![]() ![]() And the d20, with its probability spread ideal for generating ability scores, attack rolls, and saving throws, quickly became the workhorse die that drove much of the gameplay. Players loved how throwing these odd shapes added an element of randomness and chance to their experience adventuring in dungeons full of dragons and magic. When developing the original Dungeons & Dragons – and inventing the concept of tabletop RPGs – they adapted the offbeat dice from wargames to use in their fantasy game. But it took the 1970s creativity of Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson to propel the d20 from obscurity into lasting fame. This game we tried over with varying fortunes for some years before we published it.Īs wargaming proliferated through the 1900s, so did the use of polyhedral dice like the d20. ![]() Hitherto war games have been either for one person alone, one general, planning his campaign, or else have been played by a very large number of players…. The game has grown out of a small war game we contrived in the days when smokeless powder was undreamed of…and from that we developed the ammunition and shooting side until there grew under our hands a body of rules and equivalents that made what we may call a game for two players or two sides. Wells in 1913, specifically promoted the d20 as an improvement over existing systems. The first modern wargame rulebook, "Little Wars" by H.G. Not long after, the fledgling tabletop wargaming community adopted polyhedral dice like the d20 for simulating probabilistic chance in battle outcomes. In 1833, he published a taxonomy of the Kepler-Poinsot polyhedra which included the icosahedron, sparking new interest in this shape among academics. But it rolled back into popularity thanks to an English mathematician named Sir Thomas Brisbane. The icosahedron largely faded from view through the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods in Europe. ![]() But it‘s clear this shape held significance for ritual and divination centuries before becoming a gaming staple. Of course, we have no records of how the ancients actually played games with dice. ![]() The icosahedron provided a convenient and fair way to leave one‘s fate up to the gods! Scholars believe these cultures used 20-sided dice to randomly select a symbol or verse to consult for guidance, similar to drawing lots or sticks. 1800 BCE) were excavated from the ancient city of Tell Asmar and made of hematite, limestone and marble. Carved from serpentine, the faces are inscribed with Greek letters and it remains in amazing condition. The Greek letters were likely used to reference an oracle text. The Roman 20-sided die (c.2nd-4th century CE) pictured below was made of glass and discovered in the ruins of Antioch.While we now associate 20-sided dice with RPGs and gaming, some of the earliest known d20s come from ancient civilizations where they served a completely different purpose – divination and fortune telling!Īrcheologists have uncovered icosahedral dice made of materials like stone, glass, and gemstones dating back thousands of years: Ancient Twenty-Siders – For Oracles, Not Games The d20 retains the perfect icosahedral form – which is why it feels so balanced and rolls so cleanly. No wonder ancient philosophers and mathematicians were fascinated by these shapes. This efficiency and symmetry contributes to its appeal! In fact, the icosahedron maximizes the volume for surface area ratio compared to other Platonic solids. When inscribed in a sphere, each vertex touches the sphere.30 edges connect the vertices and faces.There are 12 vertices where 5 triangles meet.It has 20 identical equilateral triangle faces.Here‘s some cool mathematical properties that emerge from the icosahedron structure: There are only five such shapes that meet these criteria – the tetrahedron (4 triangle faces), cube (6 square faces), octahedron (8 triangle faces), dodecahedron (12 pentagon faces), and finally the icosahedron, with its 20 equilateral triangle faces. Platonic solids are 3D geometric shapes where each face is a regular polygon, and the same number of faces meet at each vertex. The secret behind the d20 is that its shape forms an icosahedron, one of the five perfect Platonic solids. The Geometric Elegance of the Icosahedron That‘s right…the twenty-sided die, also known as the d20.īut what exactly makes the d20 so special mathematically, why did it become the most popular RPG die, and what is the story behind its ancient origins and adoption into modern gaming? As a lifelong D&D player, I wanted to share some of the fascinating facts I‘ve picked up over the years about the icosahedral twenty-sider we know and love. As tabletop gamers, we all know the iconic dice used in Dungeons & Dragons and other RPGs – the one with 20 triangular faces that rolls and tumbles with satisfying clatter. ![]()
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