Dice facts for kids

Different types of dice

Dice are objects used in games when something random needs to be done, such as moving a game piece a random number of places on a board. Most dice are cubes that have the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 on the faces. Dice are sometimes made in other polyhedral shapes than cubes, but the six-sided die (die is the singular of "dice") is the most common. A die is usually rolled by the player’s hand. When adding together opposite sides of typical cubical dice, the sum is always 7.

Some games are played with two or more dice and some use only one. Some games that use dice are Monopoly, Yahtzee, Risk, and many more. Dice with different numbers of sides, like those used in Dungeons & Dragons, are called polyhedral dice.

Weights can be put inside a die to make it only land on a certain number once it is rolled.

Images for kids

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  Four traditional dice showing all six different sides.

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  Composite image of all sides of a 12mm (½") Roman die, found in Leicestershire, England

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  Knucklebones die, made of steatite

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  Twenty-sided serpentinite die from Ptolemaic Egypt

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  A collection of historical dice from various regions of Asia

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  Western, Asian, and casino dice

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  A typical set of roleplaying dice in various colors. They consist of the five Platonic solids, along with a ten-sided die that is also used for generating percentages.

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  Dice collection: D2, D3, D4, D5, D6, D7, D8, D9, D10, D11, D12, D13, D14, D15, D16, D17, D18, D19, D20, D22, D24, D26, D28, D30, D36, D48, D50, D60, D100.

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  A set of Fudge dice

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  A spherical die

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  Medieval People at Play, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore