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The cover of The Book of Dice: a blue dragon over a mountain pass

Iron Code Studios · PDF

The Book of Dice

107 pages on the objects that run the game: where the shapes come from, how the table talks, every way to roll and what each one means.

$19
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  • 107 pages, DRM-free. Yours to print, to keep, to read on anything.
  • The book grows. The Book of Worlds is next. Every chapter we ever add reaches you at no charge.

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Set like the books on your shelf

Part dividers, drop caps, tables where you expect them, and art that belongs to the chapter it opens. These pages come from the free preview.

“Dice inject uncertainty. Uncertainty creates stakes.”The Book of Dice, epigraph

Inside

Every chapter

  1. The Table Is Set

    Cold open

    • The Fight
    • Getting Started: A Beginner’s On-Ramp
  2. Part I — The Object

    Where the shapes come from

    • The Dice: Nine Solids and What They Are For
    • The Five Solids
    • The Geometry of Dice
    • The Geometry of Weird-Shaped Dice
  3. Part II — The Language

    How the table talks

    • The Tongue of Dice
    • A Field Guide to Dice Superstitions
  4. Part III — The Rolling

    Every way to throw

    • Best Ways to Roll Ability Scores
    • The Dice Notation Guide
    • Advantage & Disadvantage
    • Dice Rolls: Player vs Dungeon Master
    • Ten Presets Worth Saving
  5. Part IV — The Hobby

    The editions and the rivals

    • The Virtues of Every Edition
    • Pathfinder 2e vs D&D 5e
    • The Alternatives, Compared
  6. Part V — The People

    Why we keep coming back

    • Why D&D Heals: The Psychology of Play
    • The Five Stages of Character Death
    • Why Tables Feel Safe: The Micro-Rituals
    • Description in Three Senses
    • The Meaning of Dice
    • Initiative Is Tempo, Not Order
    • In Defence of Rules Lawyers
  7. Appendices

    The directory and what comes next

    • A — The Directory: sixty-nine hand-checked RPG sites
    • B — Build Your Own World
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From the Blog

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