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LastCenturion
2016-08-08, 11:40 AM
It happens sometimes: You go off to play D&D, but nobody remembered to bring dice. I mean, it doesn't really happen at all, but maybe it does that one time; what do you do? My favorite system that my friend used as a DM was in a one-off campaign with lesser-defined characters. We didn't have dice because it wasn't incredibly planned, so instead what we did is the DM set up a Jenga tower and every time we tried to do anything, he would list a number and we had to pull out that many Jenga blocks. Usually it was only a 1 or 2, but I got it up to five by trying to polymorph the elder god's primary servant into a dire hummingbird (the second time I'd used that spell, but that's besides the point). The punishment for failing was usually death, depending on the action, but we could easily get another character in so it was fun. What else do you guys use?

Jormengand
2016-08-08, 11:59 AM
We always have at least some d6s around, but 1d20 is about 3d6, 1d12 is about 2d6 (actually slightly lower than 2d6 but most d12 stuff could use the buff) or 1d6+3, 1d10 is about 2d6-1 or 1d6+2, and 1d8 is about 1d6+1.

If you're doing something D20-based, then you could take 10 on everything and average all damage rolls. Yes, this means that there is a nonzero chance that you actually can't hit an enemy at all, especially at low levels. But if you can, you will. Probably not ideal, but not horrible for one session and hope to remember some dice next time. Maybe allow some kind of reverse power attack.

Grab a pack of cards, and grab the A-K of one suit and the A-7 of another and use that as a d20, the 8-K of the second suit and use as a d6, and so forth. Ignore d12, because no-one uses a d12, and craft a d8, a d10, and another d6 because you're probably gonna need it. Or, you can create a 20, 12, 10 and 8 and then halve and round up for the smaller dice (quarter and round up for the d3).

You could also run a system which doesn't use dice.

Floret
2016-08-08, 11:59 AM
"Los Muertos", German RPG uses (And is in all likelyhood not the only one to, though the only one I know of) playing cards for its Random mechanic.
You draw cards from a standard deck, red cards marking successes while black cards note failure. A Red ace counts double, black aces mean critical failures if no red card was drawn.
While this sounds in basis like a rather standard dicepool system, the fact that the deck is only reshuffled after being around halfway depleted makes some limited form of riskassesment possible. Also, obviously, everyone uses the same deck, including the GM.

As for forgetting dice... That is something that happens?

LibraryOgre
2016-08-08, 12:00 PM
Have I mentioned the One Deck Engine? (http://rpgcrank.blogspot.com/2013/08/ode-one-deck-engine.html)

The Jenga tower solution is similar to the game Dread.

Jay R
2016-08-08, 12:20 PM
I've written the number 1-6 on the six sides of a pencil, and rolled it.

An early SPI game had the numbers 1-10 written on counters which you pulled out of a cup, before d10s were widely available.

Flickerdart
2016-08-08, 12:20 PM
As children, my brother and I found an old board game at the cottage. The dice had been lost a long time ago, but we simply flipped a coin 6 times instead of every die roll. This is not a scalable solution for d20 games, or any other kind of game where you must roll dice more than once per turn, or with more than 6 sides.

Jay R
2016-08-08, 01:15 PM
As children, my brother and I found an old board game at the cottage. The dice had been lost a long time ago, but we simply flipped a coin 6 times instead of every die roll. This is not a scalable solution for d20 games, or any other kind of game where you must roll dice more than once per turn, or with more than 6 sides.

It doesn't even work for a d6, although kids aren't likely to notice the difference. Here are the probabilities.
Roll Probability
0 --> 1.6%
1 --> 9.4%
2 --> 23.4%
3 --> 31.3%
4 --> 23.4%
5 --> 9.4%
6 --> 1.6%

2D8HP
2016-08-08, 05:06 PM
My Dungeons and Dragons Basic set which I got in '78 had "chits" instead of dice.
You put them in a bag, closed your eyes and drew one out to see what you "rolled".

Castle Falkenstein used playing cards instead of dice, but when it came out in the '90's it seemed no one wanted to play in a setting infused with joy! and awesome!, and only dark, grim, and gritty settings were allowed, so I never got to try it.

:frown:

Vinyadan
2016-08-08, 05:17 PM
Lone Wolf had a Destiny Table with some numbers on it, I think it was 0-9 and you had to close your eyes and point a pen at it. Fun times.

bulbaquil
2016-08-08, 06:18 PM
We... use electronic dice rollers if this happens?

Mutazoia
2016-08-09, 12:27 AM
We... use electronic dice rollers if this happens?

