Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Are the posted questions getting worse?

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Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 1

Chris Morris (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
I recommend a 20-sided dice.
Six is sufficient...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man

Maybe for you. 😉 I play D&D. The 20-sided dice is the most important one.

I have 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 sided dice too.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

ChrisM@Work SSC Guru Points: 186127 More actions · Answer 2

GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Chris Morris (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
I recommend a 20-sided dice.
Six is sufficient...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man
Maybe for you. 😉 I play D&D. The 20-sided dice is the most important one.
I have 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 sided dice too.

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Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 3

Ahh, D&D. The days of graph paper, reference books and friends. I have to say I missed those games and I haven't gotten any of my kids interested in that.

I used to have a collection of multi-sided die. Can't remember which one we used the most, but I did like the colors 🙂

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398882 More actions · Answer 4

GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Chris Morris (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
I recommend a 20-sided dice.
Six is sufficient...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man
Maybe for you. 😉 I play D&D. The 20-sided dice is the most important one.
I have 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 sided dice too.

I must be old, D&D used lots (and lots and lots) of six-sided dice. Now, Traveller, there were the decimal dice at work.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

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Lynn Pettis SSC Guru Points: 442467 More actions · Answer 5

D&D, AD&D, Gamma World, Traveller, Empire of the Petal Throne; those were the days. Spent hours and hours playing those games and it was enjoyable. I miss those days as well.

I still have most of my stuff, except maybe the original D&D books, those I may have lost.

I keep my dice in a Crown Royal bag, it is elegant.

The most dangerous of them all, however, is the four-sided die. Don't slam your hand down to fast on one of those!

Greg Edwards-268690 SSC-Insane Points: 20680 More actions · Answer 6

Grant Fritchey (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Chris Morris (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
I recommend a 20-sided dice.
Six is sufficient...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man
Maybe for you. 😉 I play D&D. The 20-sided dice is the most important one.
I have 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 sided dice too.
I must be old, D&D used lots (and lots and lots) of six-sided dice. Now, Traveller, there were the decimal dice at work.

The 'decimal dice' sound like a form of random number generator. At some point, I have to ask the dumb question to Gail :w00t: - the more sides, the more precise the answer? or the more likely to lead someone astray?

Grant - did you ever use a paper straw to work on a chocolate malt as a kid? .:)

I'm sure most think I'm crazy, straws were always plastic.

Greg E

Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 7

Grant Fritchey (1/6/2009)
I must be old, D&D used lots (and lots and lots) of six-sided dice. Now, Traveller, there were the decimal dice at work.

Which edition was that? I know West End's games used a d6 system (starwars), but I don't recall D&D using one

3rd Ed (which is what I play) is the d20 system. Hence the d20 is used for most rolls.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Steve Jones - SSC Editor SSC Guru Points: 736212 More actions · Answer 8

I know whatever edition was out in 78-82 time frame had a bunch of dice. We had 6, but also 8, 10, 20, maybe more.

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398882 More actions · Answer 9

GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Grant Fritchey (1/6/2009)
I must be old, D&D used lots (and lots and lots) of six-sided dice. Now, Traveller, there were the decimal dice at work.
Which edition was that? I know West End's games used a d6 system (starwars), but I don't recall D&D using one
3rd Ed (which is what I play) is the d20 system. Hence the d20 is used for most rolls.

1st & 2nd if I recall correctly.

But then I'm old & the memory is going. We used to play this Steve Jackson game called... Arena? that was all six-sided dice too.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

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Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398882 More actions · Answer 10

Greg Edwards (1/6/2009)
Grant Fritchey (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Chris Morris (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
I recommend a 20-sided dice.
Six is sufficient...http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man
Maybe for you. 😉 I play D&D. The 20-sided dice is the most important one.
I have 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 sided dice too.
I must be old, D&D used lots (and lots and lots) of six-sided dice. Now, Traveller, there were the decimal dice at work.
The 'decimal dice' sound like a form of random number generator. At some point, I have to ask the dumb question to Gail :w00t: - the more sides, the more precise the answer? or the more likely to lead someone astray?
Grant - did you ever use a paper straw to work on a chocolate malt as a kid? .:)
I'm sure most think I'm crazy, straws were always plastic.
Greg E

Vanilla, yes.

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
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Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 11

Greg Edwards (1/6/2009)
At some point, I have to ask the dumb question to Gail :w00t: - the more sides, the more precise the answer? or the more likely to lead someone astray?

I may be misunderstanding your question.

