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If you’re new to Dungeons & Dragons, and have tried looking into a book, you may have seen weird things like 1d4+1, 2d8+12, and so on. What the heck do those things mean?! Well, I’m here to help you out with that!

But before we get into what that weird notation is about, I want to talk a bit about dice.

The Many Faces of Dice
In Dungeons & Dragons, and many other roleplaying game systems as well, all sorts of different kinds of dice are used. The kind you’re probably most familiar with is the 6-sided die:

I’m sure you’ve seen dice like this all over the place. If you’ve ever played any kind of board game, then you’ve most likely seen them.

However, there are several more dice that you’re likely to encounter while playing D&D. They are:

The 4-sided die

The 8-sided die

The 10-sided die

The 12-sided die

And the 20-sided die

Though you may be wondering what these different types of dice are used for, they’re beyond the scope of this post. So, how do we differentiate these different kinds of dice in written notation?

D Is For Dice
True, that statement may seem elementary, but it’s the core of how dice are notated in written form. So whenever you see something like this:

1d8+2

You know it’s talking about some kind of die just from the presence of the letter d.

Next up, we look at the number that’s after the d. Yes, this may seem counter-intuitive, but just bear with me. Given the above example, the portion that states d8 means that it’s referring to 8-sided dice. Therefore

• d4 is 4-sided dice
• d6 is 6-sided dice
• d8 is 8-sided dice
• d10 is 10-sided dice
• d12 is 12-sided dice
• d20 is 20-sided dice

Of course, you’re not always going to be limited to just the dice listed. You’ll run into occasions where you’ll see dice notation using weird numbers of sides, such as d3. Most often, when such a case is encountered, a die that’s has more faces on it that can be divided down to that number in notation can be used. For example, in the case of a d3, a 6-sided die would be used, with each of the 3 possible values being assigned to two sides.

The next thing you’ll need to know is how many dice to use. That’s when the first number finally comes into play. So, if we take our first example, 1d8+2:

• The 1 at the beginning means you’re only using one die.
• The d8 means you’re using 8-sided dice.

Thus, the 1d8 in that example means that you use just a single 8-sided die. However, what if you’re encountered with something like:

3d4

Well, you can already tell from the number at the beginning that 3 dice are going to be used. The d4 after that number means you’ll be using 4-sided dice. But what if you only have a single 4-sided die? Just roll it three times, adding up each result!

Finally, there’s always the possibility of some sort of math added to a notation. Taking our first example, 1d8+2, you’ll roll just 1 8-sided die. You then take that result, and just add 2 to it. You can potentially run across other mathematical extras such as that, including subtraction, multiplication, and even division! Also, it’s possible that instead of a plain number, you’re given another die roll to go with it:

2d8 + 1d4

In this case, you’ll be roll 2 8-sided dice as well as 1 4-sided die, and you’ll be adding the result of the d4 to the result of the two d8s.

I hope this gives you a good start on understanding dice notation, so that you can understand what you’re looking at when you’re looking through a random D&D book or website. While it can be confusing at first, you’ll eventually get a hang of dice notation. Though, of course, if you still have trouble with something, don’t ever be afraid to ask a fellow D&D Nerd!