Playing without the "stupid" dice

[Korgoth]

After quite a hiatus I am at a point where I am getting back into tabletop rpgs, and I really like what I've seen of the DCC RPG and especially the published adventures. I've got a good start to a collection of these things going.

The problem is, I really really really deeply hate the "stupid" dice... the d7, d14, d24, etc. If I have to use them I'd rather not play. Is there a way to play without them? I don't mean "just use a dice rolling app", which takes all the fun out it for me, or "roll a control die and subtract two and multiply by pi and..." . I mean just ignore their existence entirely.

How badly would just ignoring them throw things off? Could you just assign a flat bonus or malus instead? Or give advantage/disadvantage like in 5E?

Thanks in advance. Obviously, if you do like them, more power to you.

[Weisenwolf]

I like them but you don't have to do much to avoid them.

Instead of going up or down the dice chain in combat use the modifiers from the Beta rules which don't do that. Change the D14 'Sword & Board' and the D16 Halfling twin weapons thing to perhaps D12+1 (or 2) and D20-2. Subdual damage can be changed to -1 or just keep it at -1 die

For character generation you will need to assign your own number to the birth auger and equipment tables

At higher levels you will need your D14 & D16 fix again for multiple actions

The only difficult bit will be Mighty Deeds and the Thieves luck roll for which you will need to fudge something at each level but it shouldn't be too hard to use an even die and just tweak the actual deed results table upwards to reflect it. There may be others but these are the biggies

You could try using them and see how you get on. I like them so much I have found even more ways of travelling up and down the dice chain.

[finarvyn]

I caught your "can I ignore them entirely" comment, and I sympathize with your frustration. The problem is that some of the elements of the game specifically call for certain dice types. My suggestion is to come up with a simple way to know how to swap out one dice type for another. (There are other threads with suggestions on how to simulate certain dice by using other dice. This is a little different.)

Average numbers for dice types:
d3 = 1.5, d4 = 2.5, d6 = 3.5, d7 = 4.0, d8 = 4.5, d10 = 5.5, d12 = 6.5, d14 = 7.5, d16 = 8.5, d20 = 10.5, d24 = 12.5

Simply use the chart above and look to see how one die type compares to the one you want to use, then assign a +/- for it.

For example, suppose the game calls for a d14 but you only have a standard d12. A d14 rates at 7.5 and a d12 is 6.5, so a roll of d12+1 would give a similar dice average. (Okay, so the d14 goes 1-14 wile d12+1 goes from 2-13, but otherwise it'll be similar.)

Using that logic, one can construct a simple conversion whereby you can replace some dice from DCC with standard poly dice with simple +/- numbers attached. This will skew the probabilities a little, but I think this won't affect game play much.
d3 = d4-1
d7 = d6+1 or d8-1
d14 = d12+1
d16 = d20-2
d24 = d20+2

Not perfect, but maybe works if you don't like the funky dice.

[GnomeBoy]

Are 'control dice' a problem, too? Because most of the funky dice can be easily simulated.

The d7/d14 is the bugaboo.

I suppose if you're not sure what I mean by 'control dice' then, yeah, they might also be a problem...

[Korgoth]

I caught your "can I ignore them entirely" comment, and I sympathize with your frustration. The problem is that some of the elements of the game specifically call for certain dice types. My suggestion is to come up with a simple way to know how to swap out one dice type for another. (There are other threads with suggestions on how to simulate certain dice by using other dice. This is a little different.)

Average numbers for dice types:
d3 = 1.5, d4 = 2.5, d6 = 3.5, d7 = 4.0, d8 = 4.5, d10 = 5.5, d12 = 6.5, d14 = 7.5, d16 = 8.5, d20 = 10.5, d24 = 12.5

Simply use the chart above and look to see how one die type compares to the one you want to use, then assign a +/- for it.

For example, suppose the game calls for a d14 but you only have a standard d12. A d14 rates at 7.5 and a d12 is 6.5, so a roll of d12+1 would give a similar dice average. (Okay, so the d14 goes 1-14 wile d12+1 goes from 2-13, but otherwise it'll be similar.)

Using that logic, one can construct a simple conversion whereby you can replace some dice from DCC with standard poly dice with simple +/- numbers attached. This will skew the probabilities a little, but I think this won't affect game play much.
d3 = d4-1
d7 = d6+1 or d8-1
d14 = d12+1
d16 = d20-2
d24 = d20+2

Not perfect, but maybe works if you don't like the funky dice.

That's a really cool idea. I will ponder it... just might work. Thanks!

[GnomeBoy]

For the record, if anyone is tuning in and uncertain what a 'control die' is and how it works, here's a quick look at that...

So you want to generate 1-24, but you don't have a die for that. Roll a d12 and another small die, like a d4.

d4 = 1-2, read d12 results as normal

d4 = 3-4, read d12 results and add 12

This gives you the same probability as a d24. It might seem cumbersome at first, but after using it a few times it becomes second nature.


In fact, you're already doing this kind of thing when you roll percentiles.


You can get stuff like 1-30 by using a d10 and a d6 (1-2=+0, 3-4=+10, 5-6=+20).

Once it's familiar, you can generate all kinds of numbers, e.g. 1-80 barbarians in a horde, 1-120 goblins in a dungeon, 1-25 guards asleep, etc.