Average Dice; who, what, why?

[Big Mike]

Do you ever use Average Dice?
Why or why not?
Can you use a combination of standard D6 to get the same result ?
Mike

[Norm]

My favourite dice mechanic, seems rather old school and not used much these days, though I note Keith Flint's new Shadow of the Eagles (Napoleonic rules) rules uses 2 average dice to randomly determine retreat after failed combat.

[martin goddard]

I still have some average dice but the numbers have all rubbed off.

For clarification.
The usual interpretation of average dice is
2,3,3,4,4,5  instead of 1,2,3,4,5,6.
The idea is to get rid of the 1 and 6 extremes and replace them with more central values of 3 and 4.
A better term might be "centralising dice"?

For RFCM work multiple dice are always used to centralise the results.
Single dice rolls are used for unimportant matters or ones where a purely random result is wanted.

The main problem (as i see it) with average dice is having to find them and clearly differentiate them from any other dice.

A big "no" from me.

If players really insist on using 1D6 to create a centralised result then allow a re-roll.
The results will still be all over the place but more centralised, as scores of 1,2,3 will often be re-rolled. This would centralise the scores around 4 with 1,2 being rarer results.

Just thoughts offered up.

martin

[John Watson]

A long, long time ago I used WRG ancient rules. These used average dice for regular troops and d6 for irregular troops. This resulted in regular troops being more reliable but less spectacular than irregulars. Vikings berserkers would use d6. Roman legionaries would use average dice.
d6 would have spots to denote the number scored. Average dice would have the number written on it. That was how you knew which was which. The fun was that you had one die foe a "plus" score and one for a "minus" score. So old timers, like me, would paint a short dash in front of the number on one dice so you knew which average die was which.
John

[Leman (Andy)]

I still use them in Honours of War, Seven Years War, rules, where they seem to work well. They are used to avoid extremes without using the bucket of dice approach in the shooting and melee phases. Elsewhere D6 are used.

[martin goddard]

Salute produced their own average type dice as a giveaway at one salute.
1,1,3,4,6,6  i believe.
Probably more wild than average.


martin

[Leman (Andy)]

Tears and laughter dice seems an appropriate name for those.

[Moggy]

Damm, I wondered why I got used to having poor dice. Just checked and 1,1,1,2,2,2.



Derek

[steve_holmes_11]

I remember making my first set of average dice form D6 out of some Waddington's game.

Add 2 dots to the 1 to create a three.
Block out 2 dots on the six to create a four.

Of course they were easily muddled with D6s until I put them in a special matchbox.

[Colonel Kilgore]

An alternative is to use a normal D6 and count a 1 as a 3 and a 6 as a 4. That surely won't confused anyone?

Simon

[Sean Clark]

I Have a very old set of WW1 Dogfighfing rules called Paragon I think. They're the only rules I own that need Av. Dice. As a one off that suits me fine.

[Lluis of Minairons]

I still have a handful of these (from two different makers), of no use from a long since - and I deeply miss them!

Those I have cannot be mistaken by regular D6 dice, in spite of their common six sided shape; because of showing green and/or red numbers, rather than black or white.

[Leslie BT]

Have some in my dice box, an old set were from Salute when they were given out one year.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Mine have red or green written numbers (as opposed to dots) on white faces, so are easy to distinguish from D6s.

Simon

[Panzer21]

A long, long time ago I used WRG ancient rules. These used average dice for regular troops and d6 for irregular troops. This resulted in regular troops being more reliable but less spectacular than irregulars. Vikings berserkers would use d6. Roman legionaries would use average dice.
d6 would have spots to denote the number scored. Average dice would have the number written on it. That was how you knew which was which. The fun was that you had one die foe a "plus" score and one for a "minus" score. So old timers, like me, would paint a short dash in front of the number on one dice so you knew which average die was which.
John

As a WRG ancients player I had my average dice in red and green (red for negative). The scenario you describe was fine up to 6th edition; I remember the criteria for becoming "impetuous" ( which gave a significant combat bonus) was made easier (more likely) for "B" class troops.
The usual scenario became raving frothing at the mouth Roman legionaries impetuosly charging nervous cringing Gauls......
Neil