Dice are small, throwable objects with marked sides that may be thrown in a variety of ways. They’re commonly employed to produce random numbers in tabletop games, including dice games, board games, role-playing games, and games of chance.

A standard die is a six-sided cube with a certain number of dots (pips) on each of its six faces, ranging from one to six. The dice come to a stop on their upper surface when thrown or rolled, displaying a random integer from one to six, with each value equally likely. In addition to pips, dice can have polyhedral or irregular shapes, as well as digits or symbols on their faces. Loaded dice are designed to favor some results over others, either for cheating or for amusement.

Although the origins of dice are uncertain, they have been used since before recorded history. Dice are supposed to have originated from the tradition of fortune-telling with the talus of hoofed animals, often known as knucklebones. Senet was an Egyptian game played using two-sided flat toss sticks that acted as dice, indicating the number of squares a player may move. Senet was a game that was played from before 3000 BC until the 2nd century AD. The oldest known dice were unearthed in Burnt City, a south-eastern Iranian archaeological site, as part of a backgammon-like game dating from 2800 to 2500 BC. Bone dice found at Skara Brae have been dated 3100″2400 BC. In the graves of Mohenjo-Daro, an Indus Valley cultural site, terracotta dice dating from 2500″1900 BC were unearthed.

Dice games are mentioned in the ancient Indian Rigveda, Atharvaveda, Mahabharata, and Buddhist games lists. Poem 22 is one of several scripture references to “casting lots” (Hebrew: yappîl RL), suggesting that dicing (or a similar pastime) was popular at the time of the psalm’s writing. Knucklebones was an ancient Greek skill game in which each of the four sides of a bone was allocated a different value, akin to modern dice.

Despite the fact that gambling was illegal in Rome, many Romans enjoyed dicing (also known as team ludere) (“to play at dice”). There were two sizes of Roman dice. The numbers one, three, four, and six were carved on all four sides of Tali, which were massive dice. Tesserae were smaller dice with numbers on each side ranging from one to six. In Ptolemaic Egypt, twenty-sided dice may be dated back to the 2nd century AD and as far back as the 2nd century BC.

Dice that originated in China are the basis for dominoes and playing cards. China had a technical transition from scroll rolls to block-printed books during the time of the Tang dynasty, which corresponded with the transition from dice to playing cards. Sugoroku, a famous Japanese dice game, was invented in Japan. Sugoroku is split into two halves. E-sugoroku is a racing game, whereas ban-sugoroku is a backgammon-like game that dates back to the Heian era.

Dice are thrown by hand or from a properly designed container onto a surface (such as a cup or tray). When it comes to rest, the value of the throw is decided by the face of the die that is uppermost.

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