Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Dice as characters

So, this is the result of a pretty random train of thought that started when I was thinking about how closely linked certain dice were to certain character classes in D&D and Pathfinder. This led to the desire to draw some very silly things.


D12s The Dice of Rage: D12s are big, chunky dice for big, chunky heroes. They give the barbarian their Hit Dice and damage from their trusty greataxes (barbarians who don't use greataxes are really just grumpy fighters). Like the barbarian the d12 is an outsider, rarely used and only barely tolerated in civilized dice bags. 





D10s The Warrior Dice: Lean, mean and pointy. No dice epitomizes the fighter class better. It gives them their hit points and decorates the damage section when they wield their shiny bastard swords and waraxes alongside their shields. 







D8's The Dice of the Faithful: Although everyone likes the d8 it really shines in the hands of divine classes, those who spend their time contemplating the mysteries of ∞. clerics use the d8 for their hit points while both clerics and paladins use it for the majority of their healing and damage spells, and their trusty heavy maces and longswords. The d8 is also the die of nature. Druids use it almost as often as clerics while rangers use their longbows to pepper their enemies with d8s. Both also use it to give their animal companions their Hit Dice. 
 







D6's The Dice of Secrets: No other dice is so involved in mysterious hidden worlds as the d6. In the mundane world it is a sneaky bastard: working alongside rogues to give them their hit points and take away those of their enemies with trusty short-swords and sneak attacks. In the world of the mystical the d6 is even more powerful. Wizards would hardly be seen dead without a trusty quarterstaff and their spells usually involve several handfuls of them at once!




D20's The Party Dice: Everyone loves the d20. From attack rolls to skill checks to saving throws the d20 is always there for you. However, if there's one class that the d20 loves best it's the Bard. The bard may flirt wildly with every other dice out there (except the d12, ugh) but in the end they always come crawling back to the d20. Not only do they use the d20 for their many, many skill checks but their primary use in the party is to make the d20 work well with everyone else.




The Humble D4: The d4 sees little use for anyone other than the commoner for both hit points and the damage of their puny slings and daggers. Sure, some adventurers flirt with the d4 in their lower levels but as time goes on they move away towards mightier dice, leaving the d4 to go back to working the fields. 






The Dread D3: The d3 is a dice that Was Never Meant To Be. A horrific, non-euclidean sin against proper geometry the d3 has no place in any proper game. However it somehow manages to always creep its way in to the dark corners and shadowy edges of the rules. Beware the d3 for it plots against all higher dice values waiting till the stars are right and it can finally break into our realm. If one day you find a d3 in your dice bag you will know true madness. 








The Divine d100: If any one die can truly represent the power of the Game Master it is the d100. Wandering monsters and treasure hordes all bow before it's mighty roll. With the right table the d100 can be used to create anything: monsters, cities, countries...even entire worlds. This is truly the dice of creation itself!












Very silly. However, the longer I worked on this stuff the more it began to inspire me in very odd ways. I don't know if I'm fully in my right mind at the moment but I have conceived of perhaps the most generic role-playing game ever: DICE the RPG! Your class is your die type, representing not only combat effectiveness but also your hit points. You may call it mad, but I say it is genius! I shall create this game and no one will stop me!

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