of dice offered as a racial representation option. For example 'Bugs' armies would use low numbers but have more units than a robot or human army which used larger based dice.

Use dice boxes and you solve most if not all of these "never stops rolling" type problems:

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