Rolling lots of D6s

[aylwin13]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

What Jagged said.

[Maur]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Holding tons of dice in your hand before attacking that villain is a simple pleasure but one I enjoy. So I have no idea why you'd want to roll less dice

 

Dice scatter is one reason. And is the reason I built my own lego dice tower for rolling lots of dice and keeping them confined. Another reason is speed up in the game. Even using clustering by 10's and other methods, it still takes more time the more dice one has to add up.

 

As for why 3 per die instead of 3.5. Well, you don't want to roll them, so A) you take a small penalty on the dice you don't roll and gets rid of the fraction for odd number of dice.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

It is only sindyr who doesn't want to roll them. I know Mr Long is good, but creating a rule to satisfy one player years before they even start - that's dedication to customer satisfaction

 

PS Lego dice rolling tower. I'm in awe.

[Hugh Neilson]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

As for why 3 per die instead of 3.5. Well' date=' you don't want to roll them, so A) you take a small penalty on the dice you don't roll[/quote']

 

Then I want to roll them, keep the benefits of volatility (ie standard effect even without that round down is a loss of power) and annoy you as I add them up on my fingers and toes.

 

and gets rid of the fraction for odd number of dice.

 

Rounding the total down is equally effective in this regard. Or just require all Standard Effects leave dice thrown for any odd numbers. Or let the builder of the power choose.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Then I want to roll them, keep the benefits of volatility (ie standard effect even without that round down is a loss of power) and annoy you as I add them up on my fingers and toes.

 

 

Did you know you can count up to 1023 on your fingers, if you count in binary? Talk about aggravating...

[lemming]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

The quickest way I find to count up how much you've rolled is group everything by tens. First by pairs, (six + four, five + five), then triples, and so on. As you group them, slide them to the side into groups of five. Then you can quickly count that up. For body, you count up the sixes, subtract the ones and that's how up or down you are on body. I used to run in a very high powered game with a speedster that could do eight 24d6 movebys. And was accurate enough with enough movement to do 6-10 per phase. Speed 12. I broke a 1000 dice in one round and didn't slow down the game with counting, though I never wanted to do that again.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

The quickest way I find to count up how much you've rolled is group everything by tens. First by pairs' date=' (six + four, five + five), then triples, and so on. As you group them, slide them to the side into groups of five. Then you can quickly count that up. For body, you count up the sixes, subtract the ones and that's how up or down you are on body. I used to run in a very high powered game with a speedster that could do eight 24d6 movebys. And was accurate enough with enough movement to do 6-10 per phase. Speed 12. I broke a 1000 dice in one round and didn't slow down the game with counting, though I never wanted to do that again.[/quote']

 

 

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[aylwin13]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

The quickest way I find to count up how much you've rolled is group everything by tens. First by pairs' date=' (six + four, five + five), then triples, and so on. As you group them, slide them to the side into groups of five. Then you can quickly count that up. For body, you count up the sixes, subtract the ones and that's how up or down you are on body. I used to run in a very high powered game with a speedster that could do eight 24d6 movebys. And was accurate enough with enough movement to do 6-10 per phase. Speed 12. I broke a 1000 dice in one round and didn't slow down the game with counting, though I never wanted to do that again.[/quote']

 

I don't think that we have 1000 dice between all of our players. We'd have to roll a hundred and multiply by 10.

 

And you use the exact method that we do. It's very quick, once you get it down.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

My method involves this huge box, subdivided into hundreds of numbered compartments. I get a pair of really decent bolt cutters, or a hack saw, roll the dice then chop each one into the exact number showing on the top. I put one piece in each of the individually numbered compartments starting at '1' and going in order, then, when I'm finished, I just look at the number I've got up to and that is the total.

 

I can't currently recall how I total up Body.

 

You can often get through several phases of combat a month once you've got the hang of it, but you need to start with about 12000 dice.

 

Sean 'Helpful AND Practical' Waters

[aylwin13]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

My method involves this huge box, subdivided into hundreds of numbered compartments. I get a pair of really decent bolt cutters, or a hack saw, roll the dice then chop each one into the exact number showing on the top. I put one piece in each of the individually numbered compartments starting at '1' and going in order, then, when I'm finished, I just look at the number I've got up to and that is the total.

 

I can't currently recall how I total up Body.

 

You can often get through several phases of combat a month once you've got the hang of it, but you need to start with about 12000 dice.

 

Sean 'Helpful AND Practical' Waters

 

Note to self: Buy stock in dice

[Maur]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

It is only sindyr who doesn't want to roll them. I know Mr Long is good, but creating a rule to satisfy one player years before they even start - that's dedication to customer satisfaction

 

PS Lego dice rolling tower. I'm in awe.

 

Boredom + Ingenuity = http://www.daemonstorm.com/role-playing/accessory/Lego-Dice-Tower

 

I need to go to the LEGO store again and find some more blocks to rebuild the front. Right now I have 2x1 transparent bricks making up sections of the front so you can see through, but they are a weakness in the structure as they don't have any offset overlap with surrounding bricks. So, time to get some more and make the whole front transparent I also want to make it so it folds down for transport rather than pulling the tower off the base, heheh.

[Sean Waters]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Boredom + Ingenuity = http://www.daemonstorm.com/role-playing/accessory/Lego-Dice-Tower

 

I need to go to the LEGO store again and find some more blocks to rebuild the front. Right now I have 2x1 transparent bricks making up sections of the front so you can see through, but they are a weakness in the structure as they don't have any offset overlap with surrounding bricks. So, time to get some more and make the whole front transparent I also want to make it so it folds down for transport rather than pulling the tower off the base, heheh.

