# Tag Info

208

A zero on a d10 counts as 10. This isn't clearly specified in the 5th edition rules, but is clearer in earlier editions of the game, and widely understood among long-time RPG players. However, we can still surmise from the D&D 5th edition rules that d10 is 1-10 like all other dice, from the following: Hit Dice by Size (Monster Manual p.7) confirms that ...

204

It doesn't do anything. As a chemist, I had to give this a try. First, I started with a die that had a clear bias toward ~18, according to the saltwater test. The first picture is the initial drop into the water, and the second is after poking the die. I put the die on a paper plate, and microwaved it for 4 minutes. I made sure to put it on its "side," ...

180

What kinds of bias can dice have? Lots of kinds, actually. Perhaps the most common accidentally occurring types of bias are: "Shaved" dice, which are not quite symmetrical, but slightly wider or narrower on one axis than on others. A shaved d6 with, say, the 1–6 axis longer than the others will roll those sides less often, making it "less swingy" ...

128

No, It's Not You can use AnyDice to visualize dice rolls really easily and see what's going on. The links will show a table with the results for each one. Here's 3d6. Here's 1d18. Here's both on the same screen for easy comparison. Aside from the obvious issue of not being able to roll 1 on 3d6 because the minimum on each die is 1, the numbers in the ...

112

OK, so the bounty notice says: The testing listed in this question hasn't actually been conducted by any of those attempting to answer the question, this question requires additional attention to determine whether or not this testing method is viable for determining a dies balance. Well, clearly this calls for science! Actually, I'm not sure what my ...

108

There are two different styles of pyramid-shaped d4 dice: The purple d4 on the left is read by having the number at the bottom be the result of the roll (in this case, a 1). The light blue d4 on the right is read by having the number at the point be the result of the roll (in this case, a 4). In both die types, the result is the number that is right side ...

96

So, I am a freelance game designer and I’ve worked on a couple of systems and with a couple of design teams, but I am a “professional” only in the strictest sense (I have been paid for my game design work). I still have a day job; I do not spend all day, day in and day out, working on game design, and that matters. But this isn’t the concern that game ...

92

Use a Rolling Tray I don't want to accuse someone of cheating if they were not, but I also don't want cheating to continue if it is in fact occurring Since another player has already mentioned it, your simple solution is to use "a rolling tray" or something similar. Any roll that does not land on the rolling tray does not count. What is a rolling ...

90

(SKILL+CONSTANT) dX, keep highest CONSTANT I don't know exactly the behavior you're going for, so there'll be a few arbitrary numbers in my example: skills can be ranked from 0 to 5 dice rolled are d12 ('cause I think they don't get enough love) we're going to keep highest 3 dice. In this case we're looking at rolling (3+SKILL) d12, keep highest 3. It gets ...

90

In common practice a d100 is effectively a 0-99 roll, with the stipulation that 0 be treated as 100 The game needs a way to roll 1 to 100 with equal chances, and no chance of getting zero. Let's start by just looking at how we are set up to roll the results from 1 to 99, and then we'll get to the special case of getting 100. In order to have a practical ...

84

Let's not overcomplicate it: a simple Nd6 + X formula will work just fine. Specifically, the effects of Greater (4d4 + 4) and Superior (8d4 + 8) healing potions are quite closely replicated by rolling 2d6 + 7 and 4d6 + 14 respectively. These formulas yield exactly the same average number of hit points healed as the originals (14 for Greater and 28 for ...

82

From what I can gather what you're asking, you want to know the probabilistic difference between rolling 10d10 and 5d20. You've rightly pointed out that each roll has the same maximum and that each has a better chance at rolling their given averages. The averages are different, which you already know. They obviously have different minimums (10 vs 5), and so ...

77

You are correct. Many old school d10s are marked 0-9 but you count the 0 as 10. If he doesn’t listen to reason, next level use one of the d10s marked 00-90 instead and demand your 45 or so hit points from that roll.

76

Playing Cards You need a source of randomness, and a deck of playing cards can do it. If you need to roll a d20, shuffle the following 20 cards and draw one: Ace of Hearts (1) 2-10 of Hearts (2-10) Ace of Spades (11) 2-10 of Spades (12-20) Essentially the hearts are the face value, and the spades are face value +10. The nice thing about this method is that ...

76

Short answer: really, practice is the only answer It's like any kind of memorization task, eventually you're going to get it, and you'll have trouble until then. But there are ways to make the memorization easier. You are going to have to correct them sometimes. Don't think of that as a failure. Just make the correction and move on. Don't default to ...

