TOPIC: Randomized D20....

a minute or two out of 12 is a sizable chunk of time.

Wade Schwendemann wrote: a minute or two out of 12 is a sizable chunk of time.

It felt like a year.

David Harris wrote: What about these?

Foam D20s

As they are foam you can give them a good roll and not harm tables or people.

And I've seem more than one GM who seem to always carefully roll11-20, and a couple that seemed to always roll low.

Rumor has it that some DMs will toss the die a certain way throwing the number they want, but still making a lot of noise and showing a lot of action... Okay, I’ll confess to having cheated like this a time or two when my monster was hitting the newbie party three times in a row on normal and I didn’t want to the party to use all their healing in room 1. (But I did it sparingly, and only when the dice gawds seemed particularly malicious.) The technique was explained by a trainer during a DM training session years ago, for just these anomalous situations, so I don’t feel too guilty about using it.

Nightmare players get what they get.

I’ve never seen a DM use this trick against the party, but I won’t claim it never happens. It’s easier to just do bad math if that’s your game.

“You hit me on a 2!?!?”

“*shrug* sorry, dude...”

@Kirk - your math is correct (spindown and normal odds are the same, probability-wise) unless you take out the randomness. It’s like coin flips, where a skilled cheat can flip 100 heads in a row using the “catch in one hand and flip it into the back of the other” technique. I’m sure that’s why football refs let it bounce on the ground, just to avoid any questions.

I have a large foam d20 like the ones that were linked. In my opinion they would work better than the current large spin-down counters that are hard to actually roll. And if your worried about them falling off the table, just put a cardboard box out to use as a "dice tray" that can then be moved under the table after rolls are made.

Thanks, Brad. I'll take for granted that it is possible to influence the results of the rolls on these spindown dice. But I'm still trying to figure out what problem we are trying to solve. If there are DMs that we suspect are actively trying to use it to roll against the players then yes that's a problem. If we are worried about players cheating, well there are already so many ways players can cheat I'm not sure this one is a big deal compared to the others.

Kirk Bauer wrote: Thanks, Brad. I'll take for granted that it is possible to influence the results of the rolls on these spindown dice. But I'm still trying to figure out what problem we are trying to solve. If there are DMs that we suspect are actively trying to use it to roll against the players then yes that's a problem. If we are worried about players cheating, well there are already so many ways players can cheat I'm not sure this one is a big deal compared to the others.

I’m more worried about the party rolling 1-4 on saves 3-4 rounds in a row making it impossible to hit the mind flayed / take an action vs the tree creature on the rothfus Dungeon etc. due to people in a hurry not really “shaking up” the counter.

The problem with the big spindown counters is if you just pick it up, put your palm face up, then rotate your hand over as you pitch it down you’re likely to be within a few faces of your prior roll.

If it is viewed as that big of a problem and sourcing new dice isn't a cheap solution, what about big MDF dice towers? They could even be customized for the theme of the room if you do it right.

Then the DM of the room could get a feel for the room and either give parties the option of roll on the table or with the tower.

While I've not played grind yet, it sounds like you all deem it mandatory the rolls be random there. A few dollars and some creativity, problem solved.

Although a novelty - giant inflated D20's are relatively inexpensive (around $10-$15 each). If anything, they are a bit too large.

crystalcaste.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CC&Product_Code=10751&Category_Code=ID

Fred

Fiddy wrote:

Picc wrote: TD could always look into partnering with someone like crystal castle to put their logos on some dice. I would buy the heck out of a TD dice set if it were available in the merch store. Honestly its probably not much different then tokens from a factory perspective, hack could be a fun kickstarter.

Chessex is in Ft. Wayne, IN, just an extra 2 hour drive past Indy. Not too far out of the way for the TD crew to travel if they want somewhere they can easily visit the factory of. I've gotten custom dice made by them before. They seemed pretty easy to work with (though it has been a few years).

So, I actually reached out to them about true D20 and the largest they can make is 34mm which is about the size of a golf ball. I think that would be a good size, but I know some folks like the impact of the large Spindowns currently in play.

One of the DMs at Origins had a true d20 that he brought with him. It was about half the size of the big spin down D20, but still very readable for anyone paying attention.

I liked it a lot.

Wade Schwendemann wrote: One of the DMs at Origins had a true d20 that he brought with him. It was about half the size of the big spin down D20, but still very readable for anyone paying attention.

I liked it a lot.

I dont know who the DM was, but I went through the run several times during his shifts and it was pretty great. Rolling saves felt a bit more natural, and it felt more fair when he was attacking the party.

Daniel Mickey wrote:

Wade Schwendemann wrote: One of the DMs at Origins had a true d20 that he brought with him. It was about half the size of the big spin down D20, but still very readable for anyone paying attention.

I liked it a lot.

I dont know who the DM was, but I went through the run several times during his shifts and it was pretty great. Rolling saves felt a bit more natural, and it felt more fair when he was attacking the party.

I know who it was, I just didn't name names in case there could be some sort of corrective action that needed to be taken.