So I’ve been thinking about tabletop roleplaying games, as I often do, and found my mind wandering to the topic of dice.Many TTRPGs use dice, as we all know, but most use the “common”, 7-piece polyhedral dice sets that we all know and love. Sure, there are some that are dedicated to using only some of these dice, like “Shadowrun” using d6’s, and the “World of Darkness” games using d10’s, and “Fate” using their custom d6’s. But more often than not, you find TTRPGs using some or all of the common, 7-piece set.
But then there are the Zocci dice.
These are a 14 piece expanded dice set, that ranges the same basic range as the 7-piece set (although Zocci’s go to d30), but add in new and unusual dice such as the d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24, and so on. Basically, they give you way more options, and in my opinion, way more potential fun.
But almost no games use them.
Sure, “Dungeon Crawl Classics” and its sister-game “Mutant Crawl Classics” are built around the Zocci set, and you can easily buy Zocci dice from DCC’s publisher, Goodman Games. But there are other ways to buy Zocci sets, Goodman is just the most accessible that I have found. But that’s not really the point.
The main issue here is this: Not many other TTRPGs are built around, or even really support using Zocci dice. Yes, you can use the common seven dice that are included in a Zocci set, but the other, often way more interesting dice get left by the wayside. Sometimes I just want to roll a damn d16, or a d7, or flip a d2, and how many games are built for that?
Very, very few. Painfully few. Depressingly few.
To be fair, though, I feel the same way about Fate/FUDGE dice. Those custom d6’s are pretty damn spiffy, and while I’m a wee bit tired of “Fate”-based games, I love its dice mechanics, as well as those simple dice.
Maybe I should build a game or two around these unusual dice sets? I certainly could, if no one else will, but at the same time, I suck as a TTRPG developer. Maybe I could throw together a one-page TTRPG using Zocci and/or Fate dice? It certainly couldn’t hurt.
The world needs more TTRPGs, and more reasons to break out or simply acquire Zocci dice (Fate dice, too!).