Dice Before the Chain

 Dice Before the Chain: Aftermath! and the Proto-Dice Chain

One of the quieter joys of digging through the original Aftermath! rules is stumbling across ideas that feel startlingly modern. Buried in the discussion of Saving Throws is this little gem:

OPTION An alternate method for modifying difficulty: The Gamesmaster may assign a die with a greater or lesser range than 1D20 to be used for the Saving Throw, instead of modifying the number needed for success. If he wishes to increase difficulty, for example, he might require the Saving Throw to be rolled on 1D30 instead of 1D20. (Aftermath! page 7, Book 1, Basic Rules)

There it is, plain as day, in a game released in 1980.

Thirty-two years later, Dungeon Crawl Classics would popularize the “dice chain” and the liberal use of Zocchi dice—d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24, d30, and the rest—as a core mechanical language for adjusting difficulty, damage, and effect. What many players treat as a signature innovation of the 2012 game was already sitting in the Aftermath! toolbox, waiting.

The parallel is not forced. Both systems recognize that shifting the die type itself is a cleaner, more tactile way to raise or lower the bar than endlessly fiddling with target numbers. Need a tougher Save? Hand the player the d30. Want to ease the pressure? Drop them to a d12 or d10. The math is immediate; the physical act of rolling the unusual die underlines the stakes, and the table feels the difference without a single extra modifier.

The dice in Dungeon Crawl Classics are directly compatible with the Aftermath! game.

Because the underlying principle is identical, the two systems remain directly dice-compatible today. An Aftermath! Gamesmaster can freely borrow the full DCC dice chain for Saving Throws, Ability Checks, or even weapon damage without breaking anything. Conversely, a DCC Judge looking for an older pedigree can point to that 1980 optional rule and smile.

It is a small thing, perhaps. But it is one more reminder that Aftermath! was never content to stay inside the conventional polyhedral box. Even its optional rules were already reaching for the strange dice that would not become fashionable for another generation.