Neither. The more sides, the larger the range of numbers it can roll and the lower the chance of getting any number in particular. The standard d6 (which most people are familiar with) has the numbers 1..6 on it. A d8 has 1..8, a d10 (or decimal) has 1..10, a d12 as 1..12 and a d20 1..20

So the chance of rolling max on a d6 (6) is (and I'm not a statistician) 1/6 or 16%. The chance of rolling max on a d20 (20) is 5%

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398882 More actions · Answer 12

GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Greg Edwards (1/6/2009)
At some point, I have to ask the dumb question to Gail :w00t: - the more sides, the more precise the answer? or the more likely to lead someone astray?
I may be misunderstanding your question.
Neither. The more sides, the larger the range of numbers it can roll and the lower the chance of getting any number in particular. The standard d6 (which most people are familiar with) has the numbers 1..6 on it. A d8 has 1..8, a d10 (or decimal) has 1..10, a d12 as 1..12 and a d20 1..20
So the chance of rolling max on a d6 (6) is (and I'm not a statistician) 1/6 or 16%. The chance of rolling max on a d20 (20) is 5%

I used to have a 100-sided die. Great novelty, but the stupid thing would roll across the street before it stopped and it was hard to tell which number was on top, so it lead to a few, shall we say, friendly disagreements...:Whistling:

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

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Gail Shaw SSC Guru Points: 1004504 More actions · Answer 13

Grant Fritchey (1/6/2009)
I used to have a 100-sided die. Great novelty, but the stupid thing would roll across the street before it stopped and it was hard to tell which number was on top, so it lead to a few, shall we say, friendly disagreements...:Whistling:

I can believe it. I've seen them, I wouldn't want to use one. Two d10s work much better.

My friend's got a d3 which he's very fond of.

A six-sided dice with 1..3 marked on it twice.

Gail Shaw
Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

We walk in the dark places no others will enter
We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

RBarryYoung SSC Guru Points: 143329 More actions · Answer 14

GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Grant Fritchey (1/6/2009)
I must be old, D&D used lots (and lots and lots) of six-sided dice. Now, Traveller, there were the decimal dice at work.
Which edition was that? I know West End's games used a d6 system (starwars), but I don't recall D&D using one
3rd Ed (which is what I play) is the d20 system. Hence the d20 is used for most rolls.

As I recall, the editions of D&D that used only 6-side dice were:

- ChainMail supplement, the precursor to D&D (early 70's)

- The first "Original" D&D, which is not counted in the numbering of Editions (Mid 70's)

- "Basic" from when it was split into Advanced D&D and Basic D&D (late 70's to early 80's)

The second "Original" Edition/Version (mid to late 70's) was the first to use the 5 platonic solids (polyhedra) as official Die for the game.

The first "Advanced" Edition is what is counted as "First Edition" or "Version 1" in the modern counting of D&D versions, though in fact it was already the fourth (or fifth) version of D&D that had been published.

Later of course they dropped the "Advanced" from AD&D in order to disassociate it from A.D.D., after folks began to notice the high cross-over rate. 🙂

[font="Times New Roman"]-- RBarryYoung[/font], [font="Times New Roman"] (302)375-0451[/font] blog: MovingSQL.com, Twitter: @RBarryYoung [font="Arial Black"]
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Grant Fritchey SSC Guru Points: 398882 More actions · Answer 15

RBarryYoung (1/6/2009)
GilaMonster (1/6/2009)
Grant Fritchey (1/6/2009)
I must be old, D&D used lots (and lots and lots) of six-sided dice. Now, Traveller, there were the decimal dice at work.
Which edition was that? I know West End's games used a d6 system (starwars), but I don't recall D&D using one
3rd Ed (which is what I play) is the d20 system. Hence the d20 is used for most rolls.
As I recall, the editions of D&D that used only 6-side dice were:
- ChainMail supplement, the precursor to D&D (early 70's)
- The first "Original" D&D, which is not counted in the numbering of Editions (Mid 70's)
- "Basic" from when it was split into Advanced D&D and Basic D&D (late 70's to early 80's)
The second "Original" Edition/Version (mid to late 70's) was the first to use the 5 platonic solids (polyhedra) as official Die for the game.
The first "Advanced" Edition is what is counted as "First Edition" or "Version 1" in the modern counting of D&D versions, though in fact it was already the fourth (or fifth) version of D&D that had been published.
Later of course they dropped the "Advanced" from AD&D in order to disassociate it from A.D.D., after folks began to notice the high cross-over rate. 🙂

OK, Barry. You're scaring me a bit here. Put the manuals and the dice down and back away from the table. Everything will be OK....

"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt

Author of:
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