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I recently noticed that my new green d20 has the high numbers on one side and the low numbers on the other. All my other d20s are mixed. Oddly enough, this one rolls better for me. Or well, so it seems if I ignore the laws of probability.
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I was always under the assumption that numbers on any “legal” die are opposite plus over one in a descending order. For instance on most d20′s the 20 is opposite of the 1 and the 19 is next to the 1.
Superstitiously I ban misprinted dice from our table, for they bring the wrath of she who must not be named. (For as soon as you name her, she is gone.)
Those are sometimes called “spindown” dice, since you can spin that one side to always ensure high numbers. They’re specifically illegal in some games.
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I’ve seen dice printed in a manner other than mixed (but maybe it’s because I haven’t been looking). While it really shouldn’t make a difference, gamers (myself included) can be rather superstitious when it comes to dice. There is also the notion that the roller and not the dice are responsible for luck. I have a friend that won’t let me touch her dice.
I also have certain dice I use for certain purposes. My GM d20 is Mean Green, a large d20 that seems determined to roll however will give a humorous result. Low level monster against trashing talking PC – natural 20. Big Bad versus lowbies that opened the wrong door – a series of 1s. I also use different dice for different characters when I’m a player.
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Different d20s for different systems…and my lucky character creation d6s…only times I’ve had dead characters are when I’ve rolled with someone else’s dice during creation…
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Actually it’s easier to cheat/force a result when all the results in one side are of one particular group of values. If all high numbers are up with only a small amount of practice you may learn to roll and land the dice up more than 50% of the time. Sometimes people roll in certain ways that are less random, even when they aren’t trying to cheat, so having a mixed die gives you more random rolls even if you usually roll them always in a certain way.
Interesting! So I have cheating dice if I can learn how to throw it the right way? Sweet!
Hahahaha, nah, I don’t cheat. Not worth it.
OK, I’m not a gamer, so forgive my ignorance: has anyone ever “tested” the dice to see if they’re actually producing more predictable results??
I dunno – whole “dice” things seems alien. I’ll check back in when the dating articles pick up again!
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I’m a Magic the Gathering goober myself (never had the patience or a good group for D&D), and from that perspective, the spindown variety of d20 is vastly superior to the mixed variety, because they make great 20 point life counters.
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You don’t have to ‘test’ the dice to know if it can make a difference.
The entire concept of ‘loaded dice’ is that you weight one side more than the other (or alternately shave one side slightly so the corners are more rounded). Either of these can result in the die coming to a rest with one side uppermost more often than the other. And if one side of the die averages higher than the other, this then allows a ‘cheater die’ to be created.
I’m not in any way implying that the particular die under discussion is weighted. Only that the reason dice are normally designed so that the average of two opposing sides is the same as the average of the die as a whole is to prevent exactly that.
If you want to know whether your die in particular is weighted you would have to roll it several hundred times and do some statistics (there was, as I recall, an article in The Dragon some years back on the subject for those who forgot or never knew their statistics.
Carl
One of my players who was also into MTG came to me with a new d20 dice one day.
We’ve been rolling it for years before we discovered that the numbers were arranged in order which explained why some days it just rolled badly and other days it was rolling 20s in streaks.
I think it’s illegal because the dice wasn’t random enough and the IS a way to throw it for the high numbers.
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If there’s a day when I have nothing better to do, I should test out that die to see if it rolls better than my other d20s. Hmmmm…
I am very specific that dice are mixed in my games. As the purpose of the dice is to be random, it can cause issues if they are the spindown variety.
I am also specific about how they much land; on the table, all dice flat (one cocked die means the whole set is re-rolled except for damage).
I know all this sounds wierd, but I have been gaming for almost 30 years. You pick up a few things in that time…
Since I play GURPS, all of the dice at my table are d6, unless I use the Killer Crosshairs supplement which needs a d20. I add a few odd sets of dice to the table for decision making as a GM that seems like I am like a Shaman using “Bones.” It adds that extra edge that keeps the players guessing…
I have certain dice that I will not let anyone use for play and they must talk to me before touching. If they do, I cleanse them by rolling them a bunch of times.
All of this simply to add a layer of mystique to the table during the games that I run. I tell them that my dice always roll for the benefit of the story. But, according the GM rules*, I don’t even look at them.
What are the GM rules*, you ask?
1) There are not rules.
2) Cheat anyway.
^_^
* This is from the book Play Dirty, by John Wick.
bonkers ive never looked that closedly i choose my dice becuase they are ugly yellow or ugly brown colour that way i know my dice are mine and not the pitty elemental spotty speckled metal small dice dice of my players .. my ugly dice dotn actuly roll that well i think i’ll look closer and possible change… i’ll let you know if my dice are diffrent to my players..
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I’ve never noticed any with the numbers grouped. I’ll have to get my dice bag out and look. I have a couple that 0-9,0-9.
@ Milarky – I should have a poll about whether “pretty” dice roll better than “ugly” dice.
Anybody have any thoughts on that?
The ‘countdown’ dice like that are made for games like Magic the Gathering, where you want to be able to find the next number quickly to proceed with the game. Legal rolling dice are always the max number + 1 when you add sides together (d6 are 6 opposite of 1, 5 opposite 2, 4 opposite 3; d10 are 10 opposite 1, 9 opposite 2; d8 are 8 opposite 1, etc).
Interesting. That d20 I got came with a set… just struck me odd that it was different than my other ones. So far nobody’s outlawed it, tho!
Mainly because I still manage to roll single digits.
I’d take any that role high
I really like easy to read ones though….My Dad used a d6+d10 until 2002… He didn’t even own a d20 until then when a DM at a con asked him to switch because he couldn’t read it easily. (For those that don’t know apparently d20s were not widely available when D&D first came out so d10s+d6s where used. 1-3 = d10, 4-6=d10+10.)
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