76

Yes it does. Your instinct is right. The more dice, the more likely you are to roll some 1s. If I'm reading you right you're just interested in whether any 1s appear in your rolled pool. It may not seem obvious but the easiest way to think of this is to model the probability of rolling all 2s-through-10s. That is $$P(\text{not }1)=\frac 9 {10} = 0.9$$ ...

72

Yes, a d100 is the same as 2d10 with one as the percentile. A d100 goes 1–100, a d10 goes 0-9. Neither allows you to roll a 0, because of the way you count a percentile dice. (00 on the percentile and a 6 on the other dice forms 6, 00 on one and 0 on the other is 100, no option will result in 0.) Do remember to use different colors of dice, else you will ...

68

Given the example of (2d6)×2 (henceforth referred to as 'Doubled Damage') vs (4d6) (referred to as 'Doubled Dice'): When you double the damage rolled instead of doubling the dice rolled, you create a more evenly distributed curve. Using either method, you have the best odds of rolling the average damage for the dice you are using but in the doubled ...

67

You read one die as the 10s place and the other die as the 1s place. Traditionally, (00, 0) means 100 instead of 0. Your set is marked to make forgetting which die is which, intentionally or accidentally, impossible. 10s| 1s | Reads as 00 1 1 00 2 2 10 0 10 30 1 31 50 6 56 80 9 89 90 0 90 90 1 91 90 ...

67

GURPS uses 6-side dice for practically everything. It's more economical to refer to them as simply "d" rather than "d6." GURPS uses six-sided dice only […] GURPS uses the "dice+adds" system […] "3d-3" means "roll 3 dice and subtract 3 from the total." (GURPS 4e Basic Set: Characters, p. 9) So you should ...

66

This is a classic clustering fallacy Wikipedia defines the clustering fallacy as: ...the tendency to erroneously consider the inevitable "streaks" or "clusters" arising in small samples from random distributions to be non-random. Basically, a perfectly random die will have long (potentially very long) steaks of seemingly non-random behavior, either very ...

64

It's pretty trivial if you allow occasional discarding of rolls/rerolls. d2 (gonna need this later): if result is odd, read as a 1. If result is even, read as a 0. d4: discard any results of 5 or 6.* d5 (gonna need this, too): discard any result of 6. d6: done. d8: roll d2 and d4. Result is d2×4 + d4. d10: roll d2 and d5. Result is d2×5 + d5. d12: roll d2 ...

63

You have it -- roll the D6, if you roll a 6, roll again. You'll get a flat probability curve. Alternatively, you could roll a D10 or D20, and integer divide the result by 2 or 4 respectively (that is, 1 or 2 on the D10 become 1, 3 or 4 become 2, etc.) -- whatever is comfortable for you.

63

Talk to your players Seriously. This is the very first step. Do not accuse anyone, just talk. There may be many reasons for cheating on dice: Failed roll ruined otherwise good plan that had 90% chances of success and player is afraid of it happening again. Character is weaker than the group and character (or worse, player) was ridiculed for this. Player ...

61

You might want to take some inspiration from the game Paranoia.* In particular, instead of trying to avoid hidden notes, make note-passing between the GM and players a common and ubiquitous mechanic in your game, so that no single note stands out as unusually suspicious in any particular situation. Combined with a mechanic where the GM is the final arbiter ...

60

Look at the pips a certain way Tell your kids that the pips on the dice represent where you hit. A pip in the center means that you hit on-target, a pip on the sides means that you missed. As special rules if you miss 6 times then you get tired, so that can cancel out another hit, and if you only hit once on-target then it is a power hit and counts double. ...

60

I went and Googled for the numbers, and the first (and currently only) result was US patent 7815191B2 titled "Equals: the game of strategy for the basic facts". The abstract reads: "An open rectangular prism with rotating cubes on dowel rods, two 12-sided dice, and three 20-sided dice invented with an accompanying method of use to function ...

57

Yes, this works: in statistics, it's known as rejection sampling. The very slight problem is that you could roll a large number of consecutive sixes so you can't guarantee that the procedure will finish within any particular amount of time. However, the average number of dice rolls needed is just 1.2 and there's less than a 0.5% chance of needing more than ...

56

Gamescience, a dice manufacturer, calls such a die simply a d20 0–9 Twice. Yours appears to be this one, and, as of this writing, it appears you can buy more. However, you may not need to. The owner of such dice usually colors in at least half the numbers himself—wax crayons used to be included with dice sets for exactly this reason, but paint or, I guess, ...

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