¿Percentile dice?

[Paladin Knight]

I've been looking at the Returner Headquarters FFRPG page a lot, and in the rules section under "Combat", it says right at the top how they determine hits and misses. It says to roll a "1d100" and then explains how to calculate it after that. Now, I'm not totally sure what that is, but I saw something on the Internet about "percentile dice" where you use two dice of different colors that each have ten sides showing the numbers zero to nine and one color represents a value of ten for whatever number you roll and the other color represents a value of one for whatever number you roll, which gives you the possibility of rolling any number from zero to ninety-nine. ¿Is this what they're talking about when they say to roll a "1d100"? And if it is, or even if it's not, if someone could please tell me where I could get these percentile dice, I would greatly appreciate it. These percentile dice would help me tremendously with other parts of the game. I was wondering before how to figure out if something that has, say, a thirty-percent chance of happening happens, and I was trying before to figure out how to figure this out with regular six-sided dice, but that's hard to do or even impossible. In a case like that, it's easy to just roll those percentile dice and if the number you get is a thirty or less, then it happens, and if it's a thirty-one or higher, it doesn't. These percentile dice seem to be just what I needed.

I know I probably sound really stupid and ignorant here, but don't forget that I'm totally new to tabletop RPGs except for Hero Quest, which has *very* simplified rules. Despite this, however, I'm kinda surprised how much the rules of that Final Fantasy RPG are similar, and in some cases basically the same, as the rules for the game I was working on. I guess that means I was on the right track and kinda have the right mind for this even though I don't have hardly any experience with it yet.

But anyway, if someone could please tell me where to get those percentile dice and, if it's not the same thing, a "1d100", I would really appreciate it. I know you're all probably laughing right now 'cause I'm so clueless. LOL. ...But it's not my fault, I tell you. ....Anyway, I...guess that's all for now, but I'd like to maybe ask later about maps and stuff, but that's later.

Bye for now, everyone, and thanks for all the help you've given me already, and I hope no one is too frustrated with my current ignorance on this subject.

[jeremycoatney]

     I haven't ever seen the RPG in question, but I know my dice. Percentile dice can usually be purchased at any dice store, all you need is either two standard d10 of different colors, or 1d10 and an actual percentile dice, a dice with 00 to 09 on it, which is used for the ones place when making a "percentile roll."
     Also, in most case a dice denoting 0 to 9 is actually using the 0 as the number 10, so you can use this information the other way if you find standard d10 and substitute 10 for 0.
     There are actual d100 by the way, but I don't see them very often and dice stores because they are rarely used, like my collection of d3, my d6 -1, and my d6 +18. Sure they make them, but, depending on where you shop, they usually aren't around very often. They're usually easy to spot though, as a dice with at least 100 sides is fairly big and the additional faces mak it stand out more easily from things like giant d20s.
     I don't know where you live, so I can't tell you exactly, but most games stores have all the standard types of dice for sale around where I live. which is to say d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, "percentile dice", and sometimes the odd d100.

[Kyle R Cuthbert]

d100's are more or less round, the easyest way to work out a d% roll is with 2 different coloured d10's, one for tens, one for single units

eg. red= 5 black=6

1d% roll = 56

In game its best to decide beforehand which dice is which, as not to appear to be switching the final values about.

I have a d10 that has 01,02,etc on, got it with AD&D First quest box set, you can get dice from all over the place, d100's your best bet is EBay or wizard's of the coast I think.

In any case, keep it simple, go with the 2d10's unless you really want the full effects of a d100 dice.

I hope this information is helpful

Kyle

[Adam Dray]

They also sell pairs of d10's that are marked differently and used for d100 rolls. One is a normal d10 (0, 1, ... 9) and the other is marked as 10's (00, 10, 20, ... 90). The idea is that you can roll them and add them together (50 + 7 = 57). If you roll 00 + 0, that's 100.

[rafial]

Here's a clear statement for the original poster, since he is new to all this stuff:

An actual physical d100, that is a dice with 100 sides, is only sold as a novelty, and is not really practical to use (they roll forever).

When somebody refers to d100 in tabletop RPG rules, they always mean to roll 2 10-sided dice, and treat one as the 10's digit and the other as the 1's digit.

[flammifer]

literal d100

... and despite what rafial says, we used some of these at our session last week, though yes I do prefer the doesn't-roll-forever unambiguous version:

2d10 %

[Ron Edwards]

That's enough for this thread. Let's close it here.

No pictures at the Forge. Flammifer, I'm editing your post into links instead of images.

Best, Ron

[Paladin Knight]

Well, of course I have decided that the huge one-hundred-sided die is unnecessary since a set of two ten-sided dice with different colors produce the exact same results but without all the bulk and the rolling forever.

I actually want to get *four* ten-sided dice, each one a different color, for the game I'm working on so that there's two sets of d100s so that something that would require dual opposing rolls to determine can be done all in one roll instead of having to roll twice every time, thus cutting the rolling time in half and speeding up the game.

After reading Adam Dray's post, I've decided that the dice he's talking about would be absolutely perfect for me. If anyone knows the name of a particular store or stores where I could get two sets of those, each set a different color, please do let me know the name of the store or stores that would have it so that I can check to see if there are any close to where I live, or if there's at least a place I could order two different sets of those and have them delivered, that's better than nothing.

Thanks again so much to everyone for responding and helping me with this. It's greatly appreciated.  :-)