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I don't like square edged dice because they don't roll as nicely on the table. They are better made for rolling down a long felt table rather than dropped in a pool of 20 on a table that is typically a hard material.

I've actually never come across people who use their own dice and don't let me use them as well, because of that I don't really care all that much because we are both pulling from the same pool anyway.

We also just do the thing where you roll the dice, remove the failures, scoop up the successes and roll them again, then if your opponent has an armour save, they pick up the exact same dice and roll them for their saves. It seems illogical to me to count the number of hits then pull out a fresh set of dice to roll the wounds, I typically don't even count them, just scoop them up and roll for the wounds and then scoop up the successful wounds and hand them to my opponent.

 B0B MaRlEy wrote:
I've got different kinds of dice, though they're all pips-sided ones without special symbols. The ones I have the most of (and so I use for the bigger rolls most of the time) I'm getting concerned wether they roll properly or not, as I tend to be pretty darned lucky. I usually offer using my dice to my opponent so it doesn't affect the game too much, should they really be not correctly balanced dice.

Your question is a great one!
For honesty and that question in people's minds if dice are balanced properly.

Fill a clear tall glass of water and drop a die into it and see if it favors a side strongly.

The harder way is to roll it in a cup about a hundred times (thousand?) and plot the results.
You should get around 16-17 (166 for a thousand) times the same result for each side...

I do not like those fancy dice, if it is not balanced well it could favor a side much more strongly than another (bias).

Hard to read numbers or symbols is rather counterproductive for their purpose, we all need to be able to read the result.
Arabic would be exciting!


Single die rolls are bad for "bias", how many times do you see someone look down, finger the die how they want and roll "just so".
I suggest rolling on top of a book next time they do it (different bounce) or the good old die towers.

Lots of "normal" dice with lots of different colors were handy, 7th I now have to roll separately for each type of weapon (sigh!).

 Minion_of_Gozer wrote:
After all my years of D&D, I actually prefer the numerical d6. It's easier to tell at a quick glance instead of having to count dots. Then again, I'm lazy .

Who on earth counts dots?? You see at a glance what the number is from the pattern. I find dots significantly faster to accumulate successes and failures due to the patterns.

I voted with consent. As many others suggest, dice that are hard to read are annoying. A mate I wouldn't care about, he can do what he wants, but in a pick up game... people do cheat so no dice (ba dum ts) ; p

On the topic of dice, I backed the Double D6 kickstarter which uses d12s with 1-6 written twice. D12s roll a lot better due to more faces so you get better results from smaller throws and what not. Nice and functional imo, with a variety of colours for different weapons to be thrown at same time.


edit: I agree Skink, you see it from the pattern and I find it at least as quick. Probably quicker yeah as the patterns are more distinct than a character.

I mostly use basic small Chessex dice, because they're cheap, easy to read, and I often need to roll a lot of dice at once. (And yes, if my Ork unit gets over 100 attacks, I *do* need to roll them all at once, so stop trying to convince me otherwise.)

I do tend to roll different colors for different things, especially when I play Orks. It goes as follows:

Blue - Saving throws
Green - Close combat, psychic powers, Leadership
Red - Movement/sieze the initiative
Translucent Orange - Flame weapons
Black/White - Shooting Attacks

Now, if you know something about Orks, you'll understand what's going on there, but for those who don't know, here's a quick rundown: Blue is lucky, red ones go fasta', green is the color of the Waagh!, orange looks fiery, and shooting is dull and generic because it's not as cool as krumpin' a head in.

(I'm not kidding about that, either. I take my Orks seriously. Um, as seriously as you can playing Orks. Oh bugger, you know what I mean.)

I do have some other dice that I use for before-the-game rolls (where I might need just one or two dice). It's two sets of specialized Chessex dice, both of them with symbols for a 6, which I let my opponent know beforehand. One of the sets has the symbol for Sun Coast Comics, a store I used to play at until it closed (owner got ill), the other has the symbol for a local GW club that existed at the time (and the year of the dice; we got sets for different years). Both sets are pretty clear, the one is black pips on orange, the other is white pips on dark green. It benefits me to be able to easily read my dice, given that my eyes aren't that amazing.

I'd prefer my opponent use easy-to-read dice, whether they're all from the same block or not. I know someone with a bit of a psychedelic collection, and some of his dice are horrendous to read, and while I know he's a good guy and wouldn't cheat, he does at times pick up some of those dice as successful rolls when they weren't, but he might not even be able to read his own dice that well, especially playing at a fast pace. Games Workshop's Nurgle dice aren't much better, given that some of them have swirls that make reading the pips kind of hard.

