The most common dice you’ll be using in “Gods & Monsters” are the “d20” and the “d6”. You’ll use the “d20” on its own. This is a die with twenty sides, ranging from “1” to “20”.The most common dice you’ll be using in “Gods & Monsters” are the “d20” and the “d6”. You’ll use the “d20” on its own. This is a die with twenty sides, ranging from “1” to “20”.
You’ll usually use more than one “d6” and add them together. If you see the term “3d6”, this means to roll three six-sided dice. Unless the rules say otherwise, you’ll add those three dice together. If you roll a “3”, a “6”, and a “5”, this is a “14”.
You will also use four-sided dice (“d4”), eight-sided dice (“d8”), ten-sided dice (“d10”), and twelve-sided dice (“d12”), usually for things like survival points and weapon damage. You might see “2d4” for rolling two four-sided dice and adding them together, or “1d8” for rolling one eight-sided die. For all dice except d4, you read the top number (just as you do on a d6). The d4 doesn’t have a top number, so you read the bottom number, which is usually printed along the sides.
Adventure Guides will sometimes use a “d100”. It is unlikely that you have a hundred-sided die. You’ll generate a number from 1 to 100 by rolling two ten-sided dice of different colors or sizes. One of the dice will be the “tens” die, and the other will be the “ones” die. If you roll a “1” and a “9”, this is “19”. If you roll a “4” and a “2”, this is “42”. If you roll two zeroes, this is “100”. Most of the time when you are rolling d100, you are checking a percentage. So if something happens 65% of the time and you roll less than or equal to 65, this something has happened. If you roll 66 or greater, this something has not happened.
Go to http://www.godsmonsters.com/Game/Dice/ for an interactive demonstration of what these dice look like and how to read them.