Saturday, August 4, 2012

Chronicle 011: Dice

DICE

In almost every RPG I've played, dice were involved. Whether it was Exalted (d10), Dark Heresy (d100), WEG Star Wars (d6), or D&D (d20 system) we all came to the table with a multitude of dice.

ice come in all sorts of colors and styles, and ranged in type from marble to metal. Some of use have mismatched sets that we've collected over the years. While others of us seek out the next perfect set in our local gaming store as if we were searching for a sign that the Gaming Gods exist.

But why is this? What's with this obsession with different dice?

From my standpoint, an avid collector of dice, I must say that dice are like children. Without a doubt you'll have a favorite. You'll have a bastard. And then you'll have the red-headed step child that you wish wasn't there, but keep around because you have some odd attachment to it.

Your favorite die will change from time to time. There will be one day when the dice land in your favor, and so you keep that set close. No one else can touch it or even breathe on it. But then one day, and it always happens, where the die will not be in your favor. These days, where the Gaming Gods are not looking upon you in favor, you curse your dice and banish them to the dice bag. "Shame on you dice. You have failed me this day." So you reach into your Crown Royal bag and pick out a new set of dice. When these produce better results they become your new favorite, for the next couple games.

The bastard set is your cursed dice. And everyone has a set of these. No matter when you roll them they always do the opposite of what you need them to do. The very first set I had was a black d20 set from Wizard's Star Wars game -- a box set called Invasion of Theed. No matter if I was the GM or a player, when I need to a critical hit, I got a critical failure. When I needed to make an ability check I'd fail. If a player was about to die I'd pray that the dice wouldn't come up a hit. Yet low and behold the attack would and result in the player's death. "Bastard!" I'd curse my dice.

Finally, there's that red-headed step child set of dice. It's a set that has no two dice from the same set. You vaguely remember where each die came from and maybe one matches a set you have. This may be a set you  proudly use or a set you hide away, denying their existence.   They sort of double as your bastard dice, so you keep another full set on hand when you need a "good set". While I don't have a set like this, I have seen them in many a dice bag.

So again. Why the obsession? I believe it stems from us needing choices. In life we desire the option to choose our fate. Do we take a chance with the bastard dice? Do we use a favored son? Or, do we bring out the mix-matched dice and hope the Gaming Gods are on our side? We need choices. It's like, which game to play. We're not always in the mood to play D&D, so we pull out Victoriana, or Sword's Edge. Choice.

Choose wisely my friends.

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1 comment:

  1. I'm stingy and barely forced myself to buy a full D&D dice set. Black. Easy to read. And for submitting to the dollar gods, my black d20 was imbued with an affinity for the number 20. So notorious is this die, that players have asked me to use a different set when I GM. And they remove crit weakness from zombies when I play in their games. Will they ever be banished? Doubtful. It would take a very very long streak of bad luck for me to ask to borrow someone's bastard dice. Which I'd sooner do than shell out more cash for a new set of my own.

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