Young's Law of Twenty-Sided Dice
The comic is, as usual, great. But it's the commentary that put it over the top. Shamus Young's law of Twenty Sided Dice:

There are a limited number of “twenties” in any given d20. That is, no matter how many times you roll a d20, you cannot roll another twenty once the supply has run out. These twenties can only be replenished by rolling a corresponding one with the same die. Thus every gamer is duty-bound to protect their supply of good rolls. If a friend rolls a twenty using your die, not only have they stolen your good roll, but they have doomed you to the extra one required to replenish the twenty.

It can apply to other dice, too, so long as a high roll is desired. Just substitute the highest value for "twenty" in the law. Mathematically, this is pure garbage. But we all have our superstitions.

I came across this one in college. I forget what game I was playing... Risk or Supremacy or something. I was having a horrible bad-luck streak. it was getting to the point where my opponents were taking pity on me because my luck was so horrible. You know it's bad when that happens.

Since the game required several dice (six-siders), I began picking and choosing the ones that had just rolled the lowest. Now, I knew in my brain that the laws of probability dictated that they had exactly the same chance of rolling low AGAIN as any other die on the table. The laws of probability do not keep detailed records of the past. But I was desperate.

And it worked. I rolled all 5's and 6's.

And then it worked again on another turn.

And again.

In another turn, I rolled about average, but at least it wasn't particularly low.

And so I kept doing it. For twenty years, now. Like many superstitions, I probably ignore the times it doesn't work and only note the times that it does. Gamers - especially RPG players - often do this kind of thing. Anything to convince our brains that we have some measure of control over the randomness that influences something we care about.

So I continue (periodically) to "prime" my dice by rolling them until they roll 1's.

Labels: Roleplaying Games

- posted by The Rampant Coyote @ 8:25 AM (Permalink)