I got these dice from Amazon when I ordered my books. Recently, I read a comment to a blog post that, “Historically, dice put out by WotC and earlier by TSR were unbalanced c—.”
When I read that, I thought, “Oh, s—, are my dice…?” So, I’ve been doing a lot of rolling, and here are my results:
Start with the d4. In a perfect world, the average roll is 2.5, with a standard deviation of 1.12. I rolled mine 100 times, which gave an average roll of 2.51, with a standard deviation of 1.13.
Next, the 4 d6s. In a perfect world, the average roll is 3.5, with a standard deviation of 1.71. I rolled mine 150 times each, which gave average rolls of 3.43, 3.29, 3.52, and 3.63, with standard deviations of 1.68, 1.60, 1.71, and 1.74, respectively.
Then, the d8. In a perfect world, the average roll is 4.5, with a standard deviation of 2.29. I rolled mine 200 times, which gave an average roll of 4.68, with a standard deviation of 2.31.
Next, the 2 d10s. In a perfect world, the average roll is 5.5, with a standard deviation of 2.87. I rolled mine 250 times each, which gave average rolls of 5.56 and 5.66, with standard deviations of 2.73 and 2.91, respectively.
Then, the d12. In a perfect world, the average roll is 6.5, with a standard deviation of 3.45. I rolled mine 300 times, which gave an average roll of 6.20, with a standard deviation of 3.51 (I may need to test this one a bit more).
Finally, the d20. In a perfect world, the average roll is 10.5, with a standard deviation of 5.77. I rolled mine 500 times, which gave an average roll of 10.46, with a standard deviation of 5.96.
I was looking at the specific faces on the d20 that were rolling significantly above or below the average (in a perfect world, I would have rolled each number 25 times each), and interestingly, all the below average faces were in a band around the die (i.e., there were two hexagonal “caps” of 6 faces on opposite sides of the die that didn’t have any faces that had come up less then 25 times each). I rolled the d20 250 more times, and some of the high and low rolling faces averaged out, but some of them increased. Interestingly, the two lowest faces were exactly opposite each other (10 and 11), and the highest rolling face was adjacent to the lowest rolling face (17 and 10, at 56 and 21 out of 750 rolls. However, the new numbers give a total average roll of 10.51 (very close to the standard of 10.5 for d20s), but with a standard deviation of 5.95 (not nearly as close as the standard of 5.77 for d20s). Basically, I rolled more high and low numbers, then I did middle rage numbers. I think I may have to roll it a whole lot more, and see if this trend continues, or if all averages out over time…
Does anybody know, is there any organization or group that tests dice for balance and quality?
-Shoukanjuu
"A veterinary subpoena, in the flesh..."
Originally Posted by Book Description
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