Comments on: Very odd odds: Unusual dice

By: The skeleton of simple wargame « Swords & Dorkery

The skeleton of simple wargame « Swords & Dorkery — Mon, 02 May 2011 10:12:30 +0000

[...] Skulls in the stars has a neat little post about unusual dice. Check it out. I am especially enamored of the rock/paper/scissors (“Nontransitive”) dice, and it got me thinking about how you could use those dice in a war game. Image from Skulls in the Stars [...]

By: skullsinthestars

skullsinthestars — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:34:36 +0000

Sounds reasonable — I’m going to check the #’s myself tomorrow, out of curiosity.

By: mikemonaco

mikemonaco — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 19:38:05 +0000

At lunch I scribbled out a table that seems to suggest that the 6-2 die beats the 4-0 die 5/9 of the time, so that’s a slight edge.

By: skullsinthestars

skullsinthestars — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:53:30 +0000

“But how do the nontransitive dice that are “across” from each other compare?”

That’s a good question, and I’m not sure — I’ll have to look into it! (Or play with it — my dice should be arriving any day now.) I was thinking that NT dice could form the basis of some sort of game, but I’m a little too rusty in my game mechanics to see personally how to pull it off.

Interesting chart, too — it *does* really seem to suggest a NT dice approach…

By: mikemonaco

mikemonaco — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:35:18 +0000

This is a very interesting bit of dice trivia.

But how do the nontransitive dice that are “across” from each other compare?
The 3 and 5/1 dice seem evenly matched but it is not as obvious to me with the other two. One immediate application for these dice I can see is a simple wargame. Look at this diagram:
http://www.xenograg.com/194/excerpts/tactical-capabilities-of-medieval-weapon-systems

I’ll have to think about this. Thanks!

By: Zer

Zer — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 16:27:52 +0000

If you are going to play with dice, you may have noticed most dice do not follow the standard deviation. You’ll probably want to get some of L.Zocchi’s Game science dice, for a true random chance at each face turning up.

By: skullsinthestars

skullsinthestars — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:26:26 +0000

“See, I missed the whole D&D craze — fundamentalist upbringing, and the game just seemed so DEMONIC to the authority figures in my life.”

Ah, I was the opposite — if there was something that fundamentalists accused of being associated with Satan, I was into it: DnD, heavy metal, violent video games, liberalism, Proctor & Gamble products. I’ve (seemingly) turned out okay, though.

I actually credit DnD with teaching me a LOT about mathematics in general, and probability in particular. One becomes very good at calculating odds in one’s head: a very important feat when you’re deciding whether to attack that 20th level wizard who is threatening to hit you with a fireball.

Good luck with the book, and the Vegas trip!

By: Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer Ouellette — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:32:43 +0000

See, I missed the whole D&D craze — fundamentalist upbringing, and the game just seemed so DEMONIC to the authority figures in my life. I’m actually writing a book about learning calculus, and the chapter on the calculus of probability will use throwing dice/craps as an illustrative example. Hence, the trip to Vegas later this month! There goes the book advance…

By: skullsinthestars

skullsinthestars — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:13:59 +0000

Jennifer wrote: “Perhaps you had an unusual upbringing.”

Well, I was playing lots of DnD, so I had all those dice laying around…

Glad you enjoyed the post!

By: Jennifer Ouellette

Jennifer Ouellette — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:25:02 +0000

“Most of us” have played craps?? Perhaps you had an unusual upbringing. I am learning, however, later this month, so thanks for the fascinating post…