RPG Dice Systems: Popular TTRPGs by Dice Type

If you spend most of your time playing Dungeons & Dragons, it is easy to think every tabletop RPG begins with a d20. There is a whole lot more going on out there.

Some RPGs have you roll handfuls of d6s. Others build their entire game around d10s, percentile dice, or pairs of d12s. Some use custom dice covered in symbols, and a few skip dice completely. The dice a game uses can tell you quite a bit about how that game feels at the table.

So, if you have ever wondered which RPGs use d20s, d6s, d10s, d12s, or other dice, this guide is a good place to start. This is not every RPG ever published, but it covers many of the systems you are most likely to encounter.

Which RPG Systems Use a d20?

The d20 system is probably the most recognizable family of tabletop RPG mechanics. Most d20 games ask you to roll a twenty-sided die, add the appropriate bonuses, and compare the result against a difficulty number or another character's result. While the d20 handles many of the most important checks, these games often use the full range of polyhedral dice for things like damage, healing, Hit Dice, and random tables. That is why the traditional RPG dice set contains seven pieces: a d4, d6, d8, d10, percentile d10, d12, and d20. These classic seven-piece sets are also the style of dice we sell most often at Dice Dungeons, since one set gives you the standard lineup needed for games like Dungeons & Dragons and Pathfinder.

Dungeons & Dragons 5e

Dungeons & Dragons is the obvious place to start. Attacks, saving throws, and ability checks revolve around the d20. D&D also makes heavy use of the rest of a standard polyhedral set, with d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, and d12s showing up for damage, healing, Hit Dice, random tables, and plenty of other effects.

If you are looking for an excuse to own an entire bag full of different shapes of dice, D&D will happily provide one.

Pathfinder 2e

Pathfinder Second Edition also puts the d20 at the center of its checks. Roll a d20, add the appropriate modifiers, and compare the result to a DC. Pathfinder's four degrees of success make the exact result particularly important, since beating or missing a DC by 10 can turn an ordinary success or failure into a critical one.

Pathfinder is especially appealing to groups that enjoy tactical combat and having a lot of mechanical choices when building characters.

Starfinder

Starfinder takes the familiar d20 style of fantasy RPG and sends it into space. Expect starships, aliens, high-tech weapons, magic, and science-fiction adventuring wrapped around mechanics that will feel recognizable to players coming from Pathfinder and other d20 games.

Mutants & Masterminds

Mutants & Masterminds uses a d20-based system built for superheroes. It gives players a great deal of freedom when constructing powers, making it possible to build everything from street-level vigilantes to extremely powerful comic-book heroes.

Interestingly, Mutants & Masterminds relies more heavily on the d20 than D&D does. Even damage is generally resolved through checks rather than traditional damage-die rolls.

Which RPG Systems Use d6 Dice?

The humble six-sided die powers a huge number of RPGs, but they do not all use it the same way. One game might roll exactly two dice while another asks you to scoop up a fistful of them.

GURPS

GURPS, or the Generic Universal RolePlaying System, generally resolves skill checks by rolling 3d6 and trying to roll at or below a target number. Because three dice create a bell curve, average results happen much more frequently than extreme ones.

GURPS is designed as a toolkit rather than a single setting, so the same basic system can be adapted to fantasy, science fiction, historical games, modern adventures, and plenty more.

Shadowrun

Shadowrun combines cyberpunk technology with elves, trolls, magic, dragons, and corporate espionage. Its core mechanics use pools of d6s, with characters rolling more dice when they are better equipped or more skilled.

Shadowrun has a reputation for being mechanically dense, but there really is nothing else quite like its combination of cyberpunk and fantasy.

Blades in the Dark

Blades in the Dark uses pools of d6s for a very different style of game. Players roll several dice and normally look at the highest result. A 6 is a full success, a 4 or 5 means success with a consequence, and a 1 to 3 means things are about to get complicated.

The system is built around daring criminals pulling jobs in a haunted industrial city, with mechanics designed to keep the action moving rather than planning every detail before a score begins.

Powered by the Apocalypse Games

Many games inspired by Apocalypse World use the familiar 2d6 plus a modifier structure. Exact rules vary from game to game, but a common pattern is that high rolls succeed, middle results succeed with complications, and low rolls give the GM an opportunity to make things more interesting.

The larger Powered by the Apocalypse family includes games across fantasy, horror, superheroes, romance, post-apocalypse, and many other genres.

Traveller

Traveller is one of tabletop gaming's classic science-fiction RPGs. Its core task resolution traditionally revolves around rolling 2d6, applying modifiers, and trying to reach a target number. The system's long history has produced numerous editions, but d6s remain closely associated with Traveller.

Star Wars D6

West End Games' classic Star Wars Roleplaying Game uses stacks of six-sided dice to resolve everything from blaster fights to piloting a starship. It is an older system, but it remains influential and still has plenty of fans who love how quickly its dice pools can handle cinematic Star Wars action.

Which RPG Systems Use d10s or Percentile Dice?

A pair of ten-sided dice can also work as percentile dice, giving you results from 1 to 100. That makes the d10 particularly versatile. Some RPGs roll one d10, some roll pools of them, and others use two together as a d100. You can also skip the two-die method entirely with a true d100, a 100-sided die that gives you the percentile result in a single roll. We make d100 dice for exactly that kind of gloriously unnecessary tabletop rolling.

Call of Cthulhu

Call of Cthulhu is one of the best-known percentile RPGs. Most skills are represented as percentages, and players generally want to roll equal to or below their skill on a d100.

If your investigator has a Stealth skill of 60, for example, a roll of 60 or lower succeeds. That makes the odds very easy to understand, even if surviving whatever you just sneaked past is another matter entirely.

