![\"Twenty](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/06\/d10d20.jpg?resize=224%2C248&ssl=1\" "\\"Twenty")
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While inventorying my game collection, I opened up a recently acquired copy of Fantasy Games Unlimited’s<\/a> solitaire-friendly Star Explorer<\/a> (1982) to verify the contents.<\/p>\n Map? Check. Countersheet? Check. Log sheets and rulebook? Check. Two six-sided dice? Check. One twenty-sided d10? Um, check?<\/p>\n I’ve worked with all manner of odd polyhedron in my time, from oblong d3s (which have more than three faces) to those hundred-sided “Zocchihedrons<\/a>” that never quite stop rolling. But a twenty-sider that serves as a d10? New one by me. Silly me\u2014I’ve always used a ten-sided die for a one to ten random distribution.<\/p>\n The typical twenty-sided die, in the shape of an icosahedron, caries the numbers one through twenty, one number per face. The twenty-sider in Star Explorer carries the numbers zero through nine, each number appearing on two faces.<\/p>\n The oddity of this die required special rules for its use in Star Explorer:<\/p>\n 1.2 Game Equipment and Scale<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n 6) Dice. Two six-sided dice and one twenty-sided die are included. The twenty-sided die is labelled 0-9 twice. When a roll of 1D10 is required by the rules, players should roll the twenty-sided die, treating a roll of 0 as a roll of 10. When a roll of 1D20 is required by the rules, players should roll the twenty-sided die and a six-sided die. If the six-sided die roll is 1, 2, or 3, the twenty-sided die is read from 1 to (1)0. If the six-sided roll is 4, 5, 6, the twenty-sided roll is read from 11 to (2)0, creating a range from one to twenty. (Players also have the option of coloring in one set of numbers on the twenty-sided die with a fine point felt-tipped marker and reading the colored numbers as 11-20, while the uncolored numbers are read 1-10.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Ostensibly, providing a single twenty-sider (albeit with oddly numbered faces) to serve as both d10 and d20 proved less expensive than providing a separate d10 and d20. Indeed, SPI<\/a> stopped providing any dice at all with their games at one point in the 1970’s, blaming the “world-wide petro-chemical shortage,” but likely owing to cost [1]. Whatever FGU’s reason, this little die provides for a great bit of rules verbiage, even if I will break out my own d20 and d10 when I play Star Explorer.<\/p>\n While inventorying my game collection, I opened up a recently acquired copy of Fantasy Games Unlimited’s solitaire-friendly Star Explorer (1982) to verify the contents. Map? Check. Countersheet? Check. Log sheets and rulebook? Check. Two six-sided dice? Check. One twenty-sided d10? Um, check? I’ve worked with all manner of odd polyhedron in my time, from oblong … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[54,6],"tags":[79,80,81,82],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-role-playing-games","category-wargaming","tag-artifacts","tag-dice","tag-fgu","tag-star-explorer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pedXm-1o","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5664,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/5664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chrisbaer.net\/mp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}[1] Balkoski, Joseph. \"The Perils of Youth: The Lighter Side of SPI.\" Strategy & Tactics<\/em>: 128 (Origins 1989), 48-49.
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