 

Astonishing bit of kit! Does it have a self destruct?

[aylwin13]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

If I remember my Legos, pushing it off of the table onto floor should do it.

[lemming]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

I don't think that we have 1000 dice between all of our players. We'd have to roll a hundred and multiply by 10.

 

And you use the exact method that we do. It's very quick, once you get it down.

 

Well, I was rolling 24d6 at a time, though I probably do have around 1000 dice...

[lemming]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Hmm, I'll have to build a tower for my DDC run this year. Don't know why I didn't before!

[aylwin13]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Well' date=' I was rolling 24d6 at a time, though I probably do have around 1000 dice...[/quote']

Misread your post. I saw all those zeros and went into shock.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

My method involves this huge box, subdivided into hundreds of numbered compartments. I get a pair of really decent bolt cutters, or a hack saw, roll the dice then chop each one into the exact number showing on the top. I put one piece in each of the individually numbered compartments starting at '1' and going in order, then, when I'm finished, I just look at the number I've got up to and that is the total.

 

I can't currently recall how I total up Body.

 

You can often get through several phases of combat a month once you've got the hang of it, but you need to start with about 12000 dice.

 

Sean 'Helpful AND Practical' Waters

 

 

You must spread rep . . .

[Klaus Mogensen]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

I also use the groups-of-10 method without problems. However, if you do want an alternative, you could use this substitution:

 

Instead of 5d6, roll d20+7. Body = half the d20 roll, rounded down.

 

It's not an exact substitution, but it has the right average and a not-too-dissimilar spread.

 

- Klaus

[Maur]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Right average, wrong distribution and variance.

[Klaus Mogensen]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Right average' date=' wrong distribution and variance.[/quote']

I know - you can't really simulate 5d6 accurately simpler than just rolling 5d6. d20+7 has approximately 50% greater spread than 5d6 and a flat distribution.

 

- Klaus

[Jagged]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

If you really hate rolling Dice I think the sensible alternative is something like RpTools DiceTool

 

Still think nothing beats the fun of trying to hold all those dice in you hand because your flying team mate has dive boomed your brick character into the villain and you actually managed to hit, despite all the velocity minuses

 

I got embedded in the back of a Dinosaur that way once

[Tech]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

Use any of these suggestions to quickly get dice rolls but me, I like rolling all those dice, and so do my friends and brothers... especially if the villain's got it coming to him!

[Markdoc]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

I never quite understood that.

 

...

 

The only 'advantage' of SE is the predictability, but, really, that predictability is false - the chances of getting less than 35 on 12d6 are well under 10%, and the situations in which you absolutely must roll 35 are pretty vanishingly small. To me the disadvantages far, far outweigh the advantages.

 

To me, Standard effect has always been a tool specifically for building precise effects. So, I agree you wouldn't want to use it for EB, or really pretty much anything that has to beat defences. But for things like transform, aid, etc where you want to be able to pre-define effects, it's useful. To take an example, for an Aid defined as increased SPD, it's convenient to know that the first time it kicks in, you increase one point of SPD and the second time, two more. A random 5d6 roll roll might give +2 SPD off a first lucky roll, but it might also fail to give you any. The same goes for things like transforms which are defined as changing X into Y, a healing spell, etc.

 

In general, these are powers are those with cumulative effects, so standard effect lets you say "In 2 rolls this power hits maximum effect".

 

cheers, Mark

[Sean Waters]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

To me, Standard effect has always been a tool specifically for building precise effects. So, I agree you wouldn't want to use it for EB, or really pretty much anything that has to beat defences. But for things like transform, aid, etc where you want to be able to pre-define effects, it's useful. To take an example, for an Aid defined as increased SPD, it's convenient to know that the first time it kicks in, you increase one point of SPD and the second time, two more. A random 5d6 roll roll might give +2 SPD off a first lucky roll, but it might also fail to give you any. The same goes for things like transforms which are defined as changing X into Y, a healing spell, etc.

 

In general, these are powers are those with cumulative effects, so standard effect lets you say "In 2 rolls this power hits maximum effect".

 

cheers, Mark

 

That would be true if there was any way currently to get a standard effect of 2, but SE for 1 pip is +1 and ALSO for 1/2d6, then it goes to +3.

 

You can do 1 pip twice but that is just messy.

 

Even getting a precise result you are still losing out most of the time and I do not believe that the very small percentage of cases where it matters is worth the loss. Others may disagree.

 

Also, unless you are rolling very small numbers of dice the chances of NOT getting maximum effect in 2 rolls is minimal.

 

With small dice numbers (no more than 3 or 4, I'd say), SE may be worth it. Over that never, no way, I'd say

[Kdansky]

Re: Rolling lots of D6s

 

I use the "roll some amount of dice and add +3.5 * rest of dice" for very large amounts of dice, usually in 10's (10d6 is 35, very easy for calculations).

 

25d6? 5d6 + 70, but this is an extreme example. I'd probably rather do 15d6 + 35 to preserve the bell curve as close as possible. Since I have about 15d6 equal d6, everything above that becomes fixed.

 

Standard Effect rules with 1d6 = 3 are just messed up. I houserule those as 1d6 = 3.5 usually, might depend on the power and number of dice.

 

I would like to be able to do things like Energy Blasts using d8's or d10's (for more spread), or d4's for less. Or declare: "My EB is always 5d6 + 21 instead of 11d6", but then, that probably should be reflected in cost somehow. After all, I'd highly prefer (munchkin-wise) 1d90 instead of 15d6, since that gives me a 30% or so chance of instagibbing anyone.