# D&D Dice rolls (statistics) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 31, 2016, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559 "2016-08-31T13:09:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/61 "2016-09-03T11:59:13Z")
Regardless of the money, surely rolling a d20 with real world consequences would be fun enough to compensate anyway, right? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/62 "2016-09-03T13:12:21Z")
Basically, the store is just giving you a limited opportunity to gamble, but with a slight positive expected value instead of the usual slight negative expected value. From there, it just depends on nonlinearities in your personal valuation of money (which are likely to be small in this case), and on your own personal valuation of randomness (which can be positive or negative). For most people, it will work out to be in their favor to take the roll, but there are still situations where it might not be (for instance, if you walk into the door with exactly $45 in cash, and want a $50 item, then you probably want to take the flat 10%, because it guarantees you’ll be able to afford it). ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/63 "2016-09-03T13:19:57Z")
> [@SmartAlecCat](#): > > Regardless of the money, surely rolling a d20 with real world consequences would be fun enough to compensate anyway, right? Oh sure. I mean, you’re in a gaming store. _Of course_ you’re going to roll that d20! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/64 "2016-09-03T22:56:25Z")
I’m surprised they even offer the flat discount. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2016, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/65 "2016-09-03T23:41:35Z")
When we lived in Vegas there was a mom-and-pop restaurant near us. At the register they had a dice cup with two casino souvenir d6s and a 12" square box w raised sides and a green felt interior. You’d roll in the box for your discount: 2% to 12%. It was all part of the ambiance. Hadn’t thought of that place in years. Sometimes I really miss Vegas. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/66 "2016-09-04T16:36:28Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > Oh sure. I mean, you’re in a gaming store. _Of course_ you’re going to roll that d20! 😃 I like gaming, but I’m risk-averse; there’s no way I would roll. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/67 "2016-09-04T17:40:49Z")
It’s the 21st century (and so