It's always a bit of a conundrum when I discover a new, cool way to randomly generate the results of a die without actually using a die. On one hand, they're often very cool and use inventive ways to ensure the result is random, but on the other hand, I didn't buy way too many dice for my D&D campaigns for nothing. Something about rolling the dice just feels right, you know?

Fortunately, we live in a world where you can have both the cool dice remixes and the real deal at the same time, which makes it easier for me to love this amazing 3D printed dice spinner gun. It's a really cool way to get a random number from a D6, and it'd likely be a hit at your TTRPG table, too.

This 3D-printed "Dice Spinner Gun" makes rolling for shortsword damage a whole lot cooler

In a post on the 3D printing subreddit, user 3dprintedc3d gave us a peek on what they've been working on. They call it the "Dice Spinner Gun," and it consists of a wheel with every side of a D6 printed along its circumference, attached to a pistol-like body. When you pull the trigger, the wheel starts to spin; let go, and it'll stop on a specific number. It's a really cool way to roll a D6, and is likely a good pick if you don't have the space to rattle around actual dice.

So, the million-dollar question: how random is this method? If it's meant to replace an actual D6, it needs to produce similar results to rolling one; if it's too skewed towards specific numbers, it no longer becomes a reliable means of generating a random number.

Fortunately, 3dprintedc3d based their design on the mechanical dice, which underwent a lot of testing in a YouTube video. Sure enough, the results are balanced enough that you could use this in place of an actual D6 and it wouldn't make too much of a difference.

Of course, TTRPG fans flocked to the thread to share their thoughts. Some speculated on how easy it'd be to make a D20 version of the dice spinner gun, with one person having the genius idea of printing the D20 sides on the other side of the wheel so you could use it for either type of rolls. Another muses how this would be the perfect prop for their D&D gunslinger character, and I definitely see the vision.

If you like TTRPGs as much as I do, and you'd like to see how else tech can help enhance your experience, check out our piece on using Obsidian to plan a D&D session and D&D accessories you can 3D print instead of buying.