Polyhedral dice explained
Polyhedral dice are multi-sided dice used in tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. The standard set includes: D4 (tetrahedron, 4 sides), D6 (cube, 6 sides — the classic dice), D8 (octahedron, 8 sides), D10 (pentagonal trapezohedron, 10 sides), D12 (dodecahedron, 12 sides), D20 (icosahedron, 20 sides), and D100 (also called percentile dice — rolled as two D10s, one showing tens and one showing units).
Common uses in tabletop RPGs
In Dungeons & Dragons and similar RPGs: D20 is used for attack rolls, saving throws, and ability checks. D6 appears in damage rolls for weapons like daggers. D8 and D10 are used for larger weapon damage. D12 is relatively rare — used for greataxe damage and some class features. D4 appears for small weapons and some spells. D100 (or 2D10) is used for percentage chance tables.
Rolling multiple dice
Many game mechanics require rolling multiple dice simultaneously. "3D6" means roll three six-sided dice and add them up — this is used in old-school character stat generation, producing results from 3 to 18 with an average of 10.5. "2D8+4" would mean roll two D8 dice, add the results, then add 4. This roller shows each individual die result alongside the total, so you can apply any modifiers yourself.
Unicode dice faces
The six-sided die results are displayed using Unicode dice characters: ⚀ ⚁ ⚂ ⚃ ⚄ ⚅ (Unicode code points U+2680 through U+2685). These characters are part of the Miscellaneous Symbols block and are supported in all modern fonts. For other dice types (D4, D8, etc.), the numeric result is shown in a colored square, as no standard Unicode representations exist for non-cubic dice.