Table Games Calculator

Tabletop games often use a mechanic where you roll two six-sided dice. Grab the pair, shake them and drop them where they fall, a chance at success on skill check or an attack roll. It feel like simple math: two to twelve. But inside those thirty-six possibilities is something more. There’s a bell curve here … Read more

Here’s one example: You’re playing a tabletop game. It’s your turn. In front of you there is three dice. If your character succeeds at dodging a trap, you roll a d3 pool according to the rules. What’s the chance that you’ll dodge a trap? How do you know? Does it help you to know the … Read more

Probability to most tabletop gamers is an unclear cloud of luck. Roll the dice. Hope for the best. But if you play a d12 system with damage caps or spell slots, you have to understand that those dozen sides makes a specific mathematical landscape. A d12 pool has more variance than a d6 pool. Predictability … Read more

There’s a bag of four tetrahedrons on the table. Shake ‘em up. Roll an eight or higher to avoid having the dungeon door crush your rogue. But how good was that roll? How smart was that decision? In most games, the answer lies with player’s gut. And when that gut lets you down on big … Read more

What happens, though, when the other players are done with their turns and there’s only seven cards remaining? That’s a different level of chaos that’s important because it could wipe out three weeks of thoughtful gameplay in an afternoon. To control your cumulative score mercilessly, you’ve got to keep track of those games. And a … Read more

Disputes over Tien Len arise most frequently when people has cards that aren’t playable. This happens when one person is holding on to a pair of twos until last minute. The room will get silent as everyone starts shuffling around their card nervously, then there will be a collective sigh as the round concludes with … Read more

The tension in a Guandan room lives in the silence between hands of cards. There is only the silence of four cardplayer gazing at their score sheet, trying to work out if they’re going to finish before dinner time or if they’ll have to stay up late with a few rounds of overtime. Here, arithmetic’s … Read more