# What game/circumstance uses Fudge dice?

I read with much interest the question about Fudge dice, but what are these dice useful for?

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Banal question. – Rob Lang Aug 29 '10 at 20:10
@Rob : It's banal when you know it. I've never heard of Fudge. When I posted the question, I assumed it was just the name of the type of dice. – Stefano Borini Aug 29 '10 at 20:19
Stackexchange is mean for those questions you can't Google. I put "use fudge dice" into Google and guess what the first page was? – Rob Lang Aug 30 '10 at 7:41
@Rob : I guess it wasn't this one. Now it will be. – Stefano Borini Aug 30 '10 at 11:09
@Rob: Actually, that's generally not correct. Stack exchange sites are designed to be general repositories of relevant information. No question is to be considered "too simple". The classic example (given by the owner) for the StackOverflow site was "how do I move the turtle in Logo?" All questions, if relevant to the site, and if well worded, are fair game. (Presumably, this could be overruled by popular vote on meta, but this has been talked about at great length on the original sites, with this result.) – Beska Aug 30 '10 at 14:49

In Fudge, your character has skills and abilities that are ranked on the Fudge Scale: Terrible -3, Poor -2, Mediocre -1, Fair 0, Good +1, Great +2, and Superb +3. The dice, 4dF are zero-centered. You typically roll the dice and add the result to your relevant skill to determine the outcome of your attempt. An elegant system in all actuality.

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To add to this: in Fudge, you don't generally use numbers for any of this; abilities and results are both described by one of the seven adjectives. A roll of all blanks means the result matches the ability: if you're a Great cook, you just produced a Great meal. Each + improves the result one level, while each - worsens it. Also, the designer later made a slight change and overbalanced the levels in favor of positive-sounding adjectives for psychological reasons. In so-called "VG Fudge", Terrible is gone, Poor is the bottom, and there's a "Very Good" in between "Good" and "Great". – Mark Reed Jun 16 at 1:15

Fudge dice are good for generating a nice bell curve centered on zero. Each die is six-sided, with two minus (–), two blank ( ), and two plus (+) sides, which correspond to -1, 0, and +1 respectively. You roll them and then add up the pluses and minuses to get your result.

For example, 4dF will get you a result from -4 to +4 with a mode of 0 and a narrow bell curve centred on zero, with low probabilities of anything outside the -1 to +1 range:

-4 o                     1 ( 1%)
-3 oooo                  4 ( 5%)
-2 oooooooooo           10 (12%)
-1 oooooooooooooooo     16 (20%)
0 ooooooooooooooooooo  19 (23%)
+1 oooooooooooooooo     16 (20%)
+2 oooooooooo           10 (12%)
+3 oooo                  4 ( 5%)
+4 o                     1 ( 1%)


Fudge and FATE typically use 4dF and represent skills by a number you add to the roll, which biases the bell curve so that it's centred on the value of the skill instead of zero.

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Fudge dice were originally used for the Fudge role-playing game. The basic mechanism is a "ladder" or "scale" of adjectives:

 -3 Terrible
-2 Poor
-1 Mediocre
0 Fair
+1 Good
+2 Great
+3 Superb


Fudge dice have two sides with a plus, two sides with a minus, and two sides with a blank. A typical roll consists of rolling four Fudge dice (4dF) and letting the plus sides cancel the minus sides, then reading the net pluses or minuses. For example, a roll of ++-b (plus, plus, minus, blank) is a net +1. In Fudge, a player would use this roll to shift a trait or ability (also described on the adjective scale) up or down according to the roll. For example, given Mediocre (-1) Intelligence and a roll of ++-b, which is Good (+1), that results in a Fair (0) Intelligence result.

The FATE role-playing game is based on Fudge, which was released under the Open Game License. FATE uses the adjective ladder and Fudge dice in more or less the same way.

Look for these FATE-based games on bookshelves and PDF sellers' websites:

Other games use Fudge dice but are not based on the Fudge or FATE game systems:

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I didn't know TSoY used Fudge dice! Is that in the latest revision? – SevenSidedDie Aug 30 '10 at 17:39
My copy of TSoY is ancient, so I dunno about the latest revision. See this thread, though: story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=5592 and the TSoY wiki still describes it as using Fudge dice: tsoy.crngames.com/Resolution – Adam Dray Aug 30 '10 at 17:43
Aha. The version 0.9 rules from 2004 used 2d6 and a ladder from 8 to 22, while the 2005-and-on rules (as in the first printing and probably the revised edition) use Fudge dice and a 0 to 7 ladder. – SevenSidedDie Aug 30 '10 at 18:53
The two www.cubicle-7.com link are broken. Fixed the links in suggested edit. – Eugene Katz Aug 10 '11 at 3:57
Thanks for the fix! The links worked when I posted last year. – Adam Dray Aug 13 '11 at 23:06

The new "big hit" game that uses Fudge dice is the Dresden Files RPG.

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Something wrong with this one? I thought it was a reasonable answer to the implied, "So what are people using all the Fudge dice for?" – Jadasc Aug 30 '10 at 13:23
I don't know, but to me it sounds additional informative (and correct, I checked) material. +1 – Stefano Borini Aug 30 '10 at 13:57
In fact, DFRPG is responsible for the recent Fudge Dice shortage! – gomad Oct 5 '10 at 20:25

Fudge and Fate use them. Mathematically, they are 1d3-2. The normal use is to step up or down the skill rankings, using 4dF, each plus up a step, each minus down one. Then compare the resulting rank to the needed; if same or higher, succeed.

Fate is an engine; the best known games using it seem to be Diaspora, Spirit of the Century, and Starblazer Adventures.

Fudge is an engine and system construction set; the various Fudge based games do different subsets, and so vary widely, but most use 4dF; a few use alternate dice options like 2d6-7, 4d3-8 (mathematically the same), or 2d6 dark & 2d6 light, keep lowest untied die, with dark being negative and light being positive.

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Another game that uses Fudge dice in a totally different way is Galileo Games' How We Came To Live Here.

Pluses are attacks and minuses are defenses, and the combat system is full of maneuvers and techniques for turning one face into another, gaining additional dice, etc.

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The Shadow of Yesterday/Solar System are my favorite use of Fudge dice.

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Also, Baby's First Fudge Dice: fudgefactor.org/2001/12/01/babys_first_fudge_dice.html – Judd Sep 4 '10 at 19:50