Sing, Muse, of the noble dodecahedron, twelve-faced and true,
So oft neglected in the clattering chorus of polyhedral dice!
Raise now a hymn to the least loved of gaming’s solids.
Pity the poor d12! Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. The d20, that lumbering golf ball of chance, sees far more use, while even the d4, a caltrop in disguise, is remembered (if only by the soles of our feet). But the d12? Forgotten. Neglected. Dare I say underappreciated?
Yet, what a die it is! Twelve equal pentagonal faces, each meeting at broad angles. Indeed, the dodecahedron is the shape Plato associated with the heavens themselves, the cosmos rendered in acrylic or resin. According to some ancient sources, the gods used d12s when rolling for Fate. Who needs the Pythia when you’ve got precision-milled polyhedra?
Physically, the d12 may be the most satisfying die to hold. Substantial without being bulky. Perfectly symmetrical. It rolls with purpose. It doesn’t skitter like a d4 or overdo it like percentiles. The d12 knows what it’s about. It rolls once and rolls well. There’s something reassuring in that.
But what is it usually asked to do? Calculate long sword damage against large opponents. Serve as the hit die for the barbarian. It's the gaming equivalent of being called in to move a couch. Even the d10, that irregularly-shaped interloper, has muscled its way to the top of the pile, if only for percentile rolls. The d12? Banished to the edge of the table, like some exiled aristocrat.
I've done my part to rectify this injustice in Thousand Suns, where the d12 takes its rightful place at the center of the action. Why? Because it deserved better. Because it felt right. Because when I picture futuristic exploits in a sprawling interstellar empire, I don’t want to roll a pyramid or a cube. I want a Platonic solid whose geometry is touched by the divine. I want the Golden Ratio embedded in plastic.
Personally I prefer d30s because they double as improv throwing weapons if you're LARPING, ditto the d4 for its application, along with lego pieces, as highly effective caltrops. Having said that, you can stack d12s in 3D structures when bored, so there is that too. :-)
ReplyDeleteHear, hear! Truly I say the d12 is the greatest of dice. I've been known to house-rule more d12s into D&D all over the place; I roll d12 for initiative, for example. And if I ever get this game I've been working on the last few years limped to completion, the d12 featured prominently.
ReplyDeleteI love the underrated d12. I much prefer it to the bloated and omnipresent d20.
ReplyDeleteIn 4e Twilight:2000 the d12 gets use! And I think the new Daggerheart is based on rolling d12s.
ReplyDeletePlayers roll 2d12 for checks in Daggerheart and it is really satisfying.
DeleteIn all my OSR games when the scope of success is entirely random I have the players roll the d12 as the universal luck die and interpret the outcome from how high they roll. One player who rolls pretty well everywhere is else is for some reason terrible at this.
ReplyDeleteThe dodecahedron gods have spoken!
d6 are awful...rolling a cube...ok. I prefer the double d6s, which are d12s with 1-6 each on two faces. They roll!
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, they are relatively easy to carve out of a knucklebone.
DeleteHa. One of the many reasons I enjoyed early Villains and Vigilantes was that the rules make good use of every die.
ReplyDeleteFlame Powers! Ice Powers! Sonic Attack! Many are the uses of the mighty d12!
DeleteLikes d12s and V&V. Now there's a cat I can fancy.
DeleteHear, hear!
ReplyDeleteThis is why I have many 12-sided d6 and 12-sided d4 and 12-sided dF.
ReplyDeleteMy excuse is owning something like four copies of Shogun/Samurai Swords over the years and stealing the dice from most of them. I kept stumbling over cheap copies at garage sales and cannibalizing them for extra pieces (screw your "counter limits!).
DeleteI actually remember having a similar discussion with my gaming group back in the early 90's. Some things never change.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more! Our gaming group (which contains a philosophy professor and an esoteric book publisher in its ranks) tries to make the most use out of the d12 as possible. Personally, I roll it for random encounters, so it sees plenty of action.
ReplyDeleteThey're just made for determining what hour of the day (or night) an encounter happens.
DeleteI thought I was alone in my fondness for the d12. Glad to see that there are dozens of us out here.
ReplyDeleteA gross, even.
DeleteMeh. A d12 is just a d10 with the corners sawed off.
ReplyDeleteAt one time, I was playing with using 2d12 for resolution...
ReplyDeleteThe d12 sees decent action in Cold Iron with many weapons doing 1d12 (often + something). Partly this comes about from a rule than when adding +1 damage to a weapon, you bump it's die size if possible. But since only platonic solids are used (plus the interloper d10 if you really insist - most of us use a d20 that is numbered 0-9 twice), there is no die for 1d12+1, 1d12+2, or 1d12+3. 1d12+4 gets converted to 3d6 (technically 1d12+1 could be converted to 3d4 but we prefer to avoid d4s). And many weapons wind up in the 1d8 to 1d12 base range, so magic weapons with plus to damage quite often land in the 1d12 to 1d12+3 range).
I'm going to betray my fondness for D&D 4e and mention that the two-axe Dwarf ranger I ran through to epic tier was rolling six or more d12s (with assorted other dice) per attack toward the end of his career. Really had a good feel to it, I must say. Haven't had that much fun rolling big fat handfuls of dice since Champions was still on the Big blue Book (also a 4th edition, oddly enough).
ReplyDeleteHe retired as a mythological hero after driving a particularly juicy mountain home from the Elemental Chaos to his clan's prime material holdings to replace the mined-out peak his family was eking out a marginal living in/on/under. 4e had its flaws, but those endgame destinies were entertainingly over the top if you enjoy a bit of power fantasy.
Hmmm. Would Hero system be twice as good if it had been designed to use d12s instead of puny six-siders? :)
...You just argued to me that the reason that I like Traveller so much is that all its rolls relentlessly engage with the square root of two, as hard science fiction should.
ReplyDeleteThe faux RPG in the film Cloak & Dagger used d12s.
ReplyDeleteI cannot recall if the gambling temple in L1 used d20s or d12s...