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Monday, June 10, 2013

Pick a Die, Any Sized Die!

With the DCC RPG release last year, the number of weird sided dice has exploded (exploding dice is a sort of game pun, son). It got me thinking about my favorite sided die and the one I like the least.

This is pure random thought processing, either at it's worst or it's best. Time itself will tell, but dice are by their very nature random generators, so at least there is some kind of link ;)

Favorite die? The d8. I suspect you expected I would say a d20, but the d8 holds a special place for me. It's the damage a longsword does against small and medium creatures. I also came in some board game (I no longer remember which) back in the mid 80's, and the extra dice were raided for inclusion in my then small RPG dice collection.

Least favorite die? The d7. Holy shit but this is one ugly fucker. Really, I can't think of an uglier die - size, shape, available colors - all scream "I am an awkwardly ugly piece of shit".

I'd like to know your favorite sized die, but even more importantly, the die you like the least ;)

13 comments:

  1. The Zocchihedron, the die you can play miniature golf with.

    "A hole in one! And it's a 05, special success! Automatic hole in one on the next two holes!"

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  2. I was using the d30 before it was cool, so that's my first answer. My other answer is the d4. Ever step on one? It'll mess you up. So, in our campaign for years, the d4 was referred to as "The Crippler" or "The Caltrop."

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  3. d6, baby, d6. But I do love me some d30. And d24. Yeah, love my weird little d24s. .

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  4. That d7 you hate? I love that muther!

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  5. It always makes me really angry when I see some idiot has stocked his modules full of d7 charts. Either that 1.78% difference in probability was important to you or you were too lazy to come up with an eighth option. Either way, I hate you.

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  6. D2 -the Yes/No die. The die for truly decisive people.

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  7. I dislike the d4. I can't just grab a handful since they pick up so funny.

    Favorite is the d10. It just seems so respectable.

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  8. d7s are a hideous abomination unto the lord. Whereas the d12 is a thing of unique beauty.

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  9. I think I'm gonna have to go with Rachel on the d12. It's a sexy beast.

    The d4 is its own special brand of evil, I know. I had one of those little yellow bastards from one of the old D&D Basic Box sets and stepped on it a bunch. Fun times.

    That said, I do kind of hate the d3 even more. It's difficult to pick up, hard to read, generally kind of useless. Gimme a d6 marked with only 1, 2, and 3. Much better.

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  10. My favorite has to be my random-random-number-generator-generator (it random;ly generates random number generators) that I had custom made by the Dice Creator before he went out of business. it was a D6 with a 4 in a triangle, six in a square, eight in a diamond, a 10 in a slightly different diamond diamond, a 12 inside a pentagon, and a 20 inside of a circle. It's a dice I've wanted since I started RPing. I had a D120 version (minus the 20) for my Carcosa games that Brave Halfling sold for a bit. http://odd74.proboards.com/post/73986


    If We're going with "Normal" dice however I love the D3. I remember actualy getting into an argument over whether or not the shape would work during a late night Battletech session years before I ever saw the dice.

    My least favorite? the D34. Not only was this one a pain to track down, but it's really hard to read (and I've yet to ever come up with a use.) it just sits with my novelty dice.

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  11. Has to be the D6 - but with pips, not numbers on it!!!

    I have a half dozen clear D6 that I carry with me to all gaming sessions and cons - despite always seeming to end up playing BRP (D100) or Heroquest (D20 at them). They are especially useful when GM-ing as their transparent nature makes them near impossible to read unless you are directly over them. Completely negating the need to have to roll them behind a screen for secret/fudged dice rolls!!!

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  12. Waaaay back when, Gamescience was giving away d20's with the little "+" on 10 sides to mean 11-20. I showed an article about the giveaway to my Mom and Dad. Must've been 1981 or so. My parents drove all over the valley (Phoenix AZ area) hitting every game store they could find. They eventually found a store that had Gamescience dice. They got me one. They also bought a few lead minis from the proprietor. That particular die, not because its a d20, but because my Mom and Dad practically quested for it, is my favorite.

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  13. For the D7 haters out there, I'm one too, I recommend getting a D14 numbered 1-7 twice. I also recommend using a D20 numbered 1-10 twice instead of a D10, because that's tradition, unless you're playing a White Wolf game, because when you roll a fistfull of D20s, they roll all over the place and end up being cat toys. Then again, that might not be a bad idea, if I distract my cat with the D20s I might get my Zocchihedron back.

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