my last post on funky dice for a while

This chart is based upon the responses to question #4 in my post last Friday, asking if the weirdo dice used by DCC changed your opinion of the game. I've posted excerpts of all the results counted below the jump.  There's a little room for interpretation as to where certain responses should be counted, but I doubt the general shape of the chart would change much.

When I first heard the DCC rpg was using the oddball Zocchi dice I thought it was a stupid gimmick as well. Playing in last GaryCon's playtest/demo session and reading the beta has completely turned me around. I see several good implementations of these dice. And the idea of having to remember "Oh, yeah. I need to reroll any 8's every time I make this roll" gets my goat.  So for my birthday next week I'm getting oddly shaped pieces of plastic. (Not the first time.)

I can totally empathize with people who wince at the additional cost or the prospect of convincing their game group to buy these dice. Since I run an open game at my local gamestore if I want to run the DCC rpg I'm pretty much setting myself up to buy dice for a whole game group.  But when I think about all the money I've sunk in read-but-never-played rulebooks and used-once-for-that-one-awesome-fight miniatures over the years, my fairly meagre dice collection starts to look one of the better investments I've made in the hobby.



Q: Does the need for these funky dice change your opinion about trying the DCC rpg?

Pro new dice reponses (14 out of 60 comments)

• I like it. Given a choice between needing to buy more dice (mmmmm.... more dice) and having to buy a shedload of expensive plastic minis to be able to play the game, I'll take the dice every time.
• The funky dice add to the appeal for me, the funky dice are part of the appeal to old day D&D back in the olden days.
• Yes - for the better. I want more funky dice.
• Any excuse to buy funny new dice is always welcome. It's actually one of the few things regarding DCC that's not a turnoff for me.
• I love cool new dice, so yeah, I think it's a pretty neat idea.
• I like collecting dice so the new ones don't freek me out or put me off.
• While I have no interest in playing Dungeon Crawl Classics, thanks to the use of these uncommon dice the game is in itself not entirely uninteresting.
• New dice is honestly one of the features that most makes me consider playing DCC. I like that it uses "weird" dice more than I like a lot of the rest of it.
• I already have the dice, so it is nice to have another use for them. (Except the d7. I should get a couple of those.) If I didn't it would be an excuse to buy more dice, which is always welcome. ... As a side note - none of the people who complain about WotC's Collectible Power Cards for DnD are talking about how great these special dice are, right? Because, I find it very hard not to see them as the same thing. [Interesting comparison. I think the funky dice are more widely useable, myself.]
• I like me some odd dice. Any game that uses odd dice is more likely to get me to try it, although I'm not sure my players would ever convert.
• Discourage me? He'll, I bought them in anticipation of the DCC game!
• I like it. It seems like a fun thing to do and fun is why I play. The wonkier the dice the better.
• Piques my curiousity.
• I've been considering getting a full set for a while just for fun.

Con the new dice (27 out of 60 comments)

