Roll 3 Dice
Three dice is where the curve gets steep. Stacking a third die pulls results hard towards the centre and makes the extremes genuinely rare, which is exactly what old-school character generation wanted. It is also a comfortable handful: big enough to feel like a roll, small enough to read at a glance.
Press Roll to throw the dice.
Press Space to roll again. Type notation like 2d6+3 or 4d6dl1 straight into the box.
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Rolling 3 six-sided dice gives totals from 3 to 18, out of 216 equally likely outcomes. The most likely total is 10 and 11 at 12.5%, while 3 and 18 each turn up only 0.46% of the time. The average roll is 10.5.
- Minimum
- 3
- Maximum
- 18
- Mean
- 10.5
- Median
- 10.5
- Std deviation
- 2.96
- Most likely
- 10 and 11
- Its odds
- 12.5%
3d6 probability distribution
Each of the 3 dice is flat on its own, but the totals are not. There is exactly one way to roll 3 and one way to roll 18, while 10 and 11 can be built several different ways, which is why the chart leans on the middle.
| Total | Ways | Probability | This or lower |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1 | 0.46% | 0.46% |
| 4 | 3 | 1.39% | 1.85% |
| 5 | 6 | 2.78% | 4.63% |
| 6 | 10 | 4.63% | 9.26% |
| 7 | 15 | 6.94% | 16.2% |
| 8 | 21 | 9.72% | 25.93% |
| 9 | 25 | 11.57% | 37.5% |
| 10 | 27 | 12.5% | 50% |
| 11 | 27 | 12.5% | 62.5% |
| 12 | 25 | 11.57% | 74.07% |
| 13 | 21 | 9.72% | 83.8% |
| 14 | 15 | 6.94% | 90.74% |
| 15 | 10 | 4.63% | 95.37% |
| 16 | 6 | 2.78% | 98.15% |
| 17 | 3 | 1.39% | 99.54% |
| 18 | 1 | 0.46% | 100% |
When you'd roll 3 dice
Three dice show up in street games and in role-playing history alike. Cee-lo reads the three as a set rather than a total, looking for pairs and triples. Bunco players throw three dice at speed, chasing the number for the round. Classic D&D generated ability scores by rolling three dice six times and writing the totals straight down the sheet, no rerolls and no swapping.
Games that use 3 dice
- Cee-lo
- Bunco
- Left Center Right
- Chuck-a-luck
- Grand Hazard
Rolling 3 dice: questions
What games use three dice?
Cee-lo, Bunco and Left Center Right all use exactly three. Chuck-a-luck and its fairground relative Grand Hazard use three dice in a wire cage or a chute. Classic Dungeons & Dragons also generated ability scores three dice at a time.
How do you roll ability scores with three dice?
Roll all three, add them, and record the total as one score. Repeat six times, once for each ability. In the original method you wrote each total down in order rather than assigning it, so the character you got was the character you played.
How do you play Cee-lo?
Each player rolls three dice looking for a scoring combination. A pair plus an odd die scores that odd die as your point, triples win outright, and 4-5-6 is an instant win while 1-2-3 is an instant loss. Anything else is rerolled.
Does adding a third die change the odds much?
Yes, noticeably. Going from two dice to three makes middle totals dominate even more strongly and pushes the top and bottom results into the realm of stories you tell afterwards. Each extra die tightens the cluster around the centre.