Shadowrun runs on six-sided dice, and lots of them. So choosing Shadowrun dice mostly comes down to three questions: how many d6s you need, how easy they are to read when you’re dumping a fistful onto the table, and whether they look cool enough to roll in front of your team. We’ll walk through all three, with a few jokes about glitches along the way. (Your dice will glitch. That’s the game.)
TL;DR
- Shadowrun is a d6 game. Forget the polyhedral set with the d20 you use for fantasy; you want matching six-siders.
- Plan on 12 to 20 matching d6s for most characters, and more if you play a heavily optimized specialist or run the table as GM.
- Pick dice you can scan fast: high contrast, clear numbers, and a color that stands out against your table or tray.
- Match the pips-or-numerals, size and color across the whole pool so you can count hits without squinting.
- Mystery sets and themed sets make fun gifts, as long as they contain enough d6s.
Table of Contents
- What dice does Shadowrun actually use?
- How many d6s do you need?
- Readability beats everything
- Do you need special Shadowrun dice?
- Do dice needs change between editions?
- Material and finish: pick your flavor
- Our take on Shadowrun dice
- Where to start if you’re ready to buy
- Choosing Shadowrun dice as a gift
- FAQ
What dice does Shadowrun actually use?
If your dice bag is full of d20s, bad news: Shadowrun mostly leaves them in the bag. The game uses a dice pool of six-sided dice. In the Sixth World Beginner Box, the core procedure is to roll a handful of d6s (written like 4D6 for four dice) and count how many beat the bar. According to the Beginner Box quick start rules, a hit is a die showing a 5 or a 6, and the number of dice comes from the most relevant skill plus its linked attribute. If your hits meet or exceed the test’s threshold, you succeed.
That tiny rule has a big effect on what dice you want. You aren’t reading one number. You’re looking at a pile and counting how many are 5s or 6s, over and over, all night. The best Shadowrun dice are the ones that make that count painless.
The designers leaned into this on purpose. The Sixth World developer overview says the edition was built around D6 pools, and that rolling a healthy handful of D6s is part of what makes it feel like Shadowrun. Translation: buckets of dice are a feature, not a bug.
How many d6s do you need?
Short answer: more than you think, fewer than your shopping cart will suggest at 2 a.m.
Here’s what the sources we found say:
- The Sixth World Beginner Box includes 12 dice, but EN World’s review notes some pre-generated characters can have pools of 14. So even the starter box can come up short for a single player.
- A community getting-started guide on paydata.org, written for Fifth Edition, suggests roughly 12 to 15 dice in a specialist’s key skills, 9 to 12 in secondary roles, and 4 to 6 in general-purpose skills.
- Older forum threads about earlier editions throw out bigger numbers for optimized characters, with some players aiming for 20 or more. Those are anecdotes, but they point the same direction: dedicated specialists roll big pools.
Putting that together, here’s a practical rule of thumb (ours, not a rulebook’s):
| Your role | Suggested matching d6s |
|---|---|
| Newer player, street-level runner | 12 |
| Regular player with a specialty | 15 to 18 |
| Heavily optimized face, decker, or adept | 20 or more |
| GM running opposition and a full table | 20 plus a second color for NPCs |
Why a color for the bad guys? Because rolling your runner’s dice and the corporate security team’s dice in the same puddle of chaos gets confusing fast. Two colors means no arguments about whose 5 is whose.
If you want a ready-made pile of six-siders, our 10d6 dice sets are built for exactly this. Two sets gets you to 20 dice, which covers most characters. We also wrote about how many gaming dice a DM needs, which is handy if you’re the one wrangling the table.
Readability beats everything
You’ll roll these dice in dim rooms, on messy tables, with pizza near them. Pick for speed of reading.
Contrast between the die and the numbers
Metallic ink on a dark die, or dark ink on a light die, is easy. Pale numbers on a pale swirl is how you end up arguing about whether that was a 5 or a 6. One reviewer of the Beginner Box dice, in a review on Tabletop Bellhop, liked that the purple-on-black dice mark 1s with a skull and 5s and 6s with the Shadowrun S, which made hits and glitches easy to count. You don’t need official dice to copy that idea. You just want a set where the numbers pop.
Loud colors, quiet patterns
Busy patterns look gorgeous in a photo and terrible in a pool of 18 dice. Solid or lightly swirled resin is the sweet spot. Save the wild, glittery chaos dice for your polyhedral set, where you only roll one at a time.
Same size, same shape, same color
Matching dice are not just about vibes. When every die in the pool looks the same, you can sweep your eyes across them and count. A mixed handful of random colors turns every roll into a tiny logic puzzle. A sensible exception: one or two contrasting dice you designate as a special die, if your table wants a quick visual for something like a Wild Die house rule.
Size and edges
Standard 16mm d6s are easy to pile and easy to carry. Super-sharp edges roll nicely but can scatter across the room. Rounded corners are calmer on a small table and easier on your hands when you’re shaking 20 at a time. A dice tray keeps all of it contained, and your coffee safe. We even have a Scroll Dice Tray review if you want the details.
Do you need special Shadowrun dice?
No. Plain, matching d6s work. If you can count 5s and 6s, you can run a shadow team. Official or themed dice are a nice-to-have for the aesthetic, and they sometimes add helpful markings like the ones above, but nothing in the rules demands them.
