Dice Rolling Convention

Ooh, yes. Lots! The d12 is just a wonderful Platonic solid for all sorts of reasons. Twelve, you see, is an really excellent number for doing maths in and, coincidentally, an excellent number for playing wargames in. We tend to play in inches, after all, and there are twelve in a foot, which is why we tend to see things like 12" deployment zones and fractions of 12", like 6", 4" and 3" used widely in games.

In the shooting mechanics, we roll a lot of d12s and add them up to see if we hit our target. With a d6, we'd have to roll twice as many, which would be more time-consuming and untidy, plus we'd have to have a F stat twice as large as the other stats unless we were going to roll a number of d6s equal to twice our F, which is untidy (and always means rolling an even number of d6s, which is dull). It also works for the Defence Roll, which involves matching values against the opponent's dice. Matching the result of a d6 is, of course, one sixth odds, which makes it too easy/common. But one twelfth odds works much better - especially when rolling multiple Defence dice against multiple F dice.

The other advantage with a d12 is, because of its easy fractioning to half, quarter, and thirds, it can accommodate a range of other differential spreads. So if I had thought there was a need for a d6 distribution in the game (I didn't as it happened, but I have in other designs) you could still use a d12. Same for a d4 or a d3 or a d2 for that matter.

Others have asked "why not a d8 or d10 or even a d20, like Infinity?" Well, I love all of those dice, too, and own many. But the d12 also possesses a legibility that can only be beaten by the d6. The result number is both uppermost and central; and the pentagonal faces provide a good-sized space for a nice, clear, legible number.

d12s are, in many ways, the perfect wargaming dice. I'm surprised more games don't make more extensive use of them.