How Do You Roll?

How do you roll?

“The battle was desperate and it all came down to his one moment. The fate of the entire kingdom rested on him. Journe, the once shy and simple peasant boy, who often got himself into mischief, began to feel the immense weight of his burden bear heavily down upon him. He felt the hopelessness in the eyes of those more experienced in his party, as they could only watch in agony at the impossibility of his task. But Journe  was always an impetuous one. He smiled and took a deep breath. He brushed off all his doubts, his hesitation and with one last determined push, let his arrow loose….”

A photograph of the Vettweiss-Froitzheim
Dice Tower. Roman, fourth century AD.
(Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn)

Table-top RPG gamers that play D&D (or similar) are very familiar with the excitement, fear, exhilaration of success or agony of defeat exemplified in the scenario above. “Journe” is a player character whose next move will determine the outcome of the entire adventure. But who determines in this story the outcome of actions? You probably guessed it, its the dice. Our beloved polyhydrons determine in a large part whether Journe was able to save the day with that one desperate arrow or if the entire kingdom is swallowed up into eternal darkness. Every time a die is cast so is fate. Because so much rests on the results many table-top role players have developed their own unique ways to roll. Each one attempting to sway fate in the manner of which they cast. I’m going to demonstrate how I roll a dice and other styles I’ve seen others cast them. 

Have you every used a dice tower? Well prior to writing this article I had no idea what it was. Apparently it is gadget that has been around since the fourth century. It was used by the Romans to roll dice with the intention to maximize dice rotation and minimize cheating. An example of this is the Vettweiss-Froitzheim Dice Tower. Many table-top gamers use dice towers today. 

                                                What about you? Watch: How Do You Roll?