I'd just say to talk with your opponent about dice, make sure you're both using dice you're comfortable with.

On this topic, I noticed for a local convention tournament next month there's a rule about using dice from the same brick. Apparently I'll have to break out my Apocalypse brick and use them so I have enough dice. I'll be sad that I can't use blue for saves or red for movement... but my opponents will be sadder if they roll like they did the day I got them. (Used them in an Apoc game to celebrate the new version. Right off the bat, rolled three sixes in a row with pre-game bombardment to blow apart a super-heavy. Then shrugged off so many hits with Lord of Skulls' daemon save that in one turn everything that could fired at the LoS and didn't get a single hit through. Really pissed off my opponent, but they were fresh dice!)

I prefer plain cubes with pips instead of numerals (e.g., chessex dice or similar) with a good contrast in color so they're easy to read at a glance. if you're going to play with dice that have symbols, it should only have a symbol on one face (preferable the 6; makes it easier to remember). I don't like casino dice because they're sharp enough to scratch up models and terrain and don't roll well unless you really give them a toss across the table.

I make a point of always rolling where my opponent can see me do it. when rolling scatter dice, I roll as close to the object that's going to scatter as possible so there's less question about exactly what direction that arrow's pointing relative to the object. I only remove failures from the table, never successes, and I don't block my opponent's view while I do so. I expect the same behavior in return; it's just good sportsmanship.

I do use different colored dice for things like different weapons firing at the same time, saving throws, differentiating between characters and other models in the unit, etc. where it matters. all the dice are the same size and type, though. when I can, I also try to use colors that my opponent doesn't have, just to make it easier to keep track of who a given die belongs to.

When I played 40K, I just used a sampler set of Chessex dice I got for cheap at a board game store that was closing. 24 dice IIRC, and none of them were the same color.

When I get around to it, I plan on getting the gaming set and using the dice in the set that has the British Guards symbol in place of the six.

My only feelings on the matter are this:

40k is a game incorporating random elements. These random events are decided by dice. Dice are a key part of the game. If someone has a problem with your dice, they have a problem with a significant part of the game that you both are playing. I have absolutely zero problem switching dice if an opponent asks me to, and I have zero problem telling an opponent that I'd like them to use different dice.

I bring numerous sets of dice with me when I game. I have precision edged Game Science dice that I prefer. I've had people ask me to switch to something else because they're a pain to read, so I've got Koplow, Chessex, and GW dice too but any alternative set would be acceptable. The ubiquitous Chessex cube is usually sufficient.

On that same token, after watching an opponent roll one dice about 15 times, and every time it comes up 5+, I asked him not to use that dice any more. This occurred during a tournament. Magically, when I asked the opponent to switch dice, the game went from incredibly one sided (obviously rolling 5++ 15 times is going to abrogate an entire shooting phase if you're trying to focus something down) to far more balanced.



In short: the only stipulations I have on dice is that anything your opponent is OK with, you can use, and anything your opponent is NOT OK with, you should be willing to switch without question or argument.

ETA: And, don't touch my dice if you're disgusting for whatever reason. Sad to say this actually has to be brought up, but it's the community we have...

I Love special dice. But only a little special. If the 1 OR 6 not both, is replaced with a glyph I'll want to buy some. Otherwise not really. I've got some Chessex dice with a Wolf head on the 6 for example. But I would no like playing against the dice from the first link

Special 6s is enough.

 Capamaru wrote:
Well I beg to differ about casino dice.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/That%27s_How_I_Roll_-_A_Scientific_Analysis_of_Dice

It's incredibly interesting to know the regular dice most of us use actually do roll more 1's.


As a personal tic, I hate the GW dice cube of assorted colours. No, please no.

I voted the last choice, so I could caveat this. Use anything you want (but I agree with choice 5, any special symbol dice should all be 1s or should all e 6s) and allow you opponent to use any of your dice that he wants to as well. So if you have a die set aside just to use for that 5+ invul, he can choose to use it for his 5+ invul.

 varl wrote:
when rolling scatter dice, I roll as close to the object that's going to scatter as possible so there's less question about exactly what direction that arrow's pointing relative to the object.

I do the same, and people will still claim it's some amazing angle that isn't even remotely close to what's on the die. I've had to pull out my tape measure at times and line it up along the arrow to show people they're adding quite a few degrees to the angle of the scatter. I don't know why people will do it so extremely at times, it seems they're blatantly claiming a scatter that the die doesn't show. At that point, you might as well just claim you're using a house rule that if something scatters, you get to pick where it scatters (only they change the direction for my scatter and theirs).