In the Works - D&D Dice and the percentile dice

[Silveras]

Yes, I think that's clear enough. The dice described in the quote give 11-110, assuming that the d10 is labeled 1-10 (otherwise, it's 10-109, still wrong). But they can't have actually produced and sold dice that basically don't work. So the quote must be wrong in some part. Either the dice aren't as described, or they aren't supposed to be summed. So we're trying to figure out how they could actually be.

I admit it.. I conveniently forgot Mat said the die was numbered 10-100. I focused on the regular d10 and the idea of summing them.

As Zappo points out, something has to be wrong.

And, I agree, the marketing guys are trying to fix a problem that isn't there.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Maybe the poor guy was given the task of making a set of dice seem exciting and he didn't think clearly before posting the thing. I mean, really, if someone asked me to write ad copy for dice, I'd be hard pressed to make them seem cool.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Maybe the poor guy was given the task of making a set of dice seem exciting and he didn't think clearly before posting the thing. I mean, really, if someone asked me to write ad copy for dice, I'd be hard pressed to make them seem cool.

Then the ad guy does not have an imagination: Lady luck cups them in her hands, blows on them, letting them roll...feeling lucky, ready to score.

 

[CRGreathouse]

It's probably just that humans can intuitively count items in the range of 1 to 5 - ie you can take a single look at such a number of items and KNOW how many there are. Past 5, it's a lot more difficult.

So - if you roll a normal pipped dice, if the number is 1-5, you KNOW what the number is. And if it's 6, you don't know immediately, so it must be 6.

Reading numbers however has to go to some higher brain functions.

Nah. First, the number varies from person to person -- lots of people can't read 5 objects without counting. Second the arrangement is what people look for -- corners and center = 5, 3x2 = 6, diagonal row = 3, etc.
(At least that's how my dice are.) Without some standard arrangement, it would be much harder to see what the dice say.

 

[Klaus]

A true percentile dice is what I bought back in 1990 (God, it's been 14 years since I bought 2e!?): a golf-ball sized 100-sided die!

...you just have to wait for about one minute before it stops rolling...

 

[wocky]

OMG... I can't believe this thread... even going so far as talking of a "d100 fiasco"?

People, you're putting too much thought into this. Take the "100" as a "00" and you'll be on your way. Using percentile d10 always required some knowledge of convention anyway.

 

[SinisterMinister]

A true percentile dice is what I bought back in 1990 (God, it's been 14 years since I bought 2e!?): a golf-ball sized 100-sided die!

...you just have to wait for about one minute before it stops rolling...

You actually got yours to stop?

I've got one that's been rolling since Reagan's second term. Some guys from a perpetual motion lab have been studying it for over 10 years.

 

[Flyspeck23]

People, you're putting too much thought into this. Take the "100" as a "00" and you'll be on your way. Using percentile d10 always required some knowledge of convention anyway.

Yes, and that knowledge comes up 1% of the time (rolling "00" twice). If WotC screwed the percentile dice, you'll need that "knowledge of convention" 10% of the time (rolling "100" on the percentile die).

For me, it's personal. No, really...
See, I'm exactly as old as D&D, give or take a few days. So these 30th anniversary dice, although pretty expensive and not so special at all, might've been nice as a souvenir of sorts. I'm not sure if I'll buy them if one die is screwed.

I wouldn't call it "the d100 fiasco" though

You actually got yours to stop?

I've got one that's been rolling since Reagan's second term. Some guys from a perpetual motion lab have been studying it for over 10 years.

Even if the d100 stops rolling (which happened once or twice for me), it's pretty hard to read the right number. It can be done, but IMHO it's quicker to add two numbers...

 

[diaglo]

either way i'm buying about 30 or so of the anniversary bags.

 

[Sanackranib]

If the d10 has a 0 and not a 10, it could work, but not the way their saying. You could just subtract the d10 from the d100, and you'd get 1-100. But then you still have to convert the 0 on the d10 into a 10 when rolling it alone. If they really wanted to do it where nothing had to be converted, the d10 would go from 1-10 and the 10's d10, would go from 0-90. Then you could just add the two to get 1-100, and you would never have to convert anything.

Which would be great, because we all know that converting 0 into 10 and 00 into 100 is one of the more complicated parts of the D&D rules.

I still use the same 2 d10's that ive used for the last 20 years. and i dont have thoses silly double digit d10's either. both go from 1-9 and the pink is and has alwas been the 10's and the blue is and alwasys was the ones. its never been a problem and i dont get a numbet from 10 -100 but 1-100 like you are soposed to.