Dice Roller

This online dice roller is the ultimate digital alternative to physical dice. Whether you are playing a tabletop board game, placing a friendly bet, or just need a random number generator for fun, a virtual dice roller provides you with 100% randomly generated results in seconds. As a bonus, you can select the exact number of dice you want to roll.

If rolling a standard six-sided die isn't enough, our secondary tool allows you to customize the number of sides on your dice. The possibilities are truly endless, providing limitless potential outcomes for every roll.

Dice in the ancient world

A die is one of the oldest gaming implements known to humanity. In ancient times, people primarily used dice for divination and religious rituals. Only later did playing dice evolve into a popular pastime.

Ancient civilizations believed that the gods determined the outcome of a game by guiding the toss of dice and similar objects. The Romans believed Fortuna, the goddess of luck and daughter of Jupiter, oversaw every dice throw. Similarly, in ancient India, the gods Shiva and Parvati were revered as the lords of fortune.

People often relied on dice to settle serious matters, such as dividing inheritances, distributing land, or even claiming the throne. Dice rolls were also used to predict the success of an upcoming harvest or military campaign.

The exact origins of the first dice remain a mystery, though several theories exist. One legend claims they were invented by the Greek hero Palamedes during the 10-year siege of Troy. Others suggest dice originated in the ancient kingdom of Lydia during King Atys's reign, where gambling helped distract the populace from a severe famine.

Archaeological findings reveal that dice appeared independently across multiple cultures, meaning there is no single source or invention date.

In the early 2000s, Iranian archaeologists in Shahr-e Sukhteh unearthed the oldest dice ever discovered. Research dates these dice back roughly 5,200 years. Remarkably, they are virtually identical to the modern standard, featuring the same six-sided cubic shape and pip markings.

Ancient dice have also been found in Egyptian and Sumerian tombs. These, however, were two-sided flat sticks that offered only two possible outcomes per toss. The Egyptians used four of these two-sided sticks—often painted on one side and called "fingers"—to play the ancient game Senet. While six-sided cubic dice did exist in ancient Egypt, they were strictly reserved for cult and religious rituals rather than games. Senet was played from before 3000 B.C. until the second century A.D.

Today, two-sided dice are classified as D2s, serving as a binary alternative to the vastly more popular six-sided D6. We still regularly use the modern equivalent of a D2 whenever we flip a coin.

Coin toss games were practiced across many ancient cultures. The Romans played a game called Heads or Ships (Capita Aut Navia). It earned this name because Roman coins featured the heads of gods or emperors on one side and ships on the reverse.

The rules of ancient coin games differed slightly from ours today. Instead of guessing the winning side, one player represented the "head." Because the emperor's face was on the "head" side, it was assumed the emperor agreed with whoever won. The player stuck with the "ship" side inevitably lost if the coin landed on heads.

Later on, four-sided dice entered the gaming world. They were introduced by the nomadic Hyksos tribes, who invaded Egypt from Mesopotamia around the 18th and 16th centuries B.C. These tetrahedral dice quickly integrated into the era's gaming culture. In Egypt, where two-sided sticks and boards were already used for Senet, players began adding playing fields to the back of their boards for Tiau, a new game utilizing four-sided dice.

The Greeks and Romans enthusiastically adopted dice for both religious rituals and games.

Two types of dice were popular in ancient Greece and Rome: tali and tesserae. The tetrahedral tali resembled oblong sticks with four elongated faces marked with the numbers 1, 3, 4, and 6. The tesserae looked much like our modern six-sided dice. Both tali and tesserae were shaken and thrown from a special cup or bowl called a fritillus, pyrgus, or turricula.

The game of tali was played with four dice. A player achieved the best possible score when each die showed a different number. The game of tesserae utilized three dice, and the ultimate winning roll was three sixes. The Greeks, on the other hand, typically played with only two dice.

As Alexander the Great expanded his empire, six-sided dice gained widespread popularity across Asia and India. In the ancient Indian chess-like game Chaturaji, a roll of a tetrahedral die determined which piece a player could move.

Interestingly, tetrahedral dice remained in use in Northern Europe until the mid-20th century for traditional games like Daldøs and Sáhkku.

Meanwhile, the classic six-sided cube became the undeniable favorite in Greece and Rome. These ancient cubes were crafted from various materials, including bone, bronze, agate, crystal, onyx, alabaster, marble, and amber. Their design was almost identical to the standard dice we use today.

Dice prohibitions and prejudices

Over time, the Romans developed a fierce passion for gambling. This obsession became such a powerful addiction for some citizens that it led to strict gambling bans. The first of these laws dates back to the 3rd century B.C., decreeing that only night guards were legally allowed to play to help them stay awake during their shifts.

