My primary set of dice, blue with white numbers, has done me well for a few years. Except for the twenty-sided die — the main, most-used die of the set. The d20 has let me down many times. In fact, it’s become a bit of a joke among my gaming group.

That blue d20 always let me down in the most important, or dramatic, or most improbable ways. It’s especially disappointing when it lets me down in dramatic ways. Like when my paladin charged the evil wizard at the start of a combat, and the die came up a natural 1. Last game session, my war-priest used enlarge person on himself to pull out the “big guns” because we badly needed heavy damage in the fight. To hit and smash the enemy, I only needed to roll a 7 or better on the d20. What did it give me? 6, 5, 5, and then the fight was over.

I wanted to destroy this cursed die, so I set up an execution for it.

The set lined up to witness the punishment.

The convicted is covered, the hammer rises.

The sentence is carried out. Eyes are cast down.

The remainder of the set will be added to my big bag o’ dice to be used when I need them. I’ve bought a new set to be my main.

Like most gamers, I have a bunch of dice — collected over nearly 30 years of gaming. But unlike many gamers, I don’t bring them all to a game session. I just bring one set. I’ve retired many dice, but this is the first time one has driven me to carry out capital punishment. But that d20 was really damned infuriating.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

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