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Bones, I know you've explained this before. . .
09/01/2019, 18:29:44
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The Elf writes:
. . .back in 1998, but I've forgotten the details. So will you please explain once again, exactly what is meant by 2d3+8? (This is allegedly Mordred's level.) I say "allegedly, because I don't yet have it, but Prima says that's what it's level is. Thank you very much.
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NdX=Roll N dice with X sides...
09/01/2019, 21:10:27
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ragwort writes:
2d3+8 means roll 2 3 sided dice, add together and add 8. Range would be 2+8=10 through 6+8=14. Gold from a Red Dragon is 150d10 for range of 150-1500 which averages to 825.
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My MONSTERS.TXT says that Red Dragon gives 250d10 gold... (+ more about gold from dragons)
09/01/2019, 21:46:48
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Ramillies writes:
Which makes 250-2500 with the average of 1325. (Fun fact: you will hardly ever see the gold reward from a red dragon differ from 1325 by more than 90 — thank your favorite central limit theorem for that.)And a tricky question: a blue dragon yields 300d10 gold. So how much gold is that? 44-440 (average 242)! And why? Because the game stores the number of dice in 8 bits, so the treasure in fact overflows to only (300-256)d10 = 44d10, which is a pretty lame reward for a dragon. Similarly, a gold dragon should give 400d10 coins, but it will yield only 144d10. (But of course, 300d10 does mean a range of 300-3000, just the game messed it up a bit.)
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You're right about Red Dragon 250d10. Six+ years ago (my how time flies)...
09/02/2019, 02:24:06
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ragwort writes:
I did some testing on Blue and Gold Dragons to see why Red Dragon seemed to provide more gold and discovered 2^8 (255) was max before rollover. Using Grayface patch Datafiles folder I now have MONSTERS.TXT Blue Dragon and Noble Titan (300d10) set to 150d21 and Gold Dragon and Supreme Titan (400d10) set to 200d21 so that resultant averages match intended averages.
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I'm so proud of all of you....
09/02/2019, 10:32:24
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Bones writes:
A two-sided die is a coin and a 4 sided die is a tetrahedron, but can someone explain how to make a 3-sided die? :-)And don't say a six-sided die numbered 1 to 3 twice. ;-)
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You could make a kind of top...
09/02/2019, 12:10:03
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Ramillies writes:
Grab a sheet of paper, cut a regular triangle out of it. Mark its center (you can grab a ruler and draw a line from every vertex to the middle of the opposite side; the center is where all three lines meet). The segments going from the center to the vertices divide the triangle into three equal parts, so mark them with numbers 1, 2, 3.Then take a toothpick or something like that, run it halfway through the triangle exactly at the center, and you're done! To "roll" it, just spin it like a top. It lands on one of the sides, and the number of that side is the rolled result. Is that good enough for you? 
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That would work. I think the ancient Egyptians used ...
09/02/2019, 19:32:41
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Bones writes:
... three-sided sticks, sorta like this:
_____________
/\ \
/__\____________\
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That's another working design.
09/02/2019, 23:02:21
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Ramillies writes:
It reminds me of this trick question: a pencil has 5 sides (more exactly, it has the shape of a pentagonal prism). We write numbers 1 to 5 on it. What is the probability that the pencil, when rolled, will land with a "5" on top? 
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Well, assuming that each number was written on only once on a side ...
09/03/2019, 09:22:39
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Bones writes:
... the probability of '5' appearing on top would be 0. 
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Yes . This is obviously meant to trick people into saying 1/5 immediately.
09/03/2019, 15:29:53
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Tsk-tsk, semantics again (the bane of logicians)
09/03/2019, 16:14:03
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The Elf writes:
"Top" is relative in this case. Obviously, to have the sort of "top" be literally the top meant in the question, the pencil will have to be balanced on its point--not very feasible except in zero-g. In reality, whatever part of the pencil is uppermost is per se the top. (The opposite side is, of course, the bottom.) So yes, the "right" answer is indeed 1/5.
Of course, this ignores the fact that most wooden pencils are cut into hexagonal prisms, not pentagonal. And yes, I'm aware of special non-rolling triangular pencils, carpenter's pencils with two opposing wide, flat sides perpendicular to its two narrow opposing sides, round pencils, mechanical pencils with clips that might prevent rolling at all, and myriad other uncommon variations.
Another objection: it is very difficult to roll a prismatic pencil. (That's why they ARE prismatic.) We should have to assume that to assure randomness, the pencil be dropped from a height, not rolled. All in all, I believe that whoever set the question in the first place thinks him/herself much cleverer that reality suggests!
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I meant "than," not "that" -- fat fingers again!
09/03/2019, 16:15:57
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Hmmm, I'm afraid I must disagree on most points.
09/03/2019, 17:38:09
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Ramillies writes:
If whatever part of the pencil that is uppermost is the top, then it's some of its edges. The edges don't carry any numbers, so the probability is 0, definitely not 1/5.Or you could argue that there are two faces that are "on top", and hence the probability should be 2/5. Definitely not 1/5. You are right that normal pencils truly are hexagonal prisms, but there is no problem in rolling them (I just tried). Rock it in your hand and roll it on the table, so that it rolls forward a bit like a wheel (around the longest direction of the pencil as an axis). Dropping the pencil from a height, on the contrary, seems to make it hard to randomize the result properly, because in a drop, the pencil just tends to land in whatever position it was before you dropped it. (I still recall my brother "rolling" dice in a similar manner. He was always surprised that he got mostly the same number again and again!) All in all, if you get rid of the word "pencil", then most of your objections are solved and the problem doesn't change at all. It's just a playful trick, nothing more.
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Coises! Furled again.
09/03/2019, 18:00:07
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Ah, it was you who discovered it!
09/02/2019, 12:02:37
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