Tuesday, July 15, 2014

How To Roll Some Dice Ranges



We all know how to roll dice. D4, d6, d8,d10, d12, and d20 are all pretty common in most folks collections. While there is a d100 out there any two d10s can be rolled to generate 1 to 100. There are funky dice out there for d30, d5,d7,d14,d16,d24, and d3 but it’s possible to use normal dice to generate most of those.

A d3 and a d5 are easy as pie just roll a normal die for d3 dividing the result by 2 and rounding up, d5’s are half a d10.

There a pesky notational die out there you’ll see on occasiona the d66; well there isn’t really a d66 but you can roll 2 six sided dice one as “tens” and the other as ones to get some of the numbers from 11 to 66, the neat feature here is you get a smooth distribution of 36 numbers that can be referenced on a chart.

Rolling a d24 without a physical d24 can be done with one of these two methods.
·      *  Roll a d12 and any other die, if the other die is odd add nothing to the d12 roll, if it’s even add 12 tio the d12 roll.

·     *  Roll a d6 and a d4.  Check the score on the 4 sided, if a 1 add 6 to the d6 roll, if a 2 add 12, if a 3 add 18, don’t add anything on a roll of 4.

Rolling a d30 without an actual d30 can be done with a 1d10 and a d6, on a 1 or 2 on the d6 add 10 to the d10 roll, on a 3 or 4 add 20, don’t add anything on a roll of 5 or 6.

One can fake a d5,d7,d9,d11,d19 with standard dice by rolling the next real die up and rerolling the highest possible roll if it come up. Example: rolling a d9  get your self a 10 sided die and roll it, kepe any score of 1 to 9 ignore any roll of 10 and rerolling. This will no come up much but it’s handy and works.

My last post offered 240 options that could be rolled on a d240. That’s a d24 roll for anything over 10 and a d10 for the the ones (get a 10 on the “ones’ die and it’s a zero just like when rolling for d100 with old fashioned d10’s).

Rolling a d300,d400,d500,d600,d800,d1200,d2000: roll a d100 and the other die. Use the d100  roll if the other die is a is it’s highest roll otherwise add the d100 roll to a 100 x the roll of the other die. Example a d600 is a rol of d6 and 1d100 if the d6 comes up a 6 and the d100 comes up 57 that’s a score of 57. If the d6 roll came up a 2 and the d100 was a 75 that’s 2X100+75 for a score of  275.
The d10,000 is easy that’s 3 d10’s the first is die is ones, the second hundreds, and  the third is thousands, scoring a 10,000 if all three dice come up a 10 (or zero depending on you dice).

Getting stranger:
I have no idea why anyone would actually want to do this but you can roll a d9 or d18 .
* d9:  roll two d6 , first one is halved and rounded up like a d3, if the second one is a 1 or 2 add 3, if the second one is a 3 or 4 add 6, if the second one is a 5 or 6 add nothing.
*d18: roll two d6s, keep the score of the first one, if the second die is 1 or 2 add 6, a 3 or 4 add 12, a 5 or 6 add nothing.

A d4 with no d4 or d8 or d12 on hand.  (d8’s and d12 can be divided appropriately to get a d4):
Rolling a d4 with 2d6 chart
First d6
Second d6
1 to 3
4 to 6
1 to 3
1
2
4 to 6
3
4

You can get a d8 if you with just d4’s by  using the chart above and an extra d6. Get a 1-3 add 4 other wise add nothing.

The d15. Roll d10 and a d6. Consult the table here:



D10 roll
D6
1,2
3,4
5,6
7,8
9,10
1-2
1
2
3
4
5
3-4
6
7
8
9
10
5-6
11
12
13
14
15

Or just divide a d30 roll by2 but where's the fun in that,

d36. The Old Fasa DR Who had a d36 that came up rarely


First
D6
Second d6
1
2
3
4
5
6
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
2
7
8
9
10
11
12
3
13
14
15
16
17
18
4
19
20
21
22
23
24
5
25
26
27
28
29
30
6
31
32
33
34
35
36

There are lot’s of ways to roll dice for a wide range of results, Hope the few I mentioned above can help out.

12 comments:

  1. Using Épées et Sorcellerie (D&D using 2d6 instead d20 - inspired by Chainmail) in my current game, I've rolled only d6s, including d66 for some charts and d666 for random encounters check.
    Rolling cubes has some nostalgic feel.

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    1. I think I first bumped into d66 in a Yaquinto Folio game in the 80's but they get more use in GamesWorkshop. I was considering a d666 for an encounter table a while back but instead went with a d600 because 216 rolls wasn't enough. But I can certainly appreciate the feel of the elegance of good old six siders with no new-fangled dice.

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    2. I recall Toon (SJG) as the first RPG that used d66... At least, it was the first time I saw it.

      Now, seriously? d600? 600 entries! Are you trying to fit every possibility in a random chart?

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    3. The d600 chart had a number of 1 score entries but there were also some that turned up a lot more often on the chart. I think there are about 150 entries total on the chart.

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  2. Of course, this is all the easy stuff. It's not like the early days where you might get roll instructions like "roll a number from 10-40," with no indication of what dice to use.

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    1. 10-40 , tha's 10d4. or more likely 6d6+4 as mostfolks just don't have 10d4.
      I'll have to do a more comprehensive post for the old timers.

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    2. That was just a quick example that would have been typical in the early AD&D days when that trend was ending, (and I was just starting). I also picked it to highlight the problem with that original method, (multiple ways that work for the range).

      I recall there being a number of weird ones, (mostly in older stuff some friends had), that took me a while to figure out what dice were involved. Some of which ended up requiring multiple sizes of dice, (e.g. 8-54).

      Thankfully, the oddball ranges tended to be rare and the whole thing pretty much fell by the wayside in favour of simply giving the dice to roll.

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  3. Thank you! Finally, I can roll up minor psionic disciplines (devotions) for 1e!

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  4. What about a d1001...???


    Thanks!!!

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  5. I was wondering about two different dice.....


    1) The d83, and.....

    2) The d1001


    If these can be figured out, that would be grand. Thanks!!!

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    Replies
    1. 83- requires 2 dice. d8 for 10's digit. a roll of 8 is considered a zero. roll a d14 add it to to the other roll counting a roll of 14 as zero. not perfect but it'll get the job done.

      for d1001 you just need a whole lot of 5 10 sided dice. Roll as per d10,000 but add the last roll as a whole d10 (don't count 10 as zero) divide the roll by 10 and round up.

      or just use the random number function in virtually any programming package.

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