Playing with Number Cubes

You can get blank dice and little label stickers from educational supply stores to make your own dice. But making the same dice that are commercially available is probably pretty pointless an alternative is of course to make your own.

D3:  Most obvious of all is the 1d3 that’s 1 to 3.  Just label 2 faces with 1, 2 faces with 2 and 2 faces with 3 and you’ve got a d3 that requires no division during play, it’s easy to read and roll too.

H3: This is a High rolling d3, it will generate 1 to 3 but usually a 3.  Label 1 face H1, 2 faces H2 and 3 faces H3.  The H is so no one rolls tis dice by accident. It’s to generate a weighted result that still falls inside the range of 1 to 3.

L3:  This sis a low rolling d3, it will generate 1 to 3 but usyally a 1. Label 3 faces L1, 2 faces L2, and 1 face L3.  The L (as H above  is to keep people from rolling the wrong dice).

Now wait a minute, what good would a L3 or H3 be? For weighted results (I said that above right). One use is damage by punching and kicking in OSR style games. .  L3 for barehand, d3 for gauntlet  or kicking with a shod foot, H3 for Cestus.

C6: Clipped 6. No 1’s or  6’s on this die . 2 faces get C2, 1 C3, 1 C4 , and 2 C5

K6: A Fat Clipped 6.  No 1’s of 6’s but weighted to the middle. 1 face gets a K2, 2 faces get a K3, 2 faces get a K4, and one face gets a K5.

F4: the Fat 4.  I’s a d6 but it rolls 1 to 4 and it’s fat in the middle. so 1 face is F1, 2 faces are F2, 2 faces are F3 and 1 face is F4.

S4: the Short 4. it rolls 1 to 4 but weighted to get a 1 or 2 so  2 faces get a1S, 2 faces get a S2, 1 face gets an S3. 1 faces gets and S4.

T4: the Tall 4  it rolls 1 to 4 but weighted to get a 3 or 4 more often,  Label 1 face T1, 1 face T2, 2 faces T3, and 2 faces T4.

There you a bunch of different ways to use number cubes to change the ranges your RPG campaign uses.


For chart & table fanatics the number cube dice conversion table.

die roll	D3	H3	L3	C6	K6	F4	S4	T4
1	1	1	1	2	2	1	1	1
2	1	2	1	2	3	2	1	2
3	2	2	1	3	3	2	2	3
4	2	3	2	4	4	3	2	3
5	3	3	2	5	4	3	3	4
6	3	3	3	5	5	4	4	4

Extra bonus, minor weapon damage table.

Scalpel	L3
Small Knife	D3
Belt Knife	H3
Scramasax	C6
Cinqueda	K6
Unarmed hand	L3
Shod Foot	D3
Gauntlet	D3
Cestus	H3
Walking Stick	S4
Long Dagger	H4