What's the correct way to read a Percentage Dice? (d%)

[edutrevi]

Rolling a d% to simulate a d100:

"00" + "0" = 100
OR
"90" + "0" = 100

Whats the correct?

 

[The Crimson Binome]

00 + 0 = 100
90 + 0 = 90

 

[tomBitonti]

Also, a few systems have "00" mean 0 instead of 100, for example, Eclipse Phase, http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...iW5uY9_qbW0hOoOX8OU_0DQ&bvm=bv.90790515,d.eXY. On the other hand, Dark Heresy, and other WH40K role playing games, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_40,000_Roleplay, use the usual mechanic. Even games which usually use other dice types, for example D&D 3E, can ask for percentile rolls. Most folks handle such rolls on a 1-100 scale, with values of 1-20 being used to attempt a 20% roll. But you could also do that as 0-19 on a 0-99 scale. Many folks would find this confusing.

The value "00" + "0" turns into 100 because 0 is mapped to 100, not because the "0" is a 10, and not be cause "00" is a 100. For the first, you would get results like "40" + "0" generating 50, and "00" + "5" generating 105.

You could set up a dice system with values of 10 through 100 on one d10 and values of 1 through 10 on a second d10, but the range of values would be 11-110.

There is (a little) information here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice_notation#Percentile_dice_.28d.25.29

Thx!

TomB

 

[Zhaleskra]

Think of the zeros on tens d10s like the Ace in many card games. Most of the time the Ace is a 1, and when it's partnered with the right cards it becomes 11. Most of the time 00 is 0, when it's paired with 0, it's usually 100.

 

[delericho]

Rolling a d% to simulate a d100:

"00" + "0" = 100
OR
"90" + "0" = 100

Whats the correct?

It's just a matter of convention, so you and your DM should agree between yourselves and then stick to it.

Or you could cunningly leave it undefined until the first time it matters and then choose which is best for you.

That said:

00 + 0 = 100
90 + 0 = 90

This is what I do. And, indeed, I'll argue is the better approach, since you then have one fewer (admittedly trivial) addition to do.

 

[Janx]

Rolling a d% to simulate a d100:

"00" + "0" = 100
OR
"90" + "0" = 100

Whats the correct?

saelorn's got the right of it.

You can deduce the correct interpretation as well.

If you made 90 + 0 = 100, then how would you roll an actual 90, because you've overrode the meaning of 90 + 0. That's how you know it's wrong.

The double digit die represents the tens digit, the single digit die represents the ones digit. When you combine then, you get the full story.

Thus, the only remaining issue to consider is that does 00 & 0 mean 0% or 100%. The general practice is to generate a result 1-100, so the answer is, it means 100.

 

[Galladrick]

00 + 0 = 100
90 + 0 = 90

Agreed.

 

[AJS1956]

Rather off topic but the P&P sports replay game'Scoreboard Baseball' uses a d20 (1 to 20) and a d10 (0 to 9) to generate numbers from 10 to 209 which is a bit wierd for this old-time RPGer.

Andy

 

[delericho]

saelorn's got the right of it.

You can deduce the correct interpretation as well.

If you made 90 + 0 = 100, then how would you roll an actual 90, because you've overrode the meaning of 90 + 0. That's how you know it's wrong.

Not really. If 90 + 0 = 100, then 80 + 0 = 90, and so on all the way down, to 00 + 0 = 10.

That is a consistent way of reading the dice. Though I find it more hassle than it's worth.

 

[megamania]

Shouldn't really matter so long as you are consistant