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- brainwipeMet him at GenCon UK in the 1990s. His Doc-From-Back-To-The-Future energy was absolutely mesmeric. He had five towers of D10s in a plastic tubes. Three towers was the standard dice we all had in our bags and two were towers of his Game Science d10s. The standard dice towers all had different heights but the two game science towers were identical heights. He explained that for the regular dice, the smoothing process (which made them nice to hold!) changed the shape enough that they weren't regular sized anymore. The Game Science dice weren't smooth (sharp edged) and so they kept their shape. Of course, if you want a die to roll fairly, it needs to be a regular shape.I bought a Zocchihedron cos we were playing a game that used percentages (Icar RPG) but rolling it was hilariously haphazard as it was essentially a ball! Loved it tho. I later received the game science dice set as a gift, which I still have. Sadly little time to play these days.
- guyzeroMore than just the d100 he was a pioneer of being very exacting when it came to making polyhedral dice. See http://www.1000d4.com/2013/02/14/how-true-are-your-d20s/
- oh_noSo I think this article is a bit misleading, he did not invent the polyhedral dice, he just made them better. "He was the first to create polyhedral dice for the U.S. market" is a weird sentence, I'm not sure what it's going for, but I think it's referring to the fact that early D&D dice were I believe imported, but I forget the details.One bit I love from the early history of Gamescience is he didn't have the capital to make a full D&D set off the bat, so he'd get one dice mold made, release that one, then take the profits to make the next mold. Forget which was first but I think the d4 was early.
- tgroverThe amount of games that use those kinds of dice make his contribution to tabletop gaming incommensurable. Sad to see him passing. But 91 yo is more than respectable
- sd9It had never occurred to me that somebody needed to invent polyhedral dice. There must be so many inventions in the world that I’m completely unaware that there was a point in time before which something didn’t exist and after that it did, thanks to somebody.
- YeGoblynQueenne>> By far, his most significant contributions to the games industry came in the realm of dice design. Zocchi founded Gamescience in 1974. He was the first to create polyhedral dice for the U.S. market, and is credited with designing the D3, D5, D14, D24, and D100. The D100 was named the "Zocchihedron" in his honor (see "Have A Nice Day!").And I happen to own at least one of each of those specialist dice. And many more still. I think I have a die with faces for most even numbers from 2 to 100 and also some of the odd ones too.OK now you all know I'm a nerd.
- praptakThe internet reports that D100 is impractical to use but it's cool if your game design calls for a relatively rare "ritual value".
- 01HNNWZ0MV43FFhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZocchihedronI didn't see a picture of Zocchi's d100, Wikipedia has one
- pavlovHere I was thinking he invented throwing two d10 where the other one is marked with tens.Somebody had to invent that too, right?
- pcbluesI just throw 17d6 and subtract 2.Problem solved.(I am joking!)
- benj111I've never played any games that require this, but the Wikipedia page makes reference to percentage rolls, but wouldn't you need 101 sides to get 0% and 100% for that?
- G_o_DThe study of imperfection in dice that makes them settle on certain favoured numbers by Louis, helps clear superstitious story of Mahabharata whereby the character named Shakuni, had dice made of his dead father's ashes who/which always respects/fall on numbers he desired,threby winning/cheating in game of Chaupad, that ultimately lead to biggest war in human history