My recent giveaway and discussions of the D30 got me to thinking of the odd-shaped dice we role-players use. Sure, everyone has a set of D4, D6 (bunch of those), D8, D10, D12, D20, and D%. They are the standard shapes of the randomizers we all know so well. I think that's why the D30 is such an interesting oddball (literally) - it gives us a set of random numbers that has no ready-made use. No RPG (that pops into my head) uses the D30 as one of the basic dice needed for play. But the D30 has somehow garnered much love from the fringes of the gamer horde, probably for its outsider status and because the gamer himself must figure out the usage for it.
I got to thinking: "So what other odd-numbered dice are out there?" Well, the answer surprised me. May surprise you too. So, without further ado, The Savage AfterWorld presents a photo collage of MUTANT DICE FROM BEYOND TIME AND SPACE!!!
And here is the High Queen Mother of Randomizers. Granted, it's a dice set rather than a single die. But if it were a single die, it'd be the size of a bowling ball. Six 10-sided dice, each representing ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten-thousands, and hundred-thousands. Readers, I present to you:
THE ONE-MILLION-SIDED DICE
I have no idea what you would use them for - perhaps in space opera games if you're measuring a distance in light years or something. Or, if you really wanted to shut up a particularly troublesome player, you could grab these dice and say "You have pissed off The Gods and lightning bolts streak from the heavens, striking you over and over and over and over! You take ((shake - rattle - roll)) 776,592 hit points of damage."
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I couldn't have gotten through all those Blood Bowl leagues without my trusty 16-sided die...
ReplyDeleteBah. They are not proper dice. Same with the d10. I maintain this is why White Wolf is cursed: The use of too many d10s has angered the die gods, who have punished them.
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly the system I run the most used d% (BRP/CoC).
There was a system that used the d30 as its main die, but I don't know anything about it: My Dad told me about it when I asked about his d30 (which he has since given me. It's blue & very worn, even though I don't know its ever been used)
I always thought the d100 (not d%) was fairly well-known.
ReplyDeleteI myself own the exact d5 pictured (don't buy those guys' dice, by the way - the numbers rub off very quickly), a d16, and a d3. I have yet to use any of them but the d3, which is helpful when you have three players and have to decide which one of them something happens to.
Dang more dice that I MUST HAVE!
ReplyDeleteOh, those poor dice. The d20s and other, more regular dice must have laughed at them on the playground.
ReplyDeleteOne of my d24's somehow ended up in my dice bag and I actually used it at Sunday's Tekumel game. One of the magic-user's leveled up and got access to a random Group III spell, of which there are 23 possible spells.
ReplyDeleteCheck out my post on double dice - dice inside of dice add another element to this equation. So far I have only seen like dice inside each other (a d20 in a d20, etc.,) but imagine the insanity when you start mixing types!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about this, and a d20 inside a transparent d6 could be used to emulate any of the other common dice (a d8, a d12, and so on).
Deleteoh, just realized that post is on my non-Mutant Future blog - double dice post is at:
ReplyDeletehttp://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/2010/02/double-dice-what-to-do-with-my-new-dice.html
I totally have to get a d1,000,000 for a time travel machine. Generate a result between 500,00 0 years in the past and 500,000 years in the future!
@ Swordgleam: Yeah, Zocchi's d100 was fairly well-known in the day, but I knew no one who actually owned one. Forgot they existed until I started doing a bit of research for this post.
ReplyDeleteForgot to mention, I made my save and only took half damage...oh never mind... ; )
ReplyDelete@Snidman: I guess since the first gaming group I ever played with owned one, I assumed everyone did. Since we barely had anything else (only one PHB between the 11 of us) I figured that anything we had was pretty basic.
ReplyDeleted24 is ok cause it's "regular". The others are misshaped monstrosities barely worthy of the dice label.
ReplyDeleteAlthough, 3d34-2 is 1-100 bellcurved. Very nice effect, but hard to find d34 dice and too much math to use it as major game mechanic.
4d24 is very nice, too, and much easier to procure.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine had the d100. Bloody thing would roll forever and you had to look at it closely, to discern which face was at the very top. Too problematic for gaming use. However, they made great cat toys.
ReplyDeleteWord verification: wablies - A nickname for the d100, as it wabbles around and around, for an interminable length of time, before finally, coming to rest.
I'm reminded of our old Champions campaign...
ReplyDeleteAt one point a major space villain of the Dark Seid/Thanos/Mongul variety transformed an entire star system some 50 light years from Earth into a single, humongous beam cannon. The Heroes (our PCs) had to get to the system sized cannon and shut it down because there was no way the Earth would survive a hit from that baby.
When asked by one foolish player, "Geez. I mean, how much damage do you think it would do. I mean, if you actually rolled for damage?" At that point the GM, my friend Will, reached down into his backpack and pulled out a big mason jar full of dice. You see, that's where Will kept all his dice...in this huge mason jar. So Will says, "If you fail to disable and destroy this weapon, I will dump this jar's contents on the table. The gun will do that much damage."
Classic.
Does anyone know of a good internet mail-order source for d30s? They seem to be a little hard to find these days.
ReplyDeleteThe d30 makes for a nice "Skill roll" die for Labyrinth Lord / Mutant Future: Standard difficulty: Roll your 3-18 ability or under on a d20. Hard difficulty: Roll a d30. Absurd difficulty: Roll 1d%
The d5, d7, and d100 may be misshapen monstrosities, but the rest of them are fair dice, like the d10. Anyways, one can put the numbers from 1-5 on a d10 twice and so on.
ReplyDelete