In reply to Surgere (msg # 1252):

I can’t say I’ve experienced of the things you wrote about, but I’m here for you if it makes you feel less alone, because I know how that feels.

The fact that you want to change makes me think that you probably will. I second what icosahedron152 said: get a decent education and go so something great with your life. There are definitely places where they will consider you for employment in public services even if you have a criminal record.

Good luck with where you’re going!

This message was deleted by the user at 06:39, Wed 11 July 2018.

I don't know what it is but I really don't like using the dice roller. Feels like we rarely get any good rolls.

Probably it's because it feels like it's more out of our hands than when rolling real physical dice and it's all in my head. I mean, I've had some pretty terrible dice rolls with real dice, but then at least I can change dice and feel like my luck might change.

All in my head I know. But argh! Out of the last 11 Perception rolls (D&D5E) we've done, only 3 have been over 11. Frustrating, lol.

In reply to trollnystan (msg # 1257):

On the other hand, there is zero chance of your dice rolling into the domain of your cat, knocking over the DM screen, bouncing into the bean dip, knocking over the other die roll you were waiting for the DM to look at, getting lost among your pile of other dice, rolling across the party treasurer's calculator, or landing corner-up in the middle of your PHB. And the dice in the die roller never, ever smell funny.

And for the dragon who died of Phantasmal Killer, I can't see why your DM didn't just substitute a bigger dragon for his Bigbad. Nothing else really needed to be done, except maybe changing the flavor text, so that it keeps pointing out that the other dragon is bigger.

And the bigger dragon needs a name. I suggest, "Mom."

That's how I would have handled it, anyway.
This message was last edited by the user at 17:00, Thu 26 July 2018.

In reply to LordXenophon (msg # 1258):

Ha true! Although we have as a rule in our IRL games that only rolls in the dice trays - we made ours out of empty kleenex boxes - count. Which can be a different kind of frustrating when the die lands outside the box and it's a natural 20 xD

What has happened as a result of those low rolls?

My goal when I GM is not to call for or make rolls unless every possible outcome of the dice will be acceptable, i.e. not ruin enjoyment. Otherwise it's like I'm gambling with the fun of the game itself, putting that at stake, which is pointless. Some things, like combat rolls in D&D, can generally only have disappointing, uninteresting results on a failure, but I ask that my players be prepared to deal with as many as three bad rolls in a row, because there's a relatively good chance of that happening. If they feel the least bit frustrated by such a string of rolls, then I ask what needs to change for them not to feel that way.

Suspicion and dislike of the dice roller (and any computerized dice roller) is not uncommon, but there's really no evidence that it's faulty.

That's why I grew to love Dungeon world. Bad rolls give you xp. And build tension. Everyone's happy :)

In reply to engine (msg # 1261):

Gremlins live in the dice rollers, only explenation to how horribly it rolls for everyone.

    I have  homebrew system for  2 of my games and  semi-D&D... I use  rolls to randomize  outcomes... even an all star can trip  and  Fall, even a Klutz  can   get a lucky hit.


  I also make  my system  so there is no 'min -max'..you build your people  how you want them to be.... the dice  rolls change  from time to time  with the Mods   either  adding or subtracting ( depending on which way it goes)

 but the  most important thing  is the RP?... if  dice rolls are being used  too much, you may as well just have an arena  game.

Now I've recently had the opposite experience - yet the same, if you know what I mean. I'm using 1D6 roll-under, and in the last 60 rolls, you'd expect each number to come up ten times, right? Give or take.

Guess how often the magic 1 came up in 60 rolls?

Three times!

What are the odds of that?

No, seriously, what are the odds? I'm no statistician.

When you want the darn thing to roll high, it rolls low, and when you want it to roll low, it rolls high. :(

And the interesting thing is that, after numerous complaints about the roller always giving low results (and people refusing to believe that it had been properly tested) jase secretly switched it around... final results of a roll were calculated as (d+1)-x, where d is the number of faces on the die, and x is the actual roll.

So consistently low rolls would produce consistently high results.  Right?

And the number of complaints about low results didn't change in the slightest...

See... it's like this.  Somehow the roller knows if you want high numbers or low numbers, and it will always screw you over.  If it had an alignment, it would be Random Evil.

In reply to bigbadron (msg # 1266):

And another proof of Gremlins in the computers is given. Evil little buggers they are.

For those not mathematically inclined, that means that you get the following results table (with (semi)random values input to show how it works).


So, as Ron said, the more you roll actually low numbers, the more you should be seeing high results.


The Desire Sensor, as we call it in the Monster Hunter community. It knows. It always knows. You cannot avoid it. You cannot fool it. The Desire Sensor does as it pleases, and it does only to please itself.

Well, the odds of one of six numbers not coming up in 20 rolls is:

(probability of other 5 numbers coming up)^20 = (5/6)^20 = 0.026 = 2.6%

The odds of that happening three times, would be 0.0017%. 17 in every 10000 times.

