Need a statistic major's help here...

[AuraSeer]

If you are seeing a big problem with the d4 giving extremely skewed results even after many rolls, then test it yourself, correct the player's rolling method, or ask them to use a new die.

If you suspect any d4 cheaters in your game, you could make everyone use the long-style dice. They're rectangular-- think of two d6s glued together-- but the ends are rounded, so there are only 4 faces for them to land on.

I use these myself, mainly because they're also easier to read. One large number shows up on top, just like any other die. When I have to roll 15 of them for a Magic Missile cascade, it saves a lot of time if I don't have to squint at the little numbers on a standard tetrahedral d4.

 

[jlhorner1974]

But then you wouldn't be able to tell your d4 from your d100, and would fail a LOT of percent checks.

You could put BOTH numbers on each face of the die, in different colors... then you could use your d100 for d4 OR d%. Heck, let's get a great big d100... put the numbers 1 thru 4 on all the faces in a new color (evenly distributed, of course)... then all the numbers 1 thru 10 in a different color... then 1 thru 20... keep this up, and you only have to roll one die for any check! Just choose the number color that appropriate for the kind of roll you needed.

I haven't figured out how to get a d8 or d12 on this one, though. Maybe we need a d200... no, that won't work... d600?

This die is getting pretty big. And is rapidly approaching spherical.

Well, you need to find the least common multiple (LCM) of 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 20, and 100. You can disregard 4 and 6 because they are factors of 12, and we can disregard 10 and 20 because they are factors of 100.

So we really need to find: LCM(8, 12, 100)

8 = 2 * 2 * 2
12 = 2 * 2 * 3
100 = 2 * 2 * 5 * 5


Thus, we need 3 factors of 2, 1 factor of 3, and 2 factors of 5.

So LCM = (2 * 2 * 2) * 3 * (5 * 5) = 8 * 3 * 25 = 24 * 25 = 600

So you do indeed need a d600. A d100 is bad enough. A d600 would never stop (it'd be worse than rolling a golf ball which typically has about 330-500 dimples).

Now that that is solved, you only have to:
* Figure out what shape each face will be and how they will be tesselated
* Make the darn thing big enough that you could actually read the 7 different values on each face.
* Space out all of the different numbers for each color as evenly as possible on the die


It's be a great mathematical exercise and fun as a novelty, but I'd rather just use dozens of dice.

Besides, you're never going to win at "cosmic cataclysm" if you only have 1 d600 in your collection.

Jason.

 

[G.A. Donis]

I think I get what may be bothering you about the person "rolling" a d4. d4's don't really "roll", they bounce. If someone tricky enough could use the proper amount of "drop" on a surface that wasn't "bouncy" then the d4 would hit and stick (kinda of like the One Ring). A very talented person could maybe pull this off and "rig" his "roll" to be what they wanted. d10's would be alot harder to do this since they tend to actually roll. If you are worried about someone cheating in this way, I'd just make them roll the d10s.

As an offshoot...I was doing some Central Casting stuff for an aberrant type game last night and rolled a d10 to determine a trait. Rolled a 0. DM didn't think that trait fit into the styel of game he was going to run so he said reroll. I did and it came up 0. He said reroll. I did and it came up 0. He said reroll. I did and it came up 0. At that point we decided it was fate and let the roll stand It was his die and I'm thinking I should have palmed it and used it for stabilization rolls or damage rolls in the Rokugan game he also runs.

 

[Spatzimaus]

I hate d4s. Whenever I need to roll a d4, I use a d8/2 or a d12/3 or d20/5 or something. Of course, then you get into arguments over exactly HOW to divide a d8/2. It's like the arguments for how to roll a d2 using a d6: do you do odd-even or hi-lo?

d4s are good for one and only one thing: caltrops. Throw one onto the floor right where the DM is going to walk, then while he's hopping around in pain you can look at his notes. This, of course, only works if you take off your shoes while playing.