User:Average/Dice
Dice are the Dungeon Master's divining tool, allowing him or her to query the universe for outcome of various events like battle rounds, appearences of NPCs, and give player's and DMs a connection to a common source of fate.
Typical dice for D&D are the d4, d6, d8, d%, d12, and d20. Some of the power of the dice come from the fact that they are geometrical objects. For this reason, the purists cast out the d10 as it is not a regular (actually super-regular) geometric solid. The remaining are, respectively, the tetrahedron, the hexahedron, the octahedron, the dodecahedron, and the icosohedron. These shapes come from realms known by Plato ages ago.
Lead cores are the best for gaming, but for greatest power and connection to the gods, meteorite cores (indium, for example) are recommended for actual divination (godrolls?). Otherwise, non-metal dice are following theoretically predictable laws and terrestrial metals will be too entangled with man.
For purists, only the Platonic dice are used (d4, d6, d8, d12, d20). You’ll just have to trust us on the significance of this. Yes, ideally they'd be made with hardwood and have metal cores to prevent lessor influences interfering with your deities, but the standard resin will probably have to do. If you need a d10, you can roll d20s, round up to an even number if you need to, and divide by 2. Platonic solids represent super-regular, perfect ideals in geometry (itself a word that means “measure of the Earth”). As in so many things, best not to compromise.
Playing cards are an old divination tool (think of Tarot decks). They also have jokers which could be useful. Think d52 + wilds.
You may hear of term called "aceing"* -- whereby you re-roll any dice on their highest number and keep summing the total until the rally stops. This is good in post-apocalyptic scenarios where all the gods have died. Otherwise the DM rolls for the gods and sees if you get a critical hit.
Makers: Bonus points if you can figure out how to machine fair 12 and 20-sided dice.
- Credit for "aceing" to James Keller, DM for Savage Worlds, North Platte ,NE, USA.
