D&D 5E Would you be happy with fixed damage?
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
I mean, the healthiest way to gamble is to pick an amount of money you want to spend on entertainment, and see how long you can keep it going until you’ve lost that amount, then stop. Don’t spend more than your budget. Treat any winnings you happen to get only as bonus play time. If you win some and decide to quit while you’re ahead, great, but don’t go into it hoping for anything more than spending a specific amount of money to play some games for a while.Considering my luck at Vegas the few times I've been there I've decided I might as well just drive by, take all the money from my wallet and throw it out the window. Faster, and about as enjoyable. At least someone other than the casinos would have a chance to get my money.
My biggest winnings ever was a dollar from a quarter slot machine. Which I then "reinvested" and lost.
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Tun Kai Poh
Hero
As the one who always runs the games, I'm more than happy with fixed damage. I use it all the time in 13th Age, for the monsters - there are enough random effects to make up for it.
Oofta
Legend
The time I was in Vegas where I spent the most that's exactly what I did. Put $100 in my front pocket, never touched my wallet for gambling money.
Money went out of the pocket, never back in even once. I told a friend who works on casino machines about it, I'm not sure he believed me.
Now? I've passed through a couple of times and set my limit to $1 and see a show. But games of pure chance? Whether gambling or not, I just don't win.
CubicsRube
Hero
Because I want to see what other people's opinions are?
Am I not allowed to talk to people here unless I'm trying to solve a problem?
DND_Reborn
The High Aldwin
Hey @CubicsRube ,
We just played another marathon 14-hour session yesterday (into 3 AM this morning) and one of the players who up til now was not using average damage jumped on the bandwagon and started using it last night. He was the final hold-out.
Our group discussed it again and here are some responses:
The guy I mention above said he feels a bit like using average damage is cheating because he knows he could easily roll worse. He settled on taking the average for the "big important battles" because he wants to ensure at least "decent" damage so he knows he's contributing to those fights. In the "smaller fights" he's happy to roll because if he rolls badly, it has less impact.
Another guy who's been doing average damage for a while now said he only really like to roll for the more unique attacks. His druid wants to roll for his primal savagery damage because it is his basic melee attack, which he doesn't do often so it is fun to roll on the rare attack. For his ranged cantrips and AoE damage spells, he nearly always just takes the average now.
Yet another player has been using average damage since we first decided to try it. He sucks at math and has all the different averages noted on his character sheet, so feels it keeps the game going faster and he isn't dragging it down for the rest of us by having to add up his big damage attacks (like his sneak attacks, which he gets most rounds).
For myself, probably the quickest in doing the math, I'm happy with average damage because I know it does speed up combat (which we do a lot of, probably 65-70% of our game time often) and makes it easier for the DM since he's memorized a lot of our average damages, thus doesn't need to ask how much we did. For example, a lightning bolt averages 28 damage, when ones of the PCs casts it, the DM knows the DC and just rolls and deducts the damage for saved or not without having to wait for the player to roll and add up the dice.
So, I think if you are considering it give it a try. You might decided it isn't for you, but your table might decide it makes things faster and more fun. There are plenty of other times when rolling happens and the randomness really isn't lost at all IMO.
Helldritch
Hero
No matter what people say, you'll never win against a casino. The house will always win in the end.
We have a festival around here and to finance it we used to make an event based on casino. Fake money all the time, but the first 10 to become billionaires would gain the entry to the black jack table and I was the dealer. A lot of people were laughing when I was telling them that the goal at my table was not to be the first billionnaire, but to be the last at my table and though people were starting with 50k, the minimum bets were 1k, the table rarely went past and hour and half. Only once in 10 years have I seen someone actually rise to one million at my table. Just to say that winning is not a common thing. But the prizes were fine, the event was bringing about 10k in revenues for the festival, which was their biggest income beside selling beer at the festival itself and the selling of entrance passes. One woman actually accused me of cheating because she was losing. You should always take gambling for what it is, a sure way to lose money. But it can be fun if you do it for the good reasons. Having a good time and enjoying the "atmosphere".
As for the topic. Nope, fixed damage is not for my tables. How would I fireball my players with a 48 damage fireball of 8d6 otherwise? I want to be able to do that again! (I also did an 8d6 fireball dealing a miser 10 points... such is my luck...)
We have a festival around here and to finance it we used to make an event based on casino. Fake money all the time, but the first 10 to become billionaires would gain the entry to the black jack table and I was the dealer. A lot of people were laughing when I was telling them that the goal at my table was not to be the first billionnaire, but to be the last at my table and though people were starting with 50k, the minimum bets were 1k, the table rarely went past and hour and half. Only once in 10 years have I seen someone actually rise to one million at my table. Just to say that winning is not a common thing. But the prizes were fine, the event was bringing about 10k in revenues for the festival, which was their biggest income beside selling beer at the festival itself and the selling of entrance passes. One woman actually accused me of cheating because she was losing. You should always take gambling for what it is, a sure way to lose money. But it can be fun if you do it for the good reasons. Having a good time and enjoying the "atmosphere".
As for the topic. Nope, fixed damage is not for my tables. How would I fireball my players with a 48 damage fireball of 8d6 otherwise? I want to be able to do that again! (I also did an 8d6 fireball dealing a miser 10 points... such is my luck...)
And that's fine. But do you figure opinions without (known) context are valuable?
I don't know how you get asking a question to be somehow trying to deny you permission.
Oofta
Legend
The one time I was successful at gambling was at a fundraiser like this - played blackjack and walked away with a lot of fun prizes. The dealer said he had never seen anyone win that much. Of course it was all with fake money so it didn't really "count". If you are consistently lucky enough at card games in casinos they assume you're cheating and ban you. That should tell you something about the whole industry
But back on topic. The guy who used average damage the most in my home game made a little chart for himself so he could just look up what he rolled, and tell us the AC he hit. He even pre-calculated damage based on how many times he hit. We put his sheet in one of those clear paper protectors and gave him a dry erase marker so he could just check off "hits"
Faster and a lot less stress for him.
Helldritch
Hero
1) Yep, the industry is there to make money. It is not a charity event.
2) Really? That is a lot of work... 20 lines multiplied by the number of attacks... plus possible bonuses from spells... and what about enlarge? Nope, it is easier to just calculate as you go along. Plus, it is very good for mental calculus!
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