A while ago, I introduce the d10million, which is just a daily pill box full of d10s:
This is fantastic for rolling multiple d10s simultaneously or for when you need a really big number, but by switching things up, you can do other things with your box o’dice.
Ton O’Mooks:
If you have a battle set up with a bunch of mooks, filling your dice box with the required dice to roll multiple attacks simultaneously can speed things up a lot. Even if they have different initiative, you can roll them all at once and read them off as needed. It can be difficult to put more than one of some types of dice in a single compartment and tell which order to use them, but using small dice of differing colors can make that more manageable.
Just for You:
Most people use only a handful of dice each session, and make the same rolls repeatedly, so it seems silly to not take advantage of that. Below is a die box tailored specifically to my DnD 4e character. All I have occasion to do is make a skill roll with a d20, or make an attack with my d20 plus 1 or 2 d4s or d6s. Sometimes I also add the two small red sneak attack dice. That’s pretty much it. I’ve filled the remaining spaces with the remaining die types “just in case” but I rarely, if ever, use them. Alternately, I could fill those spaces with my mini, or commonly used counters.
GM’s Special:
Just like as a player, you rarely roll more than a few dice, as a GM there are some dice you need much more often than others. Try putting rolls you use a lot, or common dice combinations together, then filling the remaining slots with the rest of the dice you only occasionally use.
One of Every Die:
By filling the box with one of every die (and a second d10) you can roll any die and any combination of non-duplicate dice with a single shake, saving time and preventing lost dice to boot. This is a good all-around use for your D10million.
I do something similar to the “One of Every Dice” box. I have a box full of assorted dice, but I have a little bag with one of each kind (2d10, of course) that I use most of the time. The box-o-dice is for if I need an extra of something, or for players who don’t have a full set, etc.
I’m surprised at you Matthew. For the most truly successively random results, all those polyhedra which form the crucial numerical selection and display media should be as close to spherical as possible given the tiny corral they are constrained to roll in. Cubes and tetrahedra should be swapped out with 12-sided d6s and d4s soonest.
Only then can Professor Neagley’s Polynomic Randomising Numeralizator realize its full potential. Well, that and painting all the dice with bright brass paint.
Appropos of nothing in particular: thanks to GS for introducing me to Savage Worlds, and by extension, Space 1889. It has had quite an impact on how I see the world, doencher know.
Seriously, this idea is very cool. Kudos.
@Roxysteve – I DO find that some types of dice in the box require a rather vigorous shake to get moving, but that’s really the extent of it. Of course you’re welcome to use smaller dice, a bigger box, or run some chi-squared goodness of fit tests to test if being in the box changes the randomness of the rolling if you like. 🙂
Hilarious and useful. I can dig it and will be trying it out. I need to figure out some more used for the d10,000,000.
Um… I only count 1,000,000
There are 7 d10, so there are 10^7 possible rolls ranging from 0,000,000 to 9,999,999. As usual for these type of dice, we count 0,000,000 as 10,000,000 and thus our rolls range from 0,000,001 to 10,000,000.
P.S. This is actually a follow up article. There’s a smidgen more number theory in the original: http://www.gnomestew.com/tools-for-gms/making-complex-random-encounters-simple/
Obviously, yes. I must have been tired last night. Tired makes me stupid.