dice

Dice are small objects used to generate random numbers in games of chance and skill. Most are polyhedra or cubes with marked faces. The standard six-sided die (d6) is used everywhere, while many games employ other shapes known as polyhedral dice, including d4, d8, d10, d12, and d20. Face values may be numbers or symbols, and some sets include percentile dice.

Dice appear in ancient times, with finds dating to around 3000 BCE in Mesopotamia. They were used for gambling, divination, and ritual purposes across many cultures. Materials evolved from bone, wood, and stone to modern plastic.

Modern dice are typically made of plastic or resin. Casino dice are produced to precise tolerances and balanced to ensure fair outcomes. A fair die assigns equal probability to each face, assuming the shape is uniform and the throw is unbiased.

In gaming, dice introduce randomization for tasks, combat, or storytelling. The number and type of dice rolled determine success, damage, or other effects, with distributions depending on the faces of the dice used. Two six-sided dice (2d6) are used in many tabletop and casino games, while RPGs commonly rely on diverse polyhedral sets and shorthand such as d20, d12, and d10.

Ethical considerations include using safe materials and avoiding endangered resources in die manufacture.