You can fit the most dice in one space if they're d4s. It's been proven by science.
   Tetrahedral dice, which have four triangular sides, pack more densely than any other shape yet tested, according to research performed by a collaboration of New York University and Virginia Tech physicists.

The revelation is the result of a series of experiments that involved pouring tetrahedral dice into containers, shaking them, and adding more dice until the containers were completely filled. After adding water to measure the open space between the dice, the researchers confirmed that the tetrahedrons fill roughly 76% of the available space in a large container. Similar experiments with spheres typically only fill containers to about 64% of the total volume.

The researchers were able to get an inside view of the packed tetrahedral dice by imaging the containers with an MRI machine. The images are vital in helping them check and refine their die packing models.

The experiment, which is reported in the May 3 issue of Physical Review Letters, confirms recent calculations predicting efficient packing. Such packing problems are related to understanding many other problems including liquids seeping through soils, the flow of granular materials like sand and gravel, dense storage of information in digital memory, and even determining the best shapes for packaging consumer products like medicine tablets and candies.

Daan Frankel of the University of Cambridge discusses the tetrahedral packing experiment and related research in a Viewpoint article appearing in the current edition of APS Physics.

Only applies to random stacking. d6s can fit more than d4s with deliberate stacking. If you have d12s in the shape of rhombic dodecahedra, they'll be as good as d6s in this respect. (They can tesselate three-dimensional space.) They seem to be pretty rare, but here's a picture of one: http://www.uff.br/cdme/pdp/pdp-html/dice-06-isohedra-rhombic-dodecahedron.jpg

But stacking dice is tiring, so I agree that dumping a bunch of d4s into a container and shaking it to minimize the wasted space is pretty neat.

D4 are the superior dice! All other dice will be ex-ter-min-a-ted!!!

I love d12. I often lament at its relative unuse in this hobby.

Quote from: Benoist;378817I love d12. I often lament at its relative unuse in this hobby.

They make good scatter dice for determine where a missed round scatters to in cases where the location a missed round goes matters, like in case of a mortar shell, artillery round, etc.

Quote from: Benoist;378817I love d12. I often lament at its relative unuse in this hobby.

Quite. One of the things I love about Savage Worlds is that you can use d12 a lot.

I think the d10 has the most elegant shape of any of the polyhedrals. Maybe d8 if it's a Gamescience.

Quote from: Benoist;378817I love d12. I often lament at its relative unuse in this hobby.

They are my favourite dice, too.

If you're out of caltrops, a handful of d4s will do nicely against barefooted targets.

Yeah but d4(s) don't really 'roll' - they just kind of land on the table or slide.

Not as satisfying as dice that actually roll - like six siders, 12 siders and 20 siders.


- Ed C.

They make alternative d4's now that are rod shaped with rounded edges that roll better than the triangular ones.

I'd have thought someone who claims to work in a game store would know about them.

http://www.gmdice.com/proddetail.php?prod=cc01404

But do they pack as densely?

Quote from: Cylonophile;378963They make alternative d4's now that are rod shaped with rounded edges that roll better than the triangular ones.

I'd have thought someone who claims to work in a game store would know about them.

http://www.gmdice.com/proddetail.php?prod=cc01404

 Those are rather nifty.

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;378967But do they pack as densely?

I'd imagine they could be dense packed if you alternated the pointy ends on facing rows so they overlapped and fit together with the points on one row meshing with the valleys between the points on the other.

But you can't use them for caltrops, which is good or bad depending on whether or not you step on one with a bare foot or arrange for someone you don't like to.

Quote from: shalvayez;378969Those are rather nifty.

What?! A post that's not a  flame on me?

All right, who are you and what have you done with the real shalyayez?

(And how much do you want not to return him?)

Quote from: shalvayez;378969Those are rather nifty.

That's what he said?
 Huh.

My store only gets primarily Chessex and Koplow's - whatever they have that sells the most.


- Ed C.