this post was submitted on 02 Nov 2024
166 points (99.4% liked)
RPGMemes
10271 readers
249 users here now
Humor, jokes, memes about TTRPGs
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
This is honestly a legit die imo. I assume those balls are pretty well balanced.
I think the D120 is the maximum possible isohedral (geometrically symmetric) fair die. A golf ball is probably pretty close to fair, though number 327 seems like it might be more difficult to balance than 12, 20, 30, or 60.
A D326 with one face a reroll.
We have dice from them, the funny shaped dice are great to look at, terrible to stack
I'm just seeing a pattern here, but shouldn't you be able to go to 240? I mean, it'd have to be a big fuckin' die, but it seems like it should work.
Not really. The faces of the D120 are already asymmetric (scalene) triangles. There's no way to split these into additional faces while keeping them all the same shape.
Any larger geometrically fair die would have to be from an infinite family (prisms, bipyramids, and trapezohedra), which are "impractical in reality due to the tendency to roll for a long time".
A tendency to roll for a long time would be true for any many-sided die, no? I can't imagine the 120 stopping quickly either.
Yes, but since faces are essentially distributed over a cylinder, rather than a sphere, it is more of an issue.
Ah yeah, that's a good point
Figuring out which number is up is PITA though.
Even worse: with an odd number of sides, there are cases where none is up.
uhhh you can see there are gaps between some faces and there arent on others, so it really isnt well balanced
edit: i somehow typed f`ces
Oh yeah u right, i didnt even look that close. I just assumed nobody would create such an asymmetrical atrocity. I can never look at golf balls the same. Not that i do ever look at them.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f0/Two_similar_icosahedron_golf_ball_designs.jpg/440px-Two_similar_icosahedron_golf_ball_designs.jpg
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golf_ball
But as long as all the faces are the same size, and the die never lands on the gaps (or is rerolled if it does), would that be a fair die?
Unless some numbers are opposite of a gap, then it could never land with that number facing up.
Each side needs an opposing flat part, and I don't think that can happen with a die with an odd number of sides.
This is more of a spin down or a counting die than something you would roll