A d12 is superior to every other dice shape. Not only is it highly composite, but it also is less likely to roll of the side of a table and feels better in the hand.
You can replace D4 with D6, but not like this. Just reroll all D6 that are 5 or 6. Your options give the advantage to D6 in the 1 and 4 option and to the D4 in the 2 and 3 option. No equal outcomes even if you factor in the average.
If you took a system that uses D4, replaced that with D6 according to my table and didn’t tell your players that the system was actually meant to be played with D4, do you really think they’d notice any imbalance? Would it affect their fun?
No, not at all. You only notice a difference if you calculate it, it won’t suddenly make your character class or weapon imbalanced.
The fact that you’ve made it impossible to roll an 8 by replacing 2d4 with 1d6+1 might impact the game just a bit. Also with 2d4 a 5 is 4x as likely (1+4, 2+3, 3+2, 4+1) as a 2 (1+1) or 8 (4+4); with 1d6+1 all outcomes from 2 to 7 are equally likely, so you’re far more likely to get a critical hit or critical miss (if the game has that sort of thing, and you adjust it for the reduced range).
Nice try... but there are too many hobby historians involved in fantasy rpg's to not know that a D4 is THE original die. Much older than that stupid cube we -even with all our modern tech- can barely bring to be really balanced and rolling well.
Couldn’t you substitute a D12 with 2 D6? Just roll the first dice remember the number and then roll the second and if the roll is even add 6? Shouldn’t that work?
What you described would work, but it's not usually what people mean when they say "2d6". 2d6, or any number of dice in an XdY format, means rolling X number of Y-sided dice and adding the results together. The specific case of 2d6 vs 1d12 comes up a lot in D&D because there are some common weapons that use those two values for their damage rolls
The d4’s where the numbers are in a cluster are too hard to read. I’ve had to swap them in most games because most players need to second guess any rolls with them.
I’m sure people prefer them in some groups and power to them, but I detest them and if a dice set doesn’t have the other default, I don’t buy em.
I only know that you read the base, not the point, because my dad had a set of dice that came with a d4 that was arranged like that. His were exceptionally hard to read, as they were yellow plastic with no paint to highlight the grooved numbers. First thing I bought at GenCon was a proper set of black dice with silver numbers.
I also prefer the point to be the number that you’re expected to read.
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