Where themed or custom dice earn their keep:
- Markings that speed up counting. Distinct faces on the success numbers reduce squinting.
- Table identity. A neon, UV-style or cyber-looking set sets the mood before anyone says a word.
- Gifts. The person who has everything probably does not have a bag of cyberpunk d6s.
Where they don’t: if the design gets in the way of reading the numbers, skip it. A cool die you can’t read is a paperweight with ambitions.
Do dice needs change between editions?
A little, and it’s worth knowing before you buy for a friend who plays an older version.
According to a community edition comparison on paydata.org, First Edition used variable target numbers and the Rule of Six, the first three editions used expendable dice pools, and Fourth Edition onward uses skill-plus-attribute pools with a target of 5. Fifth Edition added limits, and Sixth dropped them. Variable target numbers were phased out across Second and Third toward a static 4, though modifiers could still change it.
What that means for shopping: every edition uses six-sided dice, so a bag of matching d6s is never the wrong purchase. What shifts is how many you might roll and how often. Older editions with higher target numbers and exploding sixes might have you rolling a lot of dice at once, so err toward the bigger pool if your group plays them.
Something to check with your group: edition matters for glitch and hit rules, but not for the dice themselves. Ask what edition the table plays, then buy the same dice either way.
Material and finish: pick your flavor
We sell several kinds of dice, and each suits Shadowrun a little differently.
- Resin and acrylic: The workhorse. Light, quiet, easy to read, and easy on the wallet. If you need 20 of them, this is the smart pick. Our guide to affordable resin dice for new players explains why.
- Metal: Heavy, loud, and extremely satisfying. Great for a signature set. Less great for rolling 20 at once onto a glass table, unless you hate your table and your neighbors.
- Liquid core: Little sealed worlds with shimmering fluid inside. Fun for your hero dice or as a few accent d6s. See our liquid core collection.
- Gemstone and wood: Beautiful, tactile, and a bit more of a showpiece. Perfect for a gift, or for a runner who wants one lucky die.
A practical combination: a main pool of matching resin d6s for volume, plus one stand-out set in a different material that you pull out for big moments. You can browse the whole range in our DnD dice collection; the six-siders carry over to Shadowrun just fine.
Curious about general dice-picking logic beyond Shadowrun? Our best dice for tabletop RPG campaigns guide covers it, and if you’re building a game night, tools for running a Shadowrun campaign or oneshot is a good next stop.
Our take on Shadowrun dice
We love dice that look like they have a backstory, and Shadowrun is the one game where you will genuinely roll enough of them to appreciate the variety. Here’s where we land. Buy the pool first and the pretty second, but don’t skip the pretty. The pool is function: enough matching d6s that you never have to say, hold on, let me roll that in two batches. The pretty is what makes you grin when you throw your whole handful and half of them come up 5s.
We also think a dice set should feel like it belongs to a community, not just a checkout page. That’s why we pay attention to how dice read on the table, how they feel in the hand, and how they travel in a bag. And if a set doesn’t work out, our policy is an unconditional money-back guarantee, because nobody should be stuck with dice that make them sad.
— Teresa
Where to start if you’re ready to buy
If you want a dark, moody, very-runner look, the Heart of Shadows rose and black resin 10d6 set gives you ten matching six-siders in one go. Grab two and you have a full 20-dice pool that looks the part. If you’d like a polyhedral set to match for your other games, there’s the Heart of Shadows 7-piece set.
Want something with weight? The Dawn’s Alloy rose gold metal set makes a great lucky set for the character who always seems to get the big roll. Or just wander the full D6 selection and see who follows you home.
Choosing Shadowrun dice as a gift
Gifting dice to a runner is easy, with a few traps.
- Count the dice. A single polyhedral set isn’t enough for Shadowrun. Look for sets of ten six-siders, or buy two. You can find our D6 sets here.
- Ask what edition they play. The dice are the same, but you’ll know whether they want a bigger pile.
- Choose readable over flashy. The recipient will thank you at hour four of the session.
- Add one wild card. A single metal or liquid core accent set turns a practical gift into a treat.
- Consider a mystery bundle for the adventurous. It works well for a gamer who loves surprises, with one caution: a surprise bundle may not include a full pool of matching d6s, so pair it with a d6 set.
If you’re shopping for a GM, think about a dice tray or tower so their table survives the avalanche. A tray is a surprisingly loving gift.
FAQ
Can I use regular d6s for Shadowrun?
Yes. The game only needs six-sided dice, and any matching set works. Themed or marked dice are a style and speed upgrade, not a requirement.
How many dice should I bring to a Shadowrun session?
About 12 matches the Beginner Box, but plenty of characters roll more, so 15 to 20 is a comfortable range for a regular player. If you’re a specialist or a GM, bring more and a second color for non-player characters.
What counts as a hit in Shadowrun?
In the Sixth World Beginner Box rules, a hit is any die that shows a 5 or a 6. You compare your total hits to the test’s threshold to see whether you succeed.
Are Shadowrun dice different between editions?
The dice are always six-sided, but the rules around target numbers, limits, and pool sizes have changed between editions. A bag of matching d6s works for all of them, though your group’s edition may affect how big a pool you roll.
Are mystery dice sets a good gift for a Shadowrun player?
They can be a lot of fun, especially for someone who enjoys surprises. Just make sure the recipient also has enough matching six-siders, since a mystery bundle may be built around polyhedral sets.
