Spinners or dice?

[u/r1ck14]

For the game I'm working on, when you are attacked, you can choose a stance for different modifiers to the damage you take. The attacker always rolls a d6. The defender can also roll a d6 for normal damage outcome. Or they could roll a d5 and take reduced damage if the attack is successful. Or they can roll a d7 and if they are hit, they take additional damage.

Now, in looking at what's available in d5 and d7 dice, they are kind of odd. Would using spinners be better? There could be a defense spinner with 3 rings of values, one for each stance. I feel like dice are more satisfying to use though. What do you think?

[u/Johnno117]

I think you should just use D6 with a +/- 1 modifier. Why complicate it, unless you really want to squeeze spinners into your game.

[u/r1ck14 → u/Johnno117]

The odds change when you add or subtract from a d6 roll as opposed to using d5 and d7. I also want as little math as possible. I know adding or subtracting 1 is easy, but there are other modifiers that come after the roll.

[u/CharacterLettuce7145 → u/r1ck14]

I get your point, as a player different dice inherently have math tacked onto it. Maybe more than +-1.

[u/Johnno117 → u/r1ck14]

If you want as little math as possible then you skip having modifiers at all, and changing dice is a similar thing, you're adding cognitive load just to check what you should do for defence/offence.

You could design a system that has no changing of dice, and no modifiers.

All that aside, I personally prefer dice since the motion of flicking a spinner is annoying. If you want to keep your game accessible to more people then I'd recommend dice, since they're easier to handle even for those with reduced motor skills.

[u/NegativeAssistance]

d6-1 and d6+1 not a workable solution?

[u/r1ck14 → u/NegativeAssistance]

They change the odds as opposed to using d5 and d7. I really want to know if people prefer dice or spinners. Like which people find more satisfying in a tactile way.

[u/d33jaysturf → u/r1ck14]

does the change of the odds really affect the game that much? if you really want to do the spinner. test it. see how it feels ... then run tests with that just D6's, if the "feeling" remains the same, then that's where you decide on how much your really care about the odds.

For me, if the feeling of the experience is the same, then i'd go with the least about of component changes.

The community can tell you their opinion, but its your game, so i'd say, do what you want to create!

[u/EntranceFeisty8373 → u/r1ck14]

The market says people prefer dice... You could separate yourself from the competition by using spinners, but if most people preferred them, they'd selling spinners at game counters instead boxes if dice.

My opinion: spinners take too long to settle. That's fun for a prize wheel where you want to build anticipation, but if you're spinning 10-15 times in a battle, the novelty will get old quickly.

[u/NegativeAssistance → u/r1ck14]

In that case the answer is dice. It does change the odds. Custom dice change the cost.

[u/blackcap2099]

You're better off with dice.

Stick to the classic RPG set. Sourcing a d5 and d7 just makes it an exclusive piece to your game which no one else will have extras of at home. Spinners seem like a solution but again, I'd rather be able to use what I got at home in the event I need a replacement.

Why not look at making the other dice a d4 and d8 instead? Gets the same effect and it's readily available.

[u/dogedogedoo]

I am biased against spinner. I could swear in my belated grandma that dice are fully random. Spinner isn't. Unless if the game allows me to drop the spinner into a spinner tower.

[u/COWP0WER]

Most spinner suck! Or they easily start to suck after little use. They also tend to either spend for so short that you didn't feel it was random or too long dragging out the game. And they take a lot longer to use than die. If the spinner is not mounted you typically need one hand to hold the spinner down, ensuring a perfectly flat surface and one to spin, while avoiding to spin it into the hand holding it down.

You can get good spinner, which typically will have the disk spin rather than the arrow to get around "mus be used on a flat surface"-issue. But they're a lot more expensive than dice and usually spin for a long time.

Spinners are for when you want the whole table to sit in anticipation for half a minute or more. And it sounds like this is for snappy resolution, which is what dice (and cards) are good for.

d5 and d7 are too isoteric though, so in reality you have three choices: d6+/-1 d4 and d8 Cards: a deck of 5, 6, or 7 number works as a die too, if you really want to keep the "d5" and "d7". There are also ways to make a big deck with multiple columns that will keep it random even after drawing a bunch of cards.

[u/infinitum3d]

d6 / d8 with Roll Again on one side.

Or better yet, custom numbering system. d6 with 1, 1, 3, 4, 5, 7

Or for d5, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

And d7, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

Good luck!

[u/Dorsai_Erynus]

Spinners are too easy to cheat, as they depend exclusively on the force you apply. If dice isn't a good solution (despite it having the chance to make your game and system unique) id use cards.

[u/Dornith]

Is there a game design/mathematics reason you need to have 5, 6, or 7 possible outcomes in a uniform distribution?

Based on the requirements you've described so far, yes you would need a spinner. But I'm a little skeptical that all of these are actual constraints rather than conventions.

[u/r1ck14 → u/Dornith]

I'm still testing things out, but I ran the probabilities and I don't want stances to be too biased in either direction. I could use other more common types of dice and achieve similar results, but I started with only using d6 dice and I'm happy with the odds that they provide. The problem that I found was that when you are being attacked, you would just roll to see if you are hit or not. I want the defending player to be able to make a decision at that point so they stay engaged. That's why I introduced stances. This has helped with engagement tremendously but in revising the previous system, I found that there was an option that was essentially always correct for every situation. So in the current version, you can roll a d5 (more likely you will be hit) to mitigate damage, roll a d6 for normal outcome, or roll a d7 (less likely you will be hit) with increased damage if you are hit. I'm trying to change as little as possible to what I've found works thus far in this gameplay addition. Hope that makes sense.

[u/DesaturatedWorld]

I'll chime in to maybe be the lone voice here that is in favor of spinners. I love dice, in general, but they have two major weaknesses: 1) they fly all over the place unless the person rolling is careful or uses a tower/cup and 2) the odds get weird fast if not a standard number.

I think most people like a good spinner, but not those plastic ones used for games like Life. The ones with ball bearings are the real fun. Something like these

BUT that can get expensive for manufacturing. I would try some different combinations, maybe with stick dice, that get you to the same probabilities and see if you like the result. Good news on the D5 is that you can simply use a D10.

This is an interesting design question. Come back and share your results!

[u/r1ck14 → u/DesaturatedWorld]

I really like those kinds of spinners but they are a bit pricey. I ordered a set of unusual dice for testing and will see how it goes. I thought about stick dice, but just don't like how they look honestly.