The Two-Dice Dice Bag

 It's human nature to believe that More Is Better, but as you get older you realize that's rarely the case. There's always a Sweet Spot; even Goldilocks knew that.
 

I know dice-hoarding has become a popular meme on the internet, but there may come a day when you wanna game and don't have the means to take a Crown Royal bag filled to bursting with polyhedrals. Maybe you don't have room in your luggage or something. No worries! You can roll anything and everything in D&D with only two dice: a d20 and a d6. Just like ol' Gary here!

Not just any d20, though; get yourself a 0-9 twice d20 and color-code it: make half the numbers one color and the other half another color.

Pictured below is my 0-9 twice d20 from 1979, color-coded black and red. Next to it is my trusty d6 from the early 80s. These are all I need to play D&D! I call it the Two-Dice Dice Bag. It's very simple, although simulating a d8 and d12 might seem a little odd at first if you're not used to it.

 

 

Here's how it works:

D4: Roll the d20 and divide by four:

1-5 = 1
6-10 = 2
11-15 = 3
16-20 = 4

 

Note that this is very easy to read on a color-coded d20: black 1-5 is 1, black 6-10 is 2, red 1-5 is 3 and red 6-10 is 4. With a little practice you can read these off very quickly.

D6: Roll as normal, obviously.

D8: Roll as for a d4, above. Also roll the d6: if an even number comes up, add 4 to the result.

D10: Roll the d20, ignoring the color-coding.

D12: Roll both dice, read the d6. If the d20 comes up even, add 6. If your d20 is color-coded, pick one color as the "Add 6" color to make reading the result even quicker.

D20: Roll the d20. If the number is black, read as-is. If it's red, add 10. Or whatever you've color-coded your d20 as, obviously.

There you go! Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy.