Help Reading Dice Pools

Fauchard1520 · Jul 9, 2019

The answer to this question might be, "Dude, just read your dice like a normal person." But I'm an Exalted player, and rolling 40d10 isn't that unusual. Combat is long enough without the hunting and pecking of finding 6-9s, 10s, and 1s buried in the general herd. I talk about my struggles a little bit beneath the comic over here, but I could use a hand from the hivemind.

Are there any tips or tricks for reading large dice pools quickly?

Morrus · Jul 9, 2019

40d10! Yikes!

At that point, I'm using an app.

GMMichael · Jul 9, 2019

Fauchard1520 said:
Are there any tips or tricks for reading large dice pools quickly?

Yeah: don't.

The average result of a d10 is 5.5. That times 40 is 220. I personally guarantee that your rolled results don't vary more than 20 points from that.

Len · Jul 9, 2019

For Shadowrun, I have a set of d6's with the pips on the 2, 3, 4 sides coloured in with a matching Sharpie marker. It's a huge help.

Jer · Jul 9, 2019

DMMike said:
The average result of a d10 is 5.5. That times 40 is 220. I personally guarantee that your rolled results don't vary more than 20 points from that.

The problem isn't a dice pool where you compute a total - if that's the case you take the average as you say, or maybe average all but 3-4 of the dice and roll them so that you can have the thrill of getting some randomness in the mix.

The problem is with a dice pool where you care about the numbers, not the total. In Exalted, for example, you don't care about the total, you care about the number of dice that roll 7 or higher - each die that is a 7 or higher is a "success". And you care about the number of 10s on top of that because 10s count for 2 successes instead of 1. And you might care about the number of 1s that show up because if you get no successes at all and roll at least one 1, then you botch (though if you somehow manage that on 40 dice then you are having a real bad day).

Can't use the average expected value of the total here because nobody cares about the total. If you want to go that route you're talking auto-successes rather than averages.

Blue · Jul 9, 2019

Man, I thought 12d6 EBs in Champions were a drag.

Champions (well, Hero System now) you needed to count them two ways. Total them up, and also "count body", which was 0 on a single pip, 1 on two-five pips, and 2 on six pips.

But you got to be quick. Group up in factors of 10 then add the remainder to sum quickly. And start with Body equal to the number of dice, and just +/-1 for 1s and 6s.

40d10 just seems like a poor design. Both for the time spent to do it "right', but also because with that many dice the number of successes is going to vary only little from the average the majority of the time, so there's no need for r faux random number generator. Especially a slow one.

Derren · Jul 9, 2019

For counting successes just get a marker and colour all numbers above the threshold in a bright, easily recognizable colour.

GMMichael · Jul 10, 2019

Jer said:
The problem is with a dice pool where you care about the numbers, not the total. In Exalted, for example, you don't care about the total, you care about the number of dice that roll 7 or higher - each die that is a 7 or higher is a "success". And you care about the number of 10s on top of that because 10s count for 2 successes instead of 1. And you might care about the number of 1s that show up because if you get no successes at all and roll at least one 1, then you botch (though if you somehow manage that on 40 dice then you are having a real bad day).

Oh, well then I'm with [MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION]: that's just poor design. The game isn't scaling well when you're spending your time reading dice instead of role-playing.

But since that doesn't solve OP's problem...

Still: don't.

Since you have to beat a number of successes (guessing here), divide that number by 10. 4. 2. Whatever gets you closer to a number of dice you're comfortable counting, and preferably results in an integer. Divide the number of dice you're allowed to roll by that same number, round up since your GM is a nice guy, and have at it.

Blue · Jul 10, 2019

Derren said:
For counting successes just get a marker and colour all numbers above the threshold in a bright, easily recognizable colour.

Some people may not want to deface forty ten-siders.

aramis erak · Jul 10, 2019

Fauchard1520 said:
The answer to this question might be, "Dude, just read your dice like a normal person." But I'm an Exalted player, and rolling 40d10 isn't that unusual. Combat is long enough without the hunting and pecking of finding 6-9s, 10s, and 1s buried in the general herd. I talk about my struggles a little bit beneath the comic over here, but I could use a hand from the hivemind.

Are there any tips or tricks for reading large dice pools quickly?

Given the nature of Storyteller system...

Filling the numbers with different colors is likely the best bet.