This Electronic D20 Announces the Numbers You Roll

Just about every system out there will require other dice, but the D20 has become the quintessential symbol of tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. As such, most tabletop gamers take a lot of pride in their favorite D20. But can yours talk? We doubt it and you might want to fix that by following Phillip Burgess' guide on Adafruit to build a D20 that announces rolled numbers.

The operation of this device is as straightforward as can be: you roll it like any other D20 and it will speak the number on the top face. It is, however, worth noting that this is definitely not balanced and so it will favor certain numbers over others. That will make it unsuitable for serious games with strict dungeon masters. But for casual games among friends, it adds an extra layer of flair that you don't get with a normal D20. That is especially true because you can record your own audio clips. Instead of having it simply say "twenty," you can have it scream "nat twenty!" with accompanying celebratory music.

The key to this functionality is Adafruit's new RP2040 Prop-Maker Feather development board. Not only does that give you all the power of the Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller, but it also includes a triple-axis accelerometer and a 3-watt class D amplifier. The only other components you need are a small speaker, a lithium battery, and a power switch.

The shell is 3D-printable and comes in two halves held together by strong neodymium magnets. You probably won't want to give this an aggressive roll, but it should be fine for normal use. Burgess helpfully provides all the audio files you need. If you want to get creative and record your own, you can simply replace those with custom WAV files.

We can assure you that everyone else in your campaign will get a kick out of this talking D20.