One strict law stated that anyone who allowed gambling in their home could not sue if they were cheated, robbed, or assaulted during a game. The overarching ban on gambling in Rome was only temporarily lifted during Saturnalia, the annual December agricultural festival.

Horace, a celebrated poet from the "golden age" of Roman literature, famously ridiculed the young men of his era for wasting their time playing dice instead of practicing horseback riding.

Centuries later, the Catholic Church strictly forbade dice games until the end of the 14th century. In early Christianity, dice were closely associated with the humiliation of Christ. The Gospels recount how Roman soldiers cast lots (played dice) for Jesus's garments after his crucifixion.

The most spectacular instances of dice failure

Despite various bans, dice remained irresistibly addictive to those prone to gambling. They drained fortunes and forced some players to lose the shirts off their backs. Famously, King Henry VIII of England lost the iconic bells of St. Paul's Cathedral during a high-stakes dice game.

To justify his reckless wager, the king attempted to devalue the bells, declaring them to be nothing more than worthless pieces of metal. Sir Miles Partridge was the man who won the bells from the king. However, shortly after claiming his prize, King Henry VIII convicted Sir Miles of treason and ordered him to be publicly hanged.

King Henry VII of England banned his army from gambling, hoping they would focus entirely on recapturing territories in France. Curiously, he didn't extend the same strictness to London bookmakers, as he worked closely with them to place his own private bets.

One of the most fascinating dice games in history took place in the 11th century between King Olaf II of Norway and King Olof of Sweden. The two monarchs were deadlocked over who would claim the disputed island of Hisingen. When peaceful negotiations reached an impasse, they agreed to settle the matter with a dice roll.

The Swedish and Norwegian kings played a simple game of "High/Low." The rules are simple: players roll two or three dice, and the highest total wins the pot.

The Swedish king rolled two sixes and confidently assumed he had won. Then, the Norwegian king, Olaf, threw his dice with such immense force that one of the cubes cracked in half. The broken pieces of the die displayed both a 1 and a 6, resulting in an unprecedented total of 13 points on just two dice. Everyone present recognized this miraculous roll as a definitive victory, and the island of Hisingen was officially awarded to Norway.

Another legendary instance of a disastrous dice loss is detailed in the ancient Indian epic, the Mahabharata. One chapter describes a high-stakes dice game between King Yudhishthira and the antagonist Shakuni. According to the lore, Shakuni's nephew, Duryodhana, visited the beautiful city of Hastinapur, where King Yudhishthira's wife, Draupadi, mocked him for his clumsiness. Enraged, Shakuni vowed to avenge his nephew. The myth claims Shakuni crafted his dice from his own father's thigh bones, enchanting them to always land on the exact numbers he desired.

After a series of rigged games, King Yudhishthira lost everything—his wealth, his kingdom, his brothers, and finally his wife, Draupadi. As part of the game's brutal terms, the king and his subjects were forced into a 12-year forest exile.

Historical dice games

At their core, most dice games boil down to a simple premise: a player attempts to roll a specific target number or combination. If successful, they score points and continue rolling; if not, their turn passes to the opponent. In the Middle Ages, this principle fueled numerous popular games—such as Landsknecht and Pig—which were played by everyone from knights and guards to students, beggars, and even prison inmates.

In Germany, the game Glückshaus (House of Fortune) was incredibly popular. Five or six players could gather around a special wooden board and roll two six-sided dice. If a roll landed on an empty field, the player had to place a coin there. If the field already held a coin, the player won it. The board featured unique rules for specific spaces. The seventh field was called the "Wedding," and anyone who landed there had to deposit a coin. If a player rolled a two (the "Lucky Pig"), they collected coins from every field except the Wedding. Rolling a four meant paying a coin to the tavern or board owner. Finally, if a player rolled a 12 (the "King"), they claimed every coin on the board.

In the 18th century, the classic casino game of Craps was born in New Orleans, utilizing two standard six-sided dice.

A game of Craps is divided into two main stages: the initial roll (the Come Out Roll) and the subsequent rolls (the Point Roll). The player (the "shooter") rolls the dice, and the resulting points dictate the flow of the game.

• If a 2, 3, or 12 is rolled, a Craps situation is declared. The player loses instantly and passes the dice to the next person.

• If a 7 or 11 is rolled, a Natural situation is declared. The player wins and gets to roll again.

• If a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10 is rolled, that number becomes the "Point." The game then transitions to the Point Roll stage.

During the Point Roll phase, the player continues to roll the dice until they hit either their established Point number or a 7. If they roll their Point, they win, and the game resets. If they roll a 7, they "seven out," losing their bet and passing the dice to the next player.

Craps rules require strict throwing etiquette. Dice must be thrown with one hand and must visibly bounce off the back wall of the craps table to ensure fairness.

