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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Aug 2020

    Default Ideas to incorporate a d60

    I am playing with a group that has never played before and I want them to feel included in the story right from the start.

    To me this means to implement some of the stuff they want to have in their story and one of them (jokingly) asked if he could roll his stats with a d60 instead of a d20.

    I thought the idea of a d60 was hilarious and he showed me. It's basically a ball with numbers. Barely stops rolling. I love it.

    Sadly I can't come up with a good idea where I would let them roll a d60.

    If you need additional information, feel free to ask. If you have an idea what to do with a d60, please do tell.

    Thanks in advance, cheers

    Dominion

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    RangerGuy

    Join Date
    Jul 2017

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Just play a roll under system and change the d100 or d20 into a d60.

  3. - Top - End - #3
    Troll in the Playground
     
    Imp

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    Jul 2008
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    Sweden
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    Male

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Give them a weapon with a d60 damage dice.
    Black text is for sarcasm, also sincerity. You'll just have to read between the lines and infer from context like an animal

  4. - Top - End - #4
    Barbarian in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2016

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Make a random item/monster/bystander generator with 60 entries. He'll get to roll his monster-dice and tell you the result when you use that generator.

    Create some subsystem which uses a D60 (like an ingame luck game - cards, dice, etc... - That will use that D60 in its resolution mechanic)

  5. - Top - End - #5
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Batcathat's Avatar

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    Nov 2019

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Couldn't you just switch all d20 rolls to d60 and multiply the associated numbers by three? Or does that change the odds? Probability math always makes my head hurt.

  6. - Top - End - #6
    Bugbear in the Playground
     
    ezekielraiden's Avatar

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    Jul 2018

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    There are 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. Sounds to me like some kind of timed power could work well with a d60. Perhaps a powerful self-buff, or a way to squeeze true info out of enemies, or the like. Maybe it's an artifact or device set up to work for no more than an hour and can be applied to a variety of things, so its utility depends on the player's creativity.

    I'm imagining an hourglass (in a early/medieval fantasy setting) or a clockwork device (more late-renaissance/modern fantasy) that you can prepare (flip, wind up, trigger the capacitor, w/e) and then apply to something. Maybe its most basic effect is to freeze time in one direction for d60 seconds, but careful alignment of its energies can cause it to extend or sustain effects outside their normal duration (or eliminate/shorten bad effects).

    This could be a fun semi-novelty item, a character-defining element, or anything in between. Perhaps, at high power levels, a further d24 component comes into play!

  7. - Top - End - #7
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2021

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Quote Originally Posted by Batcathat View Post
    Couldn't you just switch all d20 rolls to d60 and multiply the associated numbers by three? Or does that change the odds? Probability math always makes my head hurt.
    Any single die has a linear probability curve (equal probability for any given result), so the odds will be the same as long as one die is a multiple of the other (otherwise you'll have issues with rounding). So you could in theory just roll a d60/3 for every d20 roll, but that seems like a pretty boring way to use it.
    Last edited by BlueScreen85; 2021-01-07 at 10:04 AM.

  8. - Top - End - #8
    Ettin in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jun 2015

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Quote Originally Posted by BlueScreen85 View Post
    Any single die has a linear probability curve (equal probability for any given result), so the odds will be the same as long as one die is a multiple of the other (otherwise you'll have issues with rounding). So you could in theory just roll a d60/3 for every d20 roll, but that seems like a pretty boring way to use it.
    The smallest result on the 60 sided dice divided by 3 will be 1/3 which is smaller than the smallest result on a 20 sided dice so even if it will not change things much it will allow failures in some cases where you could not fail(unless you round up).
    Also the average result on a linear dice throw is sum of the smallest and biggest value divided by 2.
    For a 20 sided dice it is 10.5 and for a 60 sided dice it is 30.5 so the average result will be very sightly reduced if you divide the 60 sided dice by 3(again unless you round up but then you might as well use a 20 sided dice directly).
    Last edited by noob; 2021-01-07 at 10:16 AM.

  9. - Top - End - #9
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2021

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Quote Originally Posted by noob View Post
    The smallest result on the 60 sided dice divided by 3 will be 1/3 which is smaller than the smallest result on a 20 sided dice so even if it will not change things much it will allow failures in some cases where you could not fail(unless you round up).
    Also the average result on a linear dice throw is sum of the smallest and biggest value divided by 2.
    For a 20 sided dice it is 10.5 and for a 60 sided dice it is 30.5 so the average result will be very sightly reduced if you divide the 60 sided dice by 3(again unless you round up but then you might as well use a 20 sided dice directly).
    I was assuming round up. 1-3 becomes 1, 4-6 becomes 2 and so on. Yes, you might as well just use a d20, but if the whole point is just rolling a d60 for the hell of it, this is the absolute least creative way to do it.

