D8/D4

[DarkPumpkin]

I've gotta say I think there's a design boo-boo with the d8/d4.

The d4 dots are positioned above the digits.

There are a lot of polyhedrals where the numerals 6 and 9 have dots or dashes underneath them.

With this die, a second of cognitive dissonance is produced by seeing a "6" with dots above it, which looks like it's trying to say that it's a 9.

Graphics should be easy to read and not dissonant with the visual experience and expectations of users.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by DarkPumpkin

With this die, a second of cognitive dissonance is produced by seeing a "6" with dots above it, which looks like it's trying to say that it's a 9.

I am not sure what we can do if someone expects that they can roll a 9 on an eight-sided die . . .

We will have to list this one under: Know what die you are rolling, gang.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by ParadoxGames

It's not canon, but I have a map for TFT with Teleports that's available as a map from The Game Crafter and as a featured map in my forthcoming hex map book. Players roll a d3 to determine the destination hex.

The d3 is a fun die to use for stuff like that.

[DouglasCole]

Originally Posted by philreed

The d3 is a fun die to use for stuff like that.

I suspect that there are a lot of situations where "1-3 monsters" is a better fit than 1d/2 monsters as well. I know that I purged a lot of 1-3 from early drafts of the first TFT books I published because "only use d6" was the subtext. Now that TFT is starting to see d3, d4, d8, d12 in official use...

[hcobb]

Use the dice that fit your size.

Halflings roll d4s to resist poison and Reptile Men roll d8s.

[Shadekeep]

I have some ½d rolls in my adventures already, so the D3 is definitely a fit for that. The D4 and D8 are more interesting I think for weapon variations. For example, instead of 1d-2 throwing knives, a d4 knife would be nice, because there is always a damage amount on a successful hit with that.

The d12 has some neat tangential uses, particularly for random things that are already group as dozens, like months. And the fact that you get even numeric distributions across the range (1-12, all with equal chance) instead of the bell graph from multiple d6s (3-12, middle values more likely) makes certain rolls better suited to the new dice.

It's a little sad to lose the universal d6 aspect of TFT, but it's a fair trade for greater richness of experience.

[ParadoxGames]

Originally Posted by philreed

The d3 is a fun die to use for stuff like that.

Or the Steve Jackson Games' D12/D3!

Also, a d6+d8 make a nice variation d6x6 (d66) chart with more options for the GM.

[Anomylous]

Don't get me wrong, I love weird dice and especially d12s, but TFT will continue to be playable with d6's only, right? It makes the barrier to entry way lower if you can just raid the Risk set for dice, rather than having to head to your FLGS for polyhedrals.

[Skarg]

I like weird dice, too, but agree that simply starting publish TFT books that mention rolling other types of dice seems like it erodes the feature of TFT that all you really need is one or more d6 to play it.

I personally do have various dice, and I also can figure out how to roll practically any die range using d6, but it's not obvious to everyone how to do that, and for some players, TFT's simplicity is a feature, including not needing to do that.

[hcobb]

The d6 bell curve is baked into the system. Few characters will ever exceed 40 attribute points and just four of those points move most tasks from 26% success to 74% success.