Lou Zocchi
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Louis Zocchi is a gaming hobbyist, former game distributor and publisher, and maker and seller of polyhedral game
dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...
. In 1986, he was elected to the
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.


Career

Lou Zocchi was one of the first editors for
Avalon Hill Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the compan ...
's magazine, '' The General'', and a regular contributor during its first 11 years of publication. He also playtested such early wargames as '' Bismarck'', ''
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'', ''
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'', ''
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'', and a number of titles Avalon Hill did not publish. Zocchi was the first U.S. distributor to sell nothing but adventure games. As a board wargame designer, his credits include ''Luftwaffe'', '' The Battle of Britain'', '' Alien Space'', and ''
Flying Tigers The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States Ar ...
'', as well as the 3-, 5-, 14-, 24-, and 100-sided die. Zocchi contributed to the series of books by
Guidon Games Guidon Games produced board games and rulebooks for wargaming with miniatures, and in doing so influenced Tactical Studies Rules (later TSR, Inc.), the publisher of ''Dungeons & Dragons''. The ''Guidon Games'' publishing imprint was the propert ...
that began in 1971 with ''
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''. Zocchi produced the superhero RPG '' Superhero: 2044'' in 1977. Zocchi also designed and published the '' Star Fleet Battle Manual'' (1977) miniatures rules, which he licensed from
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, and in 1979 Zocchi's friend Stephen Cole licensed the rights from Joseph to publish the ''
Star Fleet Battles ''Star Fleet Battles'' (SFB) is a Military tactics, tactical board wargame set in an offshoot of the ''Star Trek'' setting called the Star Fleet Universe. Originally created in 1979 by Stephen V. Cole, it has had four major editions. The current ...
'' game. Zocchi also distributed the Wee Warriors line after 1977. Zocchi helped Judges Guild with their financial difficulties in the early 1980s by paying them $350 every time they gave him the rights to reprint their out-of-print supplements. Mike Hurdle of
Holly Springs, Mississippi Holly Springs is a city in and the county seat of Marshall County, Mississippi, Marshall County, Mississippi, United States, near the border with Tennessee to the north. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 6,96 ...
purchased Zocchi Distribution in February 1998. Zocchi and his company Gamescience have published a number of games over the years (many designed by Zocchi), but are best known for making
dice A die (: dice, sometimes also used as ) is a small, throwable object with marked sides that can rest in multiple positions. Dice are used for generating random values, commonly as part of tabletop games, including dice games, board games, ro ...
and inventing the Zocchihedron (100-sided) die. Zocchi has designed a few games himself, including ''
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'', and ''Battle Wagon Salvo''. In 1987, Zocchi was inducted into the Academy of Adventure Gaming's Hall of Fame. He was honored as a "famous game designer" by being inducted into the Game Designers Hall of Fame and featured as the king of clubs in Flying Buffalo's 2009 Famous Game Designers Playing Card Deck. Gamescience is still trading, and () Zocchi is still active in the
gaming Gaming may refer to: Games and sports The act of playing games, as in: * Legalized gambling, playing games of chance for money, often referred to in law as "gaming" * Playing a role-playing game, in which players assume fictional roles * Playing ...
community. He later joined the Alabama State Defense Force and held the rank of Colonel.


Study of dice

Most dice, according to Zocchi, do not roll accurately because of flawed manufacturing processes. The dice favor certain numbers and are more likely to land on those numbers. Zocchi believes the "superstition" of many gamers who use specific dice to roll high and others to roll low results from the fact that major dice manufacturers smooth out the straight edges of their dice in machines much like rock tumblers. The result is that plastic dice originally molded evenly are unevened and unbalanced, making them more likely to land on some numbers than on others. Zocchi demonstrates the imperfections of dice with statistical results (showing uneven distribution of rolled die values) and with photographs of uneven die edges, faces and vertices. His demonstrations are sales pitches for his precision edged dice (with sharp edges) manufactured by his company, Gamescience. Tests by Jason Mills in 1987 and published in ''White Dwarf'' magazine showed that his Zocchihedron had a significantly uneven number distribution. Right after that article came out, Zocchi adjusted the numbering of the Zocchihedron to correct the distribution and claims that the d100 now rolls rightly, whereas the original Zocchihedron had all the mid-range numbers clustered at the equator. The modified layout assigns one number from each tens-cluster to each ring of numbers around the die. Only white dice with black numbers use the older number distribution. Corrected dice are manufactured in other colors. However, while this "correction" will prevent the Zocchihedron from biasing against very high and very low numbers, the distribution of the individual numbers themselves will remain to be proven by tests. Due to safety concerns, the
4-sided die Four-sided dice, abbreviated d4, are often used in tabletop role-playing games to obtain random integers in the range 1–4. Forms Several forms exist of this die. One is a regular tetrahedron, which is a triangular pyramid with four equilatera ...
(or d4) produced by Gamescience has truncated points. Zocchi has invented and produced several "non-standard" dice. These are a 3-sided die, a 5-sided die, a 14-sided die, a 16-sided die, and a 24-sided die. All these except the 7-sided (d7) are available in high-impact translucent plastic. The 7 sided die Zocchi was invented by Bernard Beruter of Canada.


How to $ell Your Wargame Design

''How to $ell Your Wargame Design'' is a book about how to successfully sell a board wargame design that was written and self-published by Zocchi in 1975. As game designer
Stephen V. Cole Stephen V. Cole is an Americans, American game designer and the CEO of Amarillo Design Bureau (also known as ADB or, incorrectly, Starfleet Games) which publishes ''Star Fleet Battles'', ''Federation and Empire'', ''Federation Commander'', ''Prim ...
noted, Zocchi ran a seminar every year at
Gen Con Gen Con is the largest tabletop game convention in North America by both attendance and number of events. It features traditional pen-and-paper, board, and card games, including role-playing games, miniatures wargames, live action role-playing ...
on "starting a game company and selling your wargame design." Zocchi distilled this into a 16-page book that he self-published, ''How to $ell Your Wargame Design'', with the intent to help other game designers get their games published. The book includes a list of game publishers, as well as various publishing goods and services for the person wanting to self-publish.


Reception

In Issue 35 of ''
The Space Gamer ''The Space Gamer'' was a magazine dedicated to the subject of science fiction and fantasy board games and tabletop role-playing games. It quickly grew in importance and was an important and influential magazine in its subject matter from the la ...
'' January 1981), American game designer Steve Jackson noted the book's largest drawback was that it verged on being out of date: "Most of the basic advice is still sound, but many of the names on those lists are certainly obsolete. And ''don't'' take the copyright advice. The laws have changed since Lou wrote this book." Jackson also warned that the result would not be pretty, since Zocchi was advising self-publishers how to save money. "It tells you how to do a cheap-looking job without spending every cent you own." Despite this, Jackson concluded, "On the whole, I recommend this book highly. I wish I'd seen it a year ago. If you ever intend to see a design professionally, order this one."


References


External links

* *US patents , and . *Interview with Zocchi discussing his dice
Part 1Part 2
at
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*Ten-thousand roll statistic comparison of Chessex and Lou Zocchi's dice: http://www.awesomedice.com/blog/353/d20-dice-randomness-test-chessex-vs-gamescience/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Zocchi, Lou Living people American board game designers Dice United States Air Force airmen Wargame designers Year of birth missing (living people)