We've used "chits", but the most off the wall (pun intended) thing we've ever done is throw darts at a dart board. A bullseye was a critical hit, missing the board was a critical failure, othewise you "rolled" what ever number your dart landed on.

To be fair, we did make our own "dart boards" for other types of dice besides the D20 out of cork tile and painting the numbers on.

Slipperychicken
2016-08-09, 12:35 AM
I'd just use an electronic die roller or other RNG on my computer. Although between 5 people, it's quite unlikely that all of us would somehow misplace all our dice at once.

Out of about 5-6 years of gaming, I can only recall one occasion where I came to a session without the dice I need to play, and then I just asked to borrow another player's dice.


As children, my brother and I found an old board game at the cottage. The dice had been lost a long time ago, but we simply flipped a coin 6 times instead of every die roll. This is not a scalable solution for d20 games, or any other kind of game where you must roll dice more than once per turn, or with more than 6 sides.

It is possible to emulate dice rolls with a series of coin-flips, although you need a flowchart and doing so can be quite laborious.

GungHo
2016-08-10, 12:53 PM
Flip or yes/no or success/fail mechanics
Coins
Beer bottle caps
Cards (colors)
Baseball & tire swing

Degrees of success
Cards (colors/suits/values)
Darts (drunk)
Throwing Knives (real drunk)

Christopher K.
2016-08-10, 01:29 PM
I actually have a Jenga tower with numbers written on the blocks. When it comes up, a player removed a block, used the number on the block as their roll, and if the tower collapsed, they got a critical failure and subsequent "rolls" were desperately weeding through a pile of Jenga blocks, taking damage with each check.

Mordar
2016-08-10, 02:51 PM
I remember long ago...one time...not at band camp...using a deck of cards to simulate all the dice...

"Add" cards: Draw one from the pile, if it is black the value of the main draw is unchanged. If it is red, add the "Add" value.

D20: A-10 of clubs. "Add" value 10.
D12: A-6 of spades. "Add" value 6.
D10: A-10 of clubs. No "Ad" value.
D8: A-8 of diamonds. No "Add" value.
D6: A-6 of hearts. No "Add" value.
D4: 10/J/Q/K of hearts - 10 = 1, J = 2, Q = 3, K = 4.
Add: J/Q/K of spades and diamonds.

So for D4/D6/D8/D10 you just drew a card from the proper pile.

For D12/D20 you draw a card from the proper pile and a card from the "Add" pile. For example, D20: draw 3 of clubs and the Add draw was Q of spades, result is a 3. Draw the 7 of clubs and J of diamonds and the result is a 17.

For %/D100 we just did a double draw from the D10 deck counting 10 as 0. Yes, cards were shuffled between draws.

Was clunky, but we were younger and more accommodating of such things in the early 80s.

- M

Flickerdart
2016-08-10, 03:17 PM
It doesn't even work for a d6, although kids aren't likely to notice the difference. Here are the probabilities.
Roll Probability
0 --> 1.6%
1 --> 9.4%
2 --> 23.4%
3 --> 31.3%
4 --> 23.4%
5 --> 9.4%
6 --> 1.6%

Yeah, it was basically a "we need something" move. We eventually switched to a Rubik's Cube with the right number of stickers peeled off (because mutilating the cube was easier than solving it).

Given that a roll of 1 or 2 in the game resulted in no movement (because of a lack of winds for the ships) we were pretty happy it happened less often. :smallamused:

Raimun
2016-08-10, 03:18 PM
Instead of dice? Surely, you are joking. Dice make you happy and happiness is mandatory. Ergo, dice are mandatory.

BayardSPSR
2016-08-10, 11:38 PM
It doesn't even work for a d6, although kids aren't likely to notice the difference. Here are the probabilities.
Roll Probability
0 --> 1.6%
1 --> 9.4%
2 --> 23.4%
3 --> 31.3%
4 --> 23.4%
5 --> 9.4%
6 --> 1.6%

You can use coin flips to get a flat distribution of 0-7(d8-1) if you do it in binary, though, which you can use to do a d6 if you re"roll" certain results.

RazorChain
2016-08-11, 03:33 AM
Forgetting Dice!?!? Nevah!!!

I even took with me my dice made from amber to play Amber diceless roleplaying system!!!

EvilBarrels
2016-08-11, 05:18 AM
I remember a few times where I've been caught without my dice. The first time I just used a d12 and winged it for most of the game. That session, I learned to fully respect the power of the dodecahedron, and I have since made a system that solely uses twelve sided dice.

The second time, I just used a deck of cards. I removed the kings and jokers, then just played like it was a d12. The third time, there were some standerd d6s handy, so we rolled one normally and used the other as a coin toss. On an even it granted +6 to your roll.

