The Timestop D-20 is as close as possible to Rolling Dice in D&D

The Time of D-20 it’s my favorite tool in the game this year. It’s a clock that tells time by rolling dice. That’s right. It doesn’t need to do anything more than that. It won’t help me roll properly in any Dungeons & Dragons game or other TTRPG, and it won’t change the actual dice. The $160 D-20 it’s an expensive, limited device that isn’t good for any game. Despite all this, I can wear it before any other expensive smartwatch.

Tabletop RPG players tend not to trust technology. They are not Luddites. Instead of carrying enough rulebooks to fill a cargo ship, they bring their laptops to the table. Dice is not just a tool for RPGs; they are a sign. They represent the love of social storytelling and emotional theater.

I have a metric ton of dice already. The D-20 watch can look, perhaps, unusual, if not ugly. I took it around PAX Unplugged, a gaming convention in Philadelphia, for two days, bringing board games and RPGs alike. I had to be the one player at the table who always said, “Oh, I have a watch that I’m using. I’m walking with this doohickey.”

Some would not believe it, even the gentle race was too kind to mock me. But you can tell by the looks you get from strangers that they all wonder if I’m cheating. I was reading the numbers on the clock. Was I doing too well, or was I being mean?

This had nothing to do with the modern Cthulhu-conspiracy game Delta Green. I don’t have good luck in sports. In a three-and-a-half-hour session, I managed only one roll on the D100. My character, a malnourished person who works as a forensics specialist for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is shot in the chest while trying to break an eldritch enhancement.. My watch rolled over 86 on my Dodge check. The GM rolls a ten for his damage. I died instantly. You have to play Delta Green.

The D-20 doesn’t have the D100’s dice icon, though you can access it via one of the two available buttons on the side. Otherwise, it can roll D4 through D20 directly from the main screen. Seeing the little numbers dance for a millisecond before landing on a number is very satisfying.

But the clock doesn’t work well in most modern RPGs with the long dice mechanics of D&D. I’m a big fan of the post-Powered by the Apocalypse style of story-based games. I am currently running a game The Wildsea it’s our home team. At PAX, I played the role of CBR+PNKa one-shot shooting game using a straight draw dice machine Pages in the Dark. You roll multiple D6s in this game, looking for the highest possible score. A 1-3 is failure, 4 and 5 bring success and difficulties, while 6 is pure success. The D-20 clock allows you to sell multiple dice, but only in increments. If you want to roll the dice pool, you charge it over and over again, hoping you remember your results.

Most board games involve dice directly on heads and heads. I played Wyrd Games’ Vagrantsonga game about bringing people back to the spirits of the dead in a ghost train. Vagrantsong refers to dice as “bones,” a term so apt that using a dice roller would be anathema.

D-20 is not a place to represent the dice, but it has their heart. It is an old device. It tells you the time and day when the dice roller is always visible. There is a button to illuminate the electronic display in a bright, bright light.

Devin Montgomery, the director of the device, told me that the watch was supposed to be based on the clothing of the late 1970s when the first D&D gear was made. I like that I don’t have to worry about charging like mine Apple Watch Ultra. The D-20’s control panel sits securely in my hand with its simple loop band hitch.

The most annoying thing about this device is its price. The metal frame feels premium, but at $160, it’s more than 16 times the price of your basic dice. Some versions without a metal frame cost about $100. Although this is expensive for something like an old school Casio with a very special case.

I finished my PAX Unplugged run. A poor choice of food over the weekend led to the worst crisis of my life. I had to remove the watch from my wrist so it wouldn’t be in the line of fire. It’s been a week, and I’m still wearing it. It’s a symbol of what I love most. And even if I’m not stupid enough to tie my dice bag around my neck, I should be able to roll a D20 in my hand without anyone.