You can use D6s for a fair simulation of other dice. The methods are neither elegant nor straightforward, but they do what they need to do. In the list of operations below I'm going to call the first die DA and the second DB.
D4
The easiest of them all: just chuck DA and re-roll if you get a result higher than 4. You'll probably have to roll three times for every two results you need, but there's no maths involved.
D8
Roll both dice. DA is a D4. If DB shows an odd side, add 4 to DA's number to get your D8 result.
D10
Roll both dice. This time you're rolling DA as a D5 (re-roll on a 6 result). DB is even/odd again. If it shows an odd side, add 5 to DA's number for your D10 result.
D12
Do not roll both dice and add them together. The first issue is that it's impossible to get a 1 result that way. The second is that rolling two dice and adding them gives you a weak bell-shaped probability curve instead of the flat result you want. The odds of rolling a 6 this way are 5/36 (14%) but the odds of rolling a 12 are 1/36 (0.28%).
Instead, roll DA as a D6 and DB as an odd/even to determine if you add 6 or 0 to DA.
D20
Now it's getting kind of awkward. Roll DA as a D5. Roll DB as a D4. You want a result of 0 to 3. For simplicity's sake I like to treat 6 as a 0, take 1 to 3 as rolled and re-roll on a 4 or 5. Add DB x 5 to DA to get a D20 result.
D100
Use the D10 method twice, once for the tens and again for the ones. Subtract 1 from each result. This will give you final result of 00 - 99. You can treat 00 as 100. If you leave out the subtractions, the lowest result you can roll is 11.
Doreen won't mind you using her toby mug collection as giant figurines, will she?
You could also try with another system. I had a problem like this one, and what I did was have my players role a d6 for every 6 points in the skill (so an 18 would be 3d6) They would add the numbers up to try and beat a skill check (That would be lowered in difficulty). A 6 would mean an additional dice rolled. It actually worked out pretty well, for an improv rpg session.
ReplyDeleteUse the Google dice roller. If you are avoiding technology, assign values to playing cards and shuffle up. No cards? Write values on slips of paper and draw from a hat. Still want to use dice? Each person writes values into pseudo-random columns for each die type. The GM will call out a number, you add d6 to it and reference the numbered location for your result.
ReplyDeleteExample for d8:
5
3
4
1
8
2
6
7
Gm calls "3".
Roll d6 shows 6. 3+6=9
Reference position 9 in your list... it wraps back around to the top giving a result of 5.
The simplest "fake D20" I can think of is this:
ReplyDeleteFlip 2 coins, preferably a dime and a nickel. One is worth 10 or 0, the other is worth 5 or 0.
Roll a D6, reroll if it's a 6.
Add up the 3 numbers for a result 1-20. All values are equally probable.
Alternatively - write a whole new game based around the d6!
ReplyDeleteAnd then discover that it's essentially Original D&D with the d20s cut out...
I stand by it, though - if nothing else, combat is even quicker!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UBLuYPcHklVEvZv1qsMBDwYBLZMDFUPW/view?usp=sharing
You can also play Dungeon World.
ReplyDelete