The 60-sided dice that finally solve the ‘go first’ problem after 15 years of math

When board‑game designer James Ernest posed a casual question at a 2010 convention—could a dice set let any number of players roll and have an exactly equal chance to go first—mathematician Eric Harshbarger set out on a ↑ 15‑year quest that would reshape randomness.

How the 60-sided dice guarantee fairness

The challenge was deceptively simple: avoid ties by giving each face a unique integer, then distribute the numbers so that every possible subset of dice yields identical win probabilities. Early attempts produced a three‑player solution using standard six‑sided dice and a four‑player version with twelve‑sided dice, but scaling to five players required a combinatorial space “larger than the atoms in the universe,” Harshbarger told Reuters.

“The dice don’t just pick who goes first; they randomise the entire turn order with perfect permutation fairness,” he explained.

In mid‑2023 Canadian programmer Paul Meyer cracked the code by spotting hidden symmetries in the four‑player data and writing a bespoke search algorithm. His configuration of five 60-sided dice carries every integer from 1 to 300 exactly once, ensuring that whether two, three, four or five participants roll, each has the same odds of landing the highest number and the same odds for any full ordering of players.

From workshop to museum

Harshbarger transformed the mathematical proof into five oversized wooden hexecontahedrons—pine, poplar, oak, walnut and mahogany—now displayed in Auburn University’s new mathematics building, a visual reminder that abstract theory can become tangible art. The smaller, hand‑manufacturable dice have already entered niche retail channels such as Bloomberg‑cited specialty game shops.

Beyond board‑gaming, the project illustrates how a seemingly whimsical problem can survive global disruptions, even the recent pandemic, and emerge as a lasting example of collaborative problem‑solving.