If you know what you're doing, all rolls can be simulated using a d12. Never underestimate its holy might.

MrZJunior
2016-08-11, 07:46 AM
When I was LARPing in college we would use specially modified decks of cards numbered 1-10. One botched, 8 and 9 were successes, and 10 was a success and let you draw another card. If you draw another 10 you got to draw again! You could theoretically repeat this about four or five times until the deck runs out of 10s, but I don't think this ever happened.

wumpus
2016-08-11, 09:25 AM
Didn't the original Basic D&D set have cardboard counters to replace dice? I know the second set had dice (thankfully).

Favorite (actually used) method: archery. Hit closer to the bullseye to "roll" better.

Mutazoia
2016-08-12, 04:55 AM
Forgetting Dice!?!? Nevah!!!

I even took with me my dice made from amber to play Amber diceless roleplaying system!!!

I have an RPG dice rolling app on my phone for just such emergencies.

nrg89
2016-08-12, 05:09 AM
My players are all computer engineers and I specialize in datamining and machine learning so we know one probability distribution from another. These systems were playtested thoroughly and the designers found what they considered the best probability distributions for certain events so I would not dare switching out a uniformly, distributed d20 to a binomially distributed trio of d6s. I'd have to shower afterwards.

We would've used an online dice generator. If we have no internet we'd code our own in a jiffy. If we have no access to a computer we're out camping and weren't meant to sit inside playing games anyway.

You could also use cards, just number them from 1-20 and draw one at random to roll a d20. Anything to preserve the probability distribution.

Knaight
2016-08-12, 05:16 AM
These systems were playtested thoroughly and the designers found what they considered the best probability distributions for certain events so I would not dare switching out a uniformly, distributed d20 to a binomially distributed trio of d6s. I'd have to shower afterwards.

That's an optimistic viewpoint right there, to put it lightly. Also calling 3d6 binomial is a stretch - compare that distribution to 15d2-12, which is an actual binomial distribution that runs between 3 and 18.

nrg89
2016-08-12, 05:32 AM
That's an optimistic viewpoint right there, to put it lightly. Also calling 3d6 binomial is a stretch - compare that distribution to 15d2-12, which is an actual binomial distribution that runs between 3 and 18.

Sure, I might give the designers too much benefit of the doubt, but if the game is not fun and we use the correct probability distribution we have an easier time figuring out what's wrong. Using probability distributions interchangeably could confuse you a lot.

And, yes, technically it's an asymptotically normal distribution aka normalized extended binomial coefficient and one is far closer to a uniform distribution than the other. But I don't want approximations, I want the correct distribution to drop that nagging feeling, darn it! Pull up your terminal and I'll write it myself in Python, I'll be done in less than an hour. Or, how about we download an app on my phone and pass it around?

BWR
2016-08-12, 06:34 AM
These days the chance of no one having dice in my groups is so low as to be virtually impossible. Back when we first started out and had only a single set between us and there was no such thing as online dice rollers (and when internet connection was the exception rather than the norm), the one time we were left without dice we used Yahtzee dice for d6s and just wrote numbers on small squares of paper and pulled them out of a hat (well, a bag but you get the idea)

ImNotTrevor
2016-08-13, 10:20 AM
Perhaps it doesn't count, but I've been wanting to develop a system that uses Tarot cards such that Suit/number are important and the High Arcana have special, wacky effects.

For instance if it's a Draw Over system, then if you draw the Hanged Man then suddenly you need to draw Under the same target number.

If you draw The Devil, then you choose between failing this test right now and getting a Success Token you can spend on another test, or succeed right now and give the GM a Fail Token they can spend on any of your tests after this one. (One token per player, obviously)

I mean, the system would need to be built around the concept, but it's a pretty neato idea, I think.

Braininthejar2
2016-08-13, 06:02 PM
Apart from dice roller apps?

My GM is a fortune teller, so when she needs to know what will happen, (especially where a matter is more complicated than a numerical success/failure, like something random happening, or results of complex actions) she draws a tarot card and interprets it accordingly.

Madbox
2016-08-13, 07:20 PM
Take a paperclip, a pen, and a piece of cardboard. Draw lines on the cardboard to split it a number of sections equal to the number of sides of the die you need. Divide it like a pie, with lines coming from the center, not into boxes. Number each section. Straighten the paperclip out, and then curl one end around the pen. Hold the pen on the center point and flick the paperclip to spin it. Whatever it points to is what you rolled.

I heard about that one in an article about people playing D&D in prison, where they aren't allowed dice since they are "Tools for Gambling".

Sir Daniel
2016-08-13, 07:24 PM
I feel that it's important to note that you can't replace a d20 with anything but a d20. But you can get "close enough".