What dice-roll probability questions do you have?

dylanarena · Mar 9, 2007

Hello everyone,

I'm writing a software package to provide answers to the kinds of probability questions gamers have. The first function I wrote deals with a question raised in this forum, viz., what's the average outcome of rolling X d6, dropping Y of them, and summing the remaining dice? It also answers the related question of what's the probability of any particular outcome from such a roll.

But now that it's written, I'd like to hear from all of you about what other dice-roll probability questions you'd like answered. What have you wondered at the gaming table (and maybe even thought briefly about scratching out a calculation (or program) to solve)?

There's a non-d20 game called Weapons of the Gods that uses a multiple-d10 rolling system where duplicates (e.g., two '3' rolls) up the total by 10, so you might wonder what's the probability of rolling duplicates when rolling 5d10?

Or you might want to know how likely it is you'll hit AC 25 with your bastard sword--perhaps even so you can determine how much Power Attack to apply to your damage.

I'm eager to hear about any probability questions you have--I'm hoping this package will be useful to folks like us, so in a sense you're my clients!

Please let me know your thoughts,
Dylan

Crothian · Mar 9, 2007

This might be a little more complex.

In the WoD games you roll X d10s and aim for a target number say 8 or higher. In what circumstances is it better to roll more dice verse lowering the target number?

Musrum · Mar 9, 2007

Are you actually doing the maths or just generating a large sample?

Graf · Mar 9, 2007

This isn't D20 related but the O.R.E. system uses a wonky matching dice system.

All D10s where the number of matching dice as well as the numbers of the match matter.
Beyond a die or two it gets very difficult to answer questions like
What would be the odds of getting 3 successes showing a result higher than a 3 for various dice pools?

Which makes it very hard to talk about the system.

It doesn't have much to do with rolls per se but people don't usally appreciate the impact on a +1 or a +2 when the required roll for a success is around a 19 to a 20.
[This causes people to loose appreciation for the value of best-bab classes, etc.]