Over time, more complex dice games emerged, such as Poker Dice, Yacht, Generala, and Crown and Anchor. These typically used five dice and specialized scorecards or tables. Dice poker, for instance, perfectly adapted the mechanics of card-based poker into a dice-rolling format.

In the ancient Chinese game of Sic Bo, players bet on the outcome of an upcoming roll—a concept very similar to modern roulette. The dealer places three dice inside an opaque mechanical shaker or cup and tosses them. Once all bets are finalized, the shaker is removed to reveal the winning numbers.

Modern roulette actually traces its mechanical roots back to spinning dice tops, known as teetotums.

The familiar 36 sectors of a roulette wheel were developed using the calculations of the brilliant French mathematician Blaise Pascal. While researching probability, his mathematics formed the basis of the modern roulette system. The addition of the "zero" sector came later, introduced by the founders of the first modern casino, the Blanc brothers (François and Louis).

Yahtzee stands as one of the most beloved dice games worldwide today.

Legend has it that the rules for Yahtzee were invented by a Canadian couple while vacationing on their yacht. They enjoyed the game so much that they pitched it to toy entrepreneur Edwin Lowe, proposing mass production. Lowe loved the concept, purchased the rights, and officially released the first commercial Yahtzee set in 1956.

The goal of Yahtzee is to score maximum points by rolling five six-sided dice to achieve specific combinations. A player can re-roll their dice up to three times per turn to secure the best possible hand. A standard game consists of thirteen rounds, and the player with the highest grand total wins.

Dice Manipulation

Even with ancient dice, archeologists have discovered evidence of players trying to rig the odds. Cheaters would modify the dice by filling them with lead, sharpening the edges, subtly elongating the shape, or grinding the faces inward or outward. These techniques were designed to secretly shift the die's center of gravity. Even today, you can spot seasoned gamblers shaking a die for an extended period, trying to feel if its weight is improperly balanced.

Professional casino players also hone their throwing mechanics to influence the result. For example, if a die is rolled perfectly parallel to the table, the gyroscope effect can prevent it from tipping over, keeping the top face facing upward.

Additionally, if a table's surface is too slick, the cube might slide rather than tumble. In this scenario, the desired number stays face-up the entire time.

To combat skillful throwing techniques, the Ancient Romans invented the turricula. This was a hollow tower featuring sloped internal baffles that forced the dice to tumble randomly before dropping out the bottom. Today, modern tabletop gamers use highly similar devices known as "dice towers" to guarantee a fair, unbiased roll.

Dice Precision

A die is only considered "accurate" or "fair" if every single face has an exact equal mathematical chance of landing face up. In reality, all commercially manufactured dice possess slight imperfections to some degree.

The most precise dice in the world are manufactured exclusively for casinos. For these professional dice, an error in edge length cannot exceed 1/2000th of an inch. It is crucial not only that the edges are flawlessly machined, but that the overall weight is perfectly distributed.

The dots (pips) on a standard die are arranged according to strict rules: the numbers on opposite parallel sides must always add up to seven. Therefore, 1 is always opposite 6, 2 is opposite 5, and 3 is opposite 4. If the faces 1-2-3 are arranged in a counter-clockwise pattern around their common vertex, it is called a "right-handed" die. If they run clockwise, it is a "left-handed" die. Western casinos typically use right-handed dice, while left-handed dice are more common in the East.

To maintain perfect balance, casino dice have their pips drilled to an exact depth of 17/1000ths of an inch. These tiny holes are then filled with a specialized paint that weighs exactly the same as the plastic material removed, ensuring the center of gravity remains completely unaffected.

High-end casinos use dice with razor-sharp edges and precision corners. These are often individually machined from extruded cellulose acetate plastic rods.

To prevent players from swapping in loaded dice, casino cubes feature custom monograms and unique serial numbers. They are always forged from transparent plastic, allowing both the dealers and players to see right through them and verify that no foreign weights or materials are hidden inside. Cheaters have been known to use counterfeit dice with hidden magnetic cores, paired with a secret electromagnet concealed beneath the craps table.

Before any casino allows a new set of dice onto the floor, they undergo rigorous testing. A floor inspector might test the dice with 100-200 rolls, carefully tracking the data to catch any statistical bias. If a die favors a specific number, it is immediately rejected and destroyed.

Conversely, the standard dice you find in conventional board games are mass-produced via injection molding or machine stamping. Since they are intended for casual play, perfect casino-level accuracy is not required.

Dice regional characteristics

On traditional Asian dice, the pips are often deeper, larger, and clustered closer together. The pip for the number 1 is specifically made massive to correctly counterbalance the missing weight of the six pips on the opposite side.

In many Asian countries, the pips for the number four are painted a bright red. This is because, in Chinese, the pronunciation of the word for "four" (四) sounds nearly identical to the word for "death" (死), making it a highly unlucky number. Red is considered an auspicious color of good fortune, so painting the four red helps neutralize its negative energy.

