Rolling a d20 with six-sided dice

We all love our polyhedral dice -- most of us have huge piles of them to prove it. Some of us love our chit sheets too. But let's face it, the six shooter will always, always be King!

Now it's pretty obvious that you can get a roll of d2 or d3 out of a six sider, and with a little imagination you can figure out how to make a roll of d36 or d66 with a pair of them.

But did you know you can also roll a fair d4, d8, d10, d12 and even a d20 with nothing more than your good ol' chance cube? As an added bonus you can roll a fair d9 and d18 too!


Genuine time waster looming...


This is all academic if you're the kind of guy who carries a d20 on your person at all times "just in case". But if you're not, and you find yourself in a house full of d6s with an urgent need to roll a d20 then this might just save you



Rolling a d4 with Six-Sided Dice

Option One:
Roll one regular six-sided die. Reroll any result of 5 or 6.

Option Two:
Take two six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of the first die {0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 2}.
Mark the faces of the second die {1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2}.
Roll and sum.



Rolling a d5 with Six-Sided Dice

Roll one regular six-sided die. Reroll any result of 6.



Rolling a d8 with Six-Sided Dice

Take three six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of the first die {0, 0, 0, 2, 2, 2}.
Mark the faces of the second die {1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 2}.
Mark the faces of the third die {0, 0, 0, 4, 4, 4}.
Roll and sum.



Rolling a d9 with Six-Sided Dice

Take two six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of one die {0, 0, 3, 3, 6, 6}.
Mark the faces of the second die {1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3}.
Roll and sum.



Rolling a d10 with Six-Sided Dice

Take two six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of one die {0, 0, 0, 5, 5, 5}.
Leave the second die as is (1 to 6).
Roll and sum, re-rolling any individual die result of 6.



Rolling a d12 with Six-Sided Dice

Take two six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of one die {0, 0, 0, 6, 6, 6}.
Leave the second die as is (1 to 6).
Roll and sum.



Rolling a d18 with Six-Sided Dice

Take two six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of one die {0, 0, 6, 6, 12, 12}.
Leave the second die as is (1 to 6).
Roll and sum.


And the "big one"...

Rolling a d20 with Six-Sided Dice

Take three six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of the first die {0, 0, 0, 10, 10, 10}.
Mark the faces of the second die {0, 0, 0, 5, 5, 5}.
Leave the third die as is (1 to 6).
Roll and sum, re-rolling any individual die result of 6.



Rolling a d36 with Six-Sided Dice

Take two six-sided dice.
Mark the faces of one die {0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30}.
Leave the second die as is (1 to 6).
Roll and sum.


So long as there are d6s you'll never lack for your freaky gamer dice