The game uses other polyhedral dice for things such as damage, but percentile dice are at the center of its resolution system.

World of Darkness

Games in the World of Darkness family are closely associated with pools of d10s. Your attributes, skills, and circumstances determine how many dice you roll, with the results determining how successful your character is.

Exact mechanics vary between games and editions, but grabbing a handful of d10s is an enduring part of the World of Darkness experience.

Exalted

Exalted also loves d10 dice pools, except it frequently takes the idea and turns the dial way up. Characters are mythic heroes capable of spectacular feats, and appropriately powerful characters can end up rolling impressive handfuls of dice.

Cyberpunk RED

Cyberpunk RED uses a d10 plus character statistics and skills as the foundation of many checks. If you want cybernetic mercenaries, dangerous corporations, gunfights, hacking, and life on the edge, the d10 is going to spend a lot of time in your hand.

Mothership

Mothership brings percentile mechanics into science-fiction horror. Characters roll d100 tests while dealing with stress, panic, hostile environments, and the many terrible things waiting for them in space. It is particularly well suited to tense games where avoiding danger is often smarter than trying to fight everything you encounter.

Which RPG Systems Use d12 Dice?

The d12 does not get to be the star nearly as often as the d20 or d6, which makes the games that build major mechanics around it especially interesting.

Daggerheart

Daggerheart puts two d12s at the center of its action rolls. One is the Hope die and the other is the Fear die. Players roll both, add them together with any modifiers, and also pay attention to which die rolls higher. That makes the d12 the signature die of Daggerheart, but it is not the only die you will use. The game also uses the familiar range of polyhedral dice, including d4s, d6s, d8s, d10s, and d12s for damage and other effects. So a traditional RPG dice set is still useful, with an extra d12 giving you the pair needed for your Duality Dice.

If you have been looking for an RPG that finally gives your d12 collection some serious table time, Daggerheart has answered the call.

The One Ring

The One Ring is built specifically for adventures in middle earth. Its core rolls combine a special d12 Feat Die with a number of six-sided Success Dice determined by the character's abilities.

So it is not technically a d12-only system, but the twelve-sided die has a central role in practically every important test.

Which RPGs Use Mixed or Custom Dice?

Not every game fits neatly into one bucket. Some RPGs deliberately use different die sizes to represent different levels of ability, while others replace numbered dice with custom symbols.

Savage Worlds

Savage Worlds represents traits using different dice ranging from d4 through d12. A better skill generally means rolling a larger die. Important player characters and major NPCs also roll a d6 Wild Die alongside their normal Trait Die and use the better result.

Dice can also "Ace," (explode) meaning a die that rolls its maximum result is rolled again and added to the total. The result is a fast, swingy system built for pulp action and cinematic adventures.

Genesys and Fantasy Flight Star Wars

Genesys and Fantasy Flight's Star Wars RPGs use proprietary Narrative Dice with symbols rather than ordinary numbered faces. Different positive and negative dice are assembled into a pool based on the character, difficulty, and circumstances.

The clever part is that success and complications can exist at the same time. You might successfully hack the computer but trigger an alarm, or miss your shot while accidentally creating an advantage for an ally.

Cortex Prime

Cortex Prime builds dice pools using multiple die sizes, generally ranging from d4 to d12. Traits are rated by die size, so something your character is exceptional at might contribute a larger die to the pool than something they barely know how to do.

Cortex is less a single RPG setting and more a toolkit for building different kinds of games.

Fate

Fate typically uses four Fate Dice, also known as Fudge dice. These are six-sided dice with two plus faces, two minus faces, and two blank faces. Roll all four, total the symbols, and apply that result to your character's skill.

You can technically play using ordinary d6s with an alternate method, but those little plus-and-minus dice are one of the system's most recognizable features.

Are There RPGs That Do Not Use Dice?

Absolutely. Dice are so closely associated with tabletop RPGs that it can feel strange the first time you encounter a game without them. As a company that sells a lot of dice, it is probably not in our best financial interest to tell you this, but yes.... diceless RPGs do exist. Several systems replace random rolls with cards, resources, negotiation, or direct comparisons between characters.

Amber Diceless Role-Playing

Amber Diceless Role-Playing is one of the best-known early examples. Rather than rolling to determine whether your character beats someone in a contest, characters have ranked abilities and outcomes depend heavily on those abilities, the situation, and the choices players make.

Nobilis

Nobilis is another popular diceless RPG. Characters are incredibly powerful supernatural beings, and conflicts revolve around abilities, resources, and narrative decisions instead of leaving success to random dice rolls.

Good Society

Good Society is a Jane Austen-inspired RPG focused on relationships, reputation, romance, and social maneuvering. Rather than rolling dice to see whether you succeed at a skill check, the game uses narrative permissions, tokens, cards, and collaboration to build the drama.

What Dice Do You Need for Tabletop RPGs?

That depends entirely on the game. There really is no universal "RPG die."

• D&D and Pathfinder: A standard seven-piece polyhedral set gives you a d4, d6, d8, d10, percentile d10, d12, and d20.
• Daggerheart: You will want two visually distinct d12s for your Hope and Fear dice, with other polyhedral dice used elsewhere in the game.
• GURPS: Three ordinary d6s handle most checks.
• Shadowrun and Blades in the Dark: Having a healthy pile of d6s is useful.
• Call of Cthulhu: Percentile dice are essential, with additional polyhedral dice used for damage and other rolls.
• World of Darkness and Exalted: You may want quite a few d10s.
• Genesys: The game uses its own Narrative Dice rather than a normal polyhedral set.

And, of course, nobody has ever stopped a tabletop gamer from owning considerably more dice than their current game technically requires.