Essentials Dice Set vs. Premium Dice = WTF?

[the Jester]

Speak for yourself. I am not a schlub, I'm not anal-retentive. And I sure as the nine-hells never pretend to be an elf.

I'd thank you to lay off the insults.

I'm just looking at this post thinking, "Wow, are gnomes that much better than elves in the 'what I pretend to be' Olympics?"

I don't think anyone was trying to be insulting here, dude- but surely you realize that most D&D players have significantly less money riding on a roll of the dice than most casino players do? And that therefore the value of investing significantly more money in ensuring that the dice are truly random is much, much higher in casino operations?

 

[Mistwell]

Casinos are a multi-billion dollar industry with an entire margin built on probabilities and insane numbers of rolls.

Not true. Their margin is not built on an insane number of rolls, it's built into the odds of the game itself. Walk into any normal casino, and count the craps tables. You will find usually 1. Maybe up to 3. And the number of rolls isn't that many. With just one person throwing, with time to bet for the entire table, it's not frequent. Your average D&D game has more rolls than a day of craps play.

The precision for casinos is critical, because it's required by law. Because without it, the dice would be considered fixed, due to the clumping of numbers. And the clumping for a d6 would be minuscule compared to the clumping for a d20.

Regardless, part of my business is class rings. We use tumblers, the same type of tumblers most dice companies use. The amount of variation introduced by tumbling is much more than you seem to think it is. I challenge people to test it for themselves because I know the results. Your average tumbled die will clump certain numbers. Your average non-tumbled die won't. Rounding edges of a die with 20 sides in a random way absolutely changes the randomness of the die in easily detected, material ways. It's as simple as that.

You don't have to care about it. It's not that big a deal. But it's definitely a real thing.

 

[Morrus]

And I sure as the nine-hells never pretend to be an elf.

That makes you an odd candidate for a poster on a D&D forum!

 

[Mistwell]

I think a lot of people are either not getting, or making fun of, TikkchikFenTikktikk's sense of humor.

I am pretty sure he said he would never play an elf, and finds the accusation insulting, because he's made himself the poster child for the guy who likes to play gnomes. I think he assumed everyone knew that from the not-so-subtle hints of his name, avatar, posts, etc..

 

[TarionzCousin]

I think a lot of people are either not getting, or making fun of, TikkchikFenTikktikk's sense of humor.

Sir Misty rides again!

Mistwell might be the nicest person on these boards... or the most generous.



But more importantly, how can I get a "clumped" d20 that tends to roll 17-20?

 

[thalmin]

But more importantly, how can I get a "clumped" d20 that tends to roll 17-20?

You will need to find "spin-down" dice. These are d20s where the numbers run consecutively on the die, making them easy to use for keeping track of life points in games like magic. Then find one with a bias for rolling high, most likely caused by a bubble in the plastic.