(Edit: Figured another way:
chance of rolling 57 non-1s = (5/6)^57 = 0.003%. 30 in 1000 times.)

Which doesn't actually tell us that much. It could happen again on your next 60 rolls or it might not never happen to you again. That wouldn't tell us anything about the dice roller, really.

Other interesting facts:
Odds of rolling a 20 on 1d20: 5%
Odds of rolling anything but a 20 fifty-eight times in a row: 5%

Odds of rolling a 1 on 1d6: 16.6%
Odds of rolling anything but a 1 ten times in a row: 16.1%

Odds of rolling an 18 on 3d6: 0.46%
Odds of rolling six ability scores no higher than 10: about 0.46%
This message was last edited by the user at 19:04, Thu 26 July 2018.

Another useless statistical fact:

The smaller your damage die, the greater your chances of rolling maximum damage. The guy with a 1d4 dagger will do max damage 1/4 of the time. The guy with a 1d8 longsword will do max damage exactly half as often, only 1/8 of the time!

Yep, though the same goes for minimum damage and the average damage from the longsword (4.5) is higher than the maximum damage of the dagger. Maximum damage feels good, but it isn't everything.

In reply to engine (msg # 1271):

But it does serve to show you how misleading statistics can be.

Thanks engine. Am I missing something? Shouldn't both your ways of working the same problem give the same result? ie shouldn't 0.0017 = 0.003?

Either way, it looks like the chances of rolling three 1s in 60D6 is around the same level as rolling two twenties in succession on 1D20. Which is rare, but not totally unheard of. Somewhere between 1 in 300 and 1 in 1000.

Dice, real or virtual, are just inherently untrustworthy.

I think the second method is more correct. I think the first method is more like the chances of not rolling any of that number in 60 rolls. It's within a factor of two of the other answer, so if this were engineering we'd say they were the same result.

Edit:

You can't trust them to roll the way you want, and you're likely to remember when they don't more than when they do. But if one can get to a space where they don't care which outcome they get, then I tend to find that dice and other random number generators stop seeming to have any kind of agency.
This message was last edited by the user at 13:58, Fri 27 July 2018.

During the past couple of weeks, there has been noticeable attempts by the property manager of our apartment complex to do maintenance to the grounds - fresh mulch spread, tree service cutting down stray limbs, entire shrubs cut down. There was also a rented cherry-picker in front of the mgmt office on the same day I saw someone coming out with a floor buffer. The fountain in front of the office also got a face-lift.

This past week, tenants (including us) received multiple afternoon notices to tell us they would be entering our apartments under vague circumstances the next morning (a property inspector first, then an exterminator).

Now I'm not Sherlock Holmes, but everything about this stinks of the property being sold.

Today, my family was gone from approx 9a to 2p. At about 7p, we discovered a small tin on our printer in corner of the living room sitting atop of piece of orange paper. The paper was an notice that a "Nova Consulting Group" had been given permission by the property management to enter our unit and leave a radon detection unit (the tin) for the weekend and was not to be disturbed.

So someone entered our locked townhouse with us not here for a non-emergent situation and without notifying us either 24 hours prior or leaving a notice on our door that they had been here.

I have checked, and this was illegal per state law.

I have sent an e-mail to the property manager asking why this happened. If she doesn't answer to my satisfaction, I will be contacting the company who owns the property to express my concerns. I am worried that if they are looking to unload the property that they won't really care how we are being treated. I am also concerned about the fact our lease is about to expire. We have been asked if we want to renew and agreed to do so, but we haven't put ink on paper yet. I am worried they are going to try to put it off pending a sale and screw us over. Because of my ailing hands, I've been out of work for a couple years, so moving is not really an option.

Just more seedless green graping stress that I really do not need...

Yeah, that sounds like something you want to get info on -right quick-, and don't sign anything til you know what's going on. I've had a single bad experience in that light, but it was horrible enough to eventually create some pretty serious long-term problems and an eventual broken lease. Check, find out if someone's taking over, who they are, and what they're like. Make your choice an informed one.

Also? Screw those guys for coming in without warning. That stuff is seriously wrong.

Lovely they are setting themselves up for a nice large law suit by multiple tenents. Seems they want to get arrested or end up settling by selling the property to the tenents. (This is one way Condo's come in to being. At least according to my admittedly limited understanding of such things.)

I've been in the situation ShadoPrism describes.  "Buy your apartment which is now, suddenly, a condo or we'll find someone to buy it for you.


Also, in my experience:   I'd rented an apartment that was part of a ponzie scheme! I didn't realize this while I lived there - I just happened to do an internet search a year or so after I left the apartments.  "Ah, so that's why they never fixed anything...."  So my piece of advice is to keep an eye on the interwebs - see if you can find a pending sale with the current ownership - and see if you can find out anything about the intended buyers.  Might give you a good clue wheter to stay or leave.

In reply to jwneil (msg # 1278):

Any realtor can tell you whether the building has been listed. The nature of the inspections suggest that a potential buyer has already been found, so there should be a record of the listing by now.