In a table top game when you roll for something and it turns out badly, you find out that bad luck isnt random enough to rely on without math. You throw the die, ignore high numbers, and end up with result that just doesn’t seem fair. After all, you didn’t use math; you relied on … Read more

There you are at the table, surrounded by people who have rolled dice before. A friend proposes: “roll four six-sided dice and drop the lowest die.” Another counters: “No, it’s more fair to keep just the highest three dice.” A third says: “If I get any ones, I roll again. It is bad luck. The … Read more

It’s that time. You’re at the table. The tension rises. The dice rattle in their cup. It all comes down to roll of a die. One side pushes hard while other holds its ground. It seems random, yet any player who’s rolled these dice enough times will tell you: it’s never completly random. When you … Read more

“Now it’s your decision. Is it worth the risk? Do you want to pay to reroll or do you accept that you failed?” Depending on what happens, if it was below some number, or didn’t quite hit the mark (then you have two choices: fail), or expend one of your resource to attempt again. That’s … Read more

Grabbing for die silences the table. You’re waiting to see if your character keeps their weapon intact or if the die decides the fate of the campaign. Will your character keep their sword? Will the twenty-sided die end the campaign? These are critical hits. They’re the stuff of legend. Players remember them. They write them … Read more

But it’s all right there on the calculator (above). It calculate the math for you, including complicated probability distributions that otherwise require a spreadsheet during combat. It translates exploding dice, rerolling, best-of pools and more into easily understandable percentages. Beyond that raw number (beyond whether or not you’ll pass/fail), look deeper at what makes those … Read more

These are the roll under mechanics. There’s always that moment in a tabletop session when the narrative tension hangs entirely on a single roll; you need to hit a target, but you also don’t want to roll too high because then you’ll fumble your spell and blow yourself up or drop your sword into the … Read more