Using Alternate Dice in RPGs - Let’s Start Doing That Again!

We love incorporating new types of dice into our games! The AD&D Dungeon Master’s Guide, immediately after the preface and introduction, gives us some very useful and much needed explanations of dice probabilities. Many people miss how important this information actually is. The bare basics that each side of a six-sided die is 16 2/3% or how that’s useful, the concept of the bell curve, and so on get past many modern tabletop role players. I sometimes have to remind or explain to players that each 1 on a d20 is equivalent to 5% and one can jump between a d20 and a d100 in their own head. It’s not that I’m smart - this is someone who took several remedial math courses in college to catch up, okay? - it’s just that many GMs never think about it, and the books don’t sit down and explain it to them anymore.

And it’s a shame, because understanding these concepts helps open your mind to new possibilities. By way of example, on the second page past the intro, we’re told about a set of poker dice, with card suits on the faces. Gygax proceeds to tell us how these can be added to reaction rolls to make them somewhat more detailed.

Modern games, by not including this kind of information and encouragement to expand the game, lead many gamers to leave unrealized how dynamic and flexible these games can actually be. Knowing something as simple as being able to switch between d20 rolls and d% chances can lead to creative and excellent innovations. Feeling “allowed” to incorporate some of the wacky, unusual, or novelty dice tabletop gamers tend to accumulate gives you a freedom that can lead to greatness - and let’s be honest, it’s fun! You want a reason to use that old pizza board game die that has pizza toppings on each face, don’t you?

Direction Dice and Range Dice

Using “scatter dice” to replace various mechanics in your RPG.