• It has completely eliminated all my interest in the game, which was otherwise considerable.
• Somewhat annoyed; they're easy enough to simulate with regular dice, so I wouldn't buy them even if I intended to play DCC, but I really don't see what they add. They're funky for the sake of being funky, not because play goes any differently rolling a d7 instead of a d8-1.
• It's just another point of friction keeping me from wanting to play this. Me getting the dice is a small issue (although I really do dislike GS dice in general). Getting the rest of my group to invest in expensive dice they wont use in another game - damn near impossible. [Emphasis mine, this is my only concern.]
• Absolutely hate the idea of them being in the game. Just feels way too "look at us, using nonstandard dice!"
• Hadn't planned on buying DCC, but this fiddly dice thing makes me worry about it being "different for the sake of different", rather than "different because it needs to be".
• I can appreciate a game publisher trying to reinvent the wheel, but this just seems to be a marketing tool to me
• The tables themselves put me off, but the usage of these dice bugs the heck out of me.
• I doubt I would buy new dice just to play DCC.
• the requirement for these ridiculous dice has absolutely killed any possibility of me and my gaming group playing this game. The funky dice bring absolutely nothing to the game... and to me seem to be a verty thinly disguised under the table handshake between Goodman and Zocchi to drum up some demand for what are certainly the poorest selling dice on the planet
• I guess it does, although confessing that makes me feel like an old geezer since when I started out a d8 was pretty damned strange!
• It makes me slightly less to try it on my own. I'm not going to invest in a bunch of new kinds of dice to play a fantasy roleplaying game when I already have a bajillion fantasy roleplaying games at my fingertips.
• I really hate hardwiring them in as much as I disliked having to hunt down and use funny dice in 1980.
• It makes me wonder about the design decisions made. Okay, maybe a d3 is easier than explaining to a newbie how to get that result from a d6, but a d7? Why would a d6 or d8 not work in that situation?
• To be honest, yes. I really don't like the d5 and d7, as they seem clunky and ugly.
• The funky dice aren't, by themselves, a reason not to play the game, but they certainly do dampen my interest. I too get a 'gimmicky' feel from them
• It depends on if they actually require a dice with that many sides or you can fudge it by using dice with a more stable number of sides. The d5 I have is nice and all but its considerably biased so I would rather just use a d10 with 1-5 being that and 6-10 being the result minus five. [The Zocchi d5 does kinda creep me out.]
• I like funky dice (as a glance at my bag would show), but it is a major road block for me because it is for the rest of my group. I doubt they would be willing to get dice for just one game, and the workarounds are just clunky enough that I don't think they'd go over well either.
• Yes. In fact I'm surprised. I'd be a hundred times more interested in a D&D that used only d20 and d6 (or, even better, only d6) than one that adds yet another type of die. [Lord Kilgore should be playing pre-Supplement OD&D!]
• The fact that DCC requires their use is a turnoff for me. It seems like another gimmick in a game full of gimmicky-seeming content.
• I am very mildly curious about the game... but not nearly enough to actually spend money on it... not when it has a built in 30 dollar price increase (for the dice) bult in !!
• It instantly turned off my excitement for the game. It made me feel like the developer gave me the finger requiring me to purchase arcane dice only made by one manufacturer.
• Absolutely - it puts me right off. Fudge dice were annoying enough, but at least I have them now, and they can be used for multiple games.
• Any current roleplayers probably has a standard set of polyhedral dice.. in my case I have several sets – and I am not interested in spending so much as one more dollar buying new dice – that are required to to play just ONE of the 20+ rpgs I already own.
• This taints my view of what is otherwise an interesting system. It seems like a gimmicky way to sell new dice to people who already have hundreds of dice.
• Removes some interest but the ridiculous 0 level 3d6 in order bit is far FAR worse. Its also the reason "new era" gamers are utterly tearing this game apart.
• They changed my interest level in DCC from "quite high" to "none"
• with a single design decision goodman switched my group from: "WOW !! ... to "Meh....

Don't really care one way or the other (19 out of 60 comments)

• No effect either way -- not much interest to begin with.
• They haven't affected my opinion one way or the other, since having to buy funny dice to play an RPG is something I've been doing for more than 30 years.
• Not even a little. My interest is still exactly zero.
• As it is if the final rules (I read the beta) were a free download, or nearly so, I might get them to read but not play. That's the most I would do with the game at this point, weird dice not withstanding.
• Nope.
• Nope
• Nope
• Not significantly.
• Not really; everything except d7/d14 is easy to generate using dice I do have, and I can always expand some tables with one or two entries to get rid of those dice if I want.
• No real effect.
• I'd just use the next higher dice and reroll any results out of range.
• No.
• Although they're not platonic, I don't see them as being more "funky" than a d4 or d20. So... no. It wouldn't.
• Nope. I've been buying funky dice for over thirty years. Why change that now?
• Need? Whatever, proly just house rule them away. d7is just d8 rerolling 8 no big deal.
• no effect on opinion of the game
• no, no big problem in using other dice
• After reading the beta I pre-ordered DCC. All the nerd rage over dice is highlarious.
• Funky dice aren't really an obstacle for this old nerd.