Main Point

Naming the main

Before anything is thrown, the caster names a main — a number from five to nine. That choice changes every rule that follows.

The opening throw

Throwing the main settles at once in the caster's favour. Certain other totals settle against, and the rest become the chance, which then has to be repeated before the main returns.

Why the rules look uneven

They are: the exact totals that lose depend on which main was named. That asymmetry is what a medieval table used instead of a house margin, and it is preserved here as it was.

Seven is the best main

Naming seven leaves the caster closest to even — a shortfall of about 1.4 percent. Naming five or nine is worse, and the difference is entirely in which totals lose on the opening throw.

A margin built from rules, not payments

Every settlement here pays one to one. The margin comes purely from the asymmetry of the rules, which is a much older way of building a game than adjusting what a win pays.

Everything is countable

Two dice have thirty-six outcomes and three have two hundred and sixteen. You can write them all down on one page, which is why dice are the best place to learn where odds come from.

The shape of a total

Seven appears six times out of thirty-six and twelve appears once. Nothing is weighted; the shape comes purely from how many ways a total can be built. Most confusion about dice starts with forgetting that.

Wide margins hide in exotic covers

The simple covers on a dice table are among the fairest anywhere. The exotic ones — an exact triple, a rare total — carry the widest margins on this whole site, and they are the ones printed largest.

Rituals and results

Blowing on the dice, throwing harder, choosing a moment. None of it moves a single outcome. The rituals are old and human and completely without effect, and that is worth knowing before you start attributing results to them.