The dice a game asks for tell you a lot about how it plays. A single-die system like D&D lives on one big swingy d20; a dice-pool game like Shadowrun buries the swing under a fistful of d6. Before you buy, match the dice to the system — here’s the practical rundown.
What each system actually needs
| System | Dice you need | Buy first |
|---|---|---|
| D&D 5e | The full seven-dice polyhedral set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d%, d12, d20) | One set, plus a spare d20 and a handful of extra d6 |
| Pathfinder (1e & 2e) | The same full seven-dice set as D&D | One set; add spare d6 for damage-heavy builds |
| Call of Cthulhu | A polyhedral set plus percentile focus — two d10s (one as the “tens”) for d100 rolls | A percentile pair (00–90 and 0–9 d10s) |
| Shadowrun | A large pool of six-siders — you count successes, not totals | Ten or more matching d6 |
| World of Darkness / Chronicles of Darkness | A pool of ten-siders, counting successes | Ten or more matching d10 |
| Warhammer (40k, Age of Sigmar) | Lots and lots of d6 | A tub of twenty-plus d6, ideally matching |
| Fate / Fudge | Four special Fudge dice (faces marked +, blank, –) | A set of four Fudge dice |
| Genesys / Star Wars (FFG) | Proprietary narrative dice with custom symbols | The official narrative dice set (or an app) |
Single-die systems: D&D and Pathfinder
If you play D&D 5e or Pathfinder, one standard polyhedral set covers the whole game. The d20 does the heavy lifting for attacks, saves and checks; the rest handle damage and hit dice. The only reason to buy more is convenience: a second d20 for advantage, and a small pile of extra d6 so a fireball doesn’t mean rolling one die eight times. Our companion guide breaks down what every die shape is for.
Percentile systems: Call of Cthulhu
Call of Cthulhu (and other d100 games like Runequest or Delta Green) resolves skills on a roll of 1–100. You make that with two ten-sided dice: one printed in tens (00, 10, 20…) and one in units (0–9). Read them together and 00 + 0 counts as 100. A normal set includes both; if you play a lot of percentile, buy a dedicated, clearly-coloured pair so you never misread which die is which.
Dice-pool systems: Shadowrun & World of Darkness
Pool systems flip the model: instead of one die plus modifiers, you roll a handful and count how many beat a threshold. Shadowrun uses d6 (5s and 6s are hits); the Storyteller/Storytelling games behind World of Darkness use d10. Your character’s big pools can hit a dozen dice or more, so buy plenty in a single matching colour — sorting mismatched dice mid-roll gets old fast.
Bucket-of-d6 systems: Warhammer
The Games Workshop wargames — Warhammer 40,000 and Age of Sigmar — are almost entirely d6. Rolling to hit, to wound and to save can mean throwing twenty or thirty dice at once. Here quantity beats variety: get a big tub of identical six-siders, and consider a second colour to roll two things at once. Faction dice with custom pips are cosmetic, not required.
Narrative & special-dice systems: Fate and Star Wars
A few systems use dice you can’t improvise. Fate and its Fudge ancestor use four special dice whose faces read plus, minus or blank — you sum the symbols for a result from −4 to +4. Genesys and Fantasy Flight’s Star Wars RPGs use proprietary narrative dice marked with success, advantage, triumph and threat symbols instead of numbers. You either buy the official sets or use a roller built for those symbols — Dice Drop rolls numbered dice, so it is not a stand-in for either. (For Fudge you can fake it with four d6, reading 1–2 as minus, 3–4 as blank and 5–6 as plus, which gives exactly the same odds.)
What to buy first, overall
If you’re new and unsure which system you’ll settle on, start with one good full polyhedral set — it plays D&D, Pathfinder and Call of Cthulhu out of the box and covers a huge slice of the hobby. Add matching d6 or d10 pools only once you commit to a pool-based game, and treat Fudge and narrative dice as game-specific purchases. Or skip the shelf of tubs entirely: a digital roller never rolls short a d6 mid-fight, and Dice Drop carries the full polyhedral set.
Try it yourself. Dice Drop rolls real physics dice in your browser — full polyhedral sets, big d6 and d10 pools, advantage, modifiers and mixed pools built in.
🎲 Roll dice freeKeep reading: every dice type explained, d2 to d100 — including the oddities most sets never include.