Dice with more faces

The rise of tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) completely revolutionized the variety of dice available. Standard sets for massively popular games like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) include a wide array of polyhedrals: the tetrahedron (D4), the standard cube (D6), the octahedron (D8), the decahedron (D10), the dodecahedron (D12), and the iconic icosahedron (D20). In these games, virtually all random events—from attacking a monster to navigating a trap—are simulated by rolling a specific polyhedral die.

RPGs also frequently utilize "percentile dice" (D100), which consist of two ten-sided decahedrons: one marks the tens digit (10, 20, 30) and the other marks the single units (0-9). A fun, modern variation of this is the "nested die"—a large, hollow, transparent die with a second, smaller die trapped inside. A single roll generates two random results simultaneously!

Randomness of Results

Seasoned gamblers and mathematicians have long understood that when rolling multiple dice, certain sums appear far more frequently than others. In the 16th and 17th centuries, brilliant mathematical minds like Gerolamo Cardano, Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia, and Galileo Galilei conducted rigorous calculations on dice probabilities. They mathematically proved that when rolling two standard six-sided dice, a total sum of 7 appears more often than any other combination.

It is not difficult to find the probability P of a particular sum of points S.

• Two points can fall in one way: (1,1), so P{S=2} = 1/36.
• Three points can fall in two ways: (1,2) and (2,1), so P{S=3} = 2/36.
• Four points can fall in three ways: (1,3), (2,2) and (3,1), respectively, P{S=4} = 3/36.
• The highest probability will be seven points. This sum can be obtained in six ways: (1,6), (2,5), (3,4), (4,3), (5,2), (6,1). Hence, the probability of seven points is P{S=7} = 6/36 = 1/6.

Calculating the statistical probabilities for three dice proves much more complex, as 216 different combinations arise when taking the order into account. By applying rigorous scientific methods to the concepts of chance and probability, early mathematicians effectively stripped away the ancient mystique of the dice, replacing divination with hard data.

Using dice as an early hardware random number generator, renowned French mathematicians Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat formulated and proved the foundational theorems of combinatorics and probability theory. Their groundbreaking dice-based discoveries eventually formed the bedrock of modern mathematics, statistics, and economics.

The Introduction of Virtual Dice Rollers

The concept of using a virtual "dice simulator" dates back to the very dawn of computing. Because humans have an innate fascination with games of chance, early software developers eagerly programmed digital dice rollers whenever a game required the generation of truly random numbers.

One of the earliest digital adaptations was the computer game Dungeons & Dragons, published by CLOAD in 1980. Just like in the physical tabletop version, players relied on dice to determine if their in-game actions were successful. A digital roll decided if a sword strike was powerful enough to slay a monster or if a character possessed enough intelligence to pick a locked chest.

Because computer games cannot physically interface with real-world dice, developers rely heavily on integrated random number generators (RNG). Hidden deep within the source code, these algorithms act as an invisible virtual dice roller, powering every random encounter, loot drop, and casino mini-game.

While physical dice are wonderful, they are notoriously tiny and incredibly easy to lose. You simply cannot run a proper D&D campaign or play a game of Yahtzee if your dice roll under the couch and disappear.

By using an online virtual dice roller, you instantly eliminate this problem. You can generate completely random, unbiased rolls directly from your smartphone, tablet, or laptop, ensuring the game never has to stop.

Maximum Convenience and Versatility

The greatest advantage of our digital dice calculator is that it delivers unparalleled convenience, regardless of the game you're playing. Our robust tool allows you to roll up to 100 individual dice at a single time! Meanwhile, the secondary custom feature lets you create polyhedral dice with a completely unlimited number of sides. So, if you ever need to simulate a roll on a bizarre 100,000,000-sided die, you can generate that mathematically perfect random result with just a few clicks of your mouse.

Suggestions for Using This Dice Roller

Want to get the absolute most out of our virtual dice roller? Check out the following tips:

• You can easily spice up a classic game by tweaking the number of dice involved. Instead of using five dice to play Yahtzee, try playing "double rounds" by rolling ten dice at a time for massive combos!

• Using the primary dice roller tool, you can toss up to 100 dice simultaneously. This online calculator provides a clear visual interface, so you can read the results exactly as you would if you were staring at physical dice on a table.

• If you are running a complex tabletop RPG that requires multiple dice types (like rolling a D20 alongside a D6 for damage), you can seamlessly use the secondary custom dice calculator for every unique roll. Just input your desired number of sides!

Ultimately, an online dice generator gives you the freedom to invent your own custom games or quickly settle friendly bets on the go. With our completely free virtual application, you can make every single roll as simple or as wildly complex as your imagination allows.