  10. - Top - End - #10
    Ogre in the Playground
     
    Batcathat's Avatar

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    Nov 2019

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Quote Originally Posted by BlueScreen85 View Post
    I was assuming round up. 1-3 becomes 1, 4-6 becomes 2 and so on. Yes, you might as well just use a d20, but if the whole point is just rolling a d60 for the hell of it, this is the absolute least creative way to do it.
    Yes, that's how I intended my suggestion too. Indeed it's not a very creative way of incorporating it but I interpreted the OP's question as more or less "how can we use this cool dice in some way", rather than finding a more unique use for it.

  11. - Top - End - #11
    Dwarf in the Playground
    Join Date
    Nov 2020

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Roll 2d60 and divide the resulting number among your six stats. It's a dumb way to do it, but should produce at least some wildly unbalanced but technically playable characters.

    "The Ancient Smiths believed crafted a powerful weapon, but believed none should wield it who was not willing to endure it's agony. It does 1d60 damage, split between you and the target. No, it's not just a rubber squeaky hammer."

  12. - Top - End - #12
    Pixie in the Playground
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    Jan 2021

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Quote Originally Posted by Batcathat View Post
    Yes, that's how I intended my suggestion too. Indeed it's not a very creative way of incorporating it but I interpreted the OP's question as more or less "how can we use this cool dice in some way", rather than finding a more unique use for it.
    If I recall that's actually the intended use of a d60: it's one die that can be used to roll almost any of the standard dice (divide by 15 for a d4, 10 for a d6, 6 for a d10, 5 for a d12, and 3 for a d20). Only one it can't do is a d8. A d120 does all of them.

  13. - Top - End - #13
    Titan in the Playground
     
    ElfRangerGuy

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    Aug 2007
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    Imagination Land
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    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Any time the PCs are running late for something, roll a d60 to determine how many minutes late they are.

    Or roll a d60 - 30 to determine how early or late they are any time they go anywhere.
    Last edited by KillianHawkeye; 2021-01-07 at 02:32 PM.
    "Nothing you can't spell will ever work." - Will Rogers

    Watch me draw and swear at video games.

  14. - Top - End - #14
    Dwarf in the Playground
     
    OldWizardGuy

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    Dec 2020
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    Area 51

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Quote Originally Posted by Mastikator View Post
    Give them a weapon with a d60 damage dice.
    i agree with this path.

    we had some mixed DnD rules where you could increase the damage die step to the next nearest die. In some cases, there was another option to do it again.

    So you take something like a Zanbatou/ No Dachi with a base of d20,
    then get your d30, and say "this is step 1"
    then point at the d60 "and that's step 2"

    then stare at the D%/d100, and hint "hmnnn.."

    ive found big damage dice are surprisingly unreliable in critical moments, so the game balance isn't nearly as bad as you might think. There's no average roll to these dice. When you attack the big monster and need it most, you roll a 3, or an 11.. which on a d30+ is abyssmal, compared to what you might get with a 5d6 or 10d6 attack.

    Last edited by anthon; 2021-01-07 at 04:15 PM.

  15. - Top - End - #15
    Firbolg in the Playground
     
    137beth's Avatar

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    Aug 2009

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    I feel like it would be easier to come up with suggestions if we knew what system the OP was playing.

  16. - Top - End - #16
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Aug 2020

    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    Thanks to everyone for some great replies.

    The idea with using it to trigger something at x minutes appealed the most to me, but other replies were a good starting point too.

    Thanks a lot :)
    Last edited by Dominion; 2021-01-08 at 07:32 AM.

  17. - Top - End - #17
    Colossus in the Playground
     
    Segev's Avatar

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    Jan 2006
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    Default Re: Ideas to incorporate a d60

    If you want to make things more involved, use a roll-under system that has stats in the usual 3-18ish range and skills that scale up to 100. Set difficulty not by telling them they have a bonus or penalty, but by making relatively easy rolls use a d20, and increasingly difficult rolls use a d40, d60, d80, or d100. You could make it more interesting by having higher rolls be better as long as they're still equal to or under the target number determined by the stat/skill being rolled against.

    So if somebody is leaping across a chasm with no particular skill, that might be a Strength check, with the distance across the chasm represented by whether they roll a d20 (doable but hard unless you have a rather high strength), d40 (near impossible), d60 (takes super luck), etc.

    If they have the Jumping skill at 50, then a d60 would be very doable, while a d100 is as hard as a d20 is for an average (10) strength person.

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