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Tom Vasel: Roll them dice!
This past week, I’ve sorted through all my dice by size and number of sides. Of course I have piles of six-sided dice, but I also have over one hundred twenty-sided dice, and piles of twelve, eight, ten, and four sided dice. I also have the following oddities, dice I’m especially proud to have.
- A hundred-sided die. This isn’t something that I use often, as two ten-sided dice work just as well, but it’s neat to have nonetheless.
- A sixteen-sided die. I have no idea what I would ever use this for, but it’s good for math statistics at school. (maybe)
- A three-sided die. One of my favorite dice - this actually can come in handy in some games that have use the numbers one through three. These games often come with a six-sided die that has the numbers “1” through “3” imprinted twice on the die, but wouldn’t it be better to use the three sided die?
- Two seven-sided dice. These dice aren’t perfect, meaning that the “6” and “7” roll slightly more often then the other - on the die which is basically a pentagonal prism. Still, they roll well enough, and I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate them into a game.
- A five-sided die. It’s my favorite die, and even though it looks like it won’t roll evenly, I’ve rolled it extensively, and the five numbers seem to be rolled evenly. I also have two twenty-sided dice that are numbered “1” through “5” four times each. While they are more functional, I prefer the more unique die.
- I have several dice-in-dice, including three six-sided dice in one large cube, a ten-sided die inside a ten-sided die, and a twenty-sided die inside a twenty-sided die. More useful than the previous dice - they are a bit larger than most dice, making them annoying to roll sometimes.
Do I need five hundred dice? Well, probably not, but as a fan of dice, how I can I get rid of any of them? Still, the rolling of dice - something that happens in many games, is something to ponder. Here are some questions about the rolling of dice - how do you answer them?
- Do you use a dicetower?
- What about rolling dice in a box, or a specially designed tray?
- When rolling two dice, do you roll them together or separately?
- How long do you shake the dice before rolling them?
- Do you use a cup to roll the dice?
- Do you use the dice that come with a game, or substitute your own?
- If dice roll off the table, do you re-roll them?
- What if one die rolls off the table, and the other doesn’t? Do you re-roll both?
- If a die is tilted after rolling, do you re-roll it?
- If someone else interferes with a die, do you re-roll it?
- Do you allow others to re-roll the dice?
- Do you take “practice” rolls?
- Do you knock pieces down when you roll the dice?
- Do you yell at people who knock pieces over?
- Do you throw them out of the game the twentieth time they do this?
- Do you pick up the dice when they fall on the floor, or let someone else do this?
- Or do you have spare dice and just keep going?
- Do you yell when you roll against improbable odds, or simply give a smug smile?
- Do you curse your opponent’s dice before they roll?
- After?
- Do dice hate you?
- Are dice the only reason you win?
- Do you think dice add a good element to a game?
- Do you think dice are a tired, overused mechanic?
- Do you enjoy odd-shaped dice?
Hmmm, maybe nobody but me cares about dice. But that’s okay - I’ll just keep rolling ‘em!
Until next time…
Tom Vasel
“Real men play board games”
www.tomvasel.com
Posted by Tom Vasel on Jul 31, 2006 at 03:00 AM in Columnists, Tom Vasel / 1789
Comments:
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I once had a d30 that i loved. No real reason to use it though Posted by Dale Yu on Jul 31, 2006 at 03:17 AM | #
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That’s a lot of questions about dice! Maybe you should consider starting a new series: “Interviews with a Dice Addict.” :-) To answer the first three: I have a homemade dice tower, a homemade dice tray, and I always roll all required dice at the same time. I don’t think that dice could ever become a “tired, overused mechanic.” It’s up to game designers to use them in creative ways that fit a particular game. Dice are a generic game tool, like cards. They have a lot of flexibility, since you can get custom dice made just like you can get custom cards printed.
Cheers,
Posted by Erik Arneson on Jul 31, 2006 at 04:43 AM | #
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Tom , the only people I’ve met who have this kind of fixation about dice are roleplayers. Many of them identify very strongly with their dice and are extremely superstitious. Enormous dice collections and unusual kinds of dice are pretty common. I really don’t know why this is the case, but I’ve seen a lot of it. I agree with Erik that there’s plenty of scope for designers to come up with new ways of using dice in their games. Last year’s excellent Roma is one example of this. Posted by Larry Levy on Jul 31, 2006 at 08:30 AM | #
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Larry, I would strongly disagree with you that the only people with dice fixations are roleplayers. I’ve met plenty of boardgamers (especially war gamers) who really put a lot of stock in dice. I personally just love the idea of dice, and enjoy pretending to be superstitious (although I have changed dice in games after rolling badly occasionally in a fit of pique.) Posted by Tom Vasel on Jul 31, 2006 at 08:53 AM | #
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Dice towers. Always use dice towers. I hate it when I see someone roll a die in some “funny” way. I figure they must be trying to influence the die roll. So as often as possible I insist that everyone uses a dice tower to roll dice. Always roll all dice at the same time. Always re-roll just the dice that jumped out of the dice tower tray or did not land flat. Already rolled dice may be removed from the dice tray before a re-roll, but if not removed and the re-rolled die hits and changes the previously rolled die, the change stands. If no dice tower present, insist that all players “roll” the dice properly. No dropping, spinning, flipping or sliding dice during the roll. Shake the cube(s) in the cup of your hand before releasing onto the table top. Amazing the rituals we come up with regarding dice rolling, isn’t it? Posted by Kim Beattie on Jul 31, 2006 at 11:00 AM | #
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I’ll see your dice collection and raise you a 23-sided die. There was a company that made one several years back just because they could. They did include a set of RPG tables for the die, but mostly I think they did it because all of us Discordians would buy it. I also have weird resin cast sheep vertebrae, which are 4 sided dice used for Knucklebones and really ancient dice games. The same company also has reproductions of an odd pornographic medieval dice (d6) set that is kind of cute. I also like to acquire games that have weird stick dice. Most of these are long 2 or 4 sided wooden sticks. China Gold has these as well as several of the old Ruttinger Noris games. The dice themselves are very oriental, I see stick dice used much more in Asian games--MahJongg sets use 4-sided ones to determine starting wind sometimes. And...I have thought with some level of seriousness about a set of semi-precious rpg dice. But for the most part, I use a dice roller on my Treo. I always have the thing on my person, so it works fairly well. Posted by Frank Branham on Jul 31, 2006 at 11:24 AM | #
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Tom - I have previously have gone on record with my disdain for using dice in games to resolve conflicts. When used in this way, they are definitely a “tired, overused mechanic”. “Hey, we have two people in conflict, let’s have them roll dice to determine the winner!”. Yeesh. However, and this is a bit however, I am all in favor of using dice if they are used in a unique way. Can’t Stop a perfect example of this - a brilliant design, in my humble opinion, that uses dice in a very unique way. Larry mentioned Roma, and the upcoming game Ystari game Yspahan are other examples of this. My answers to almost all the rest of Tom’s questions are: sometimes yes, sometimes no. :) - Rick Posted by Rick Thornquist on Jul 31, 2006 at 11:37 AM | #
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Re: roleplayers’ relationships with their dice - It’s not superstition, Larry. It’s faith. -MMM Posted by Matthew Monin on Jul 31, 2006 at 01:47 PM | #
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Rick beat me to the punch: yes, it’s true that Ystari is coming out with a game using dice, and he and Larry will be happy to know that it does in fact use d6’s in a refreshingly creative way. Too bad they’re not made out of sheep vertebrae though… Posted by Jeff Allers on Jul 31, 2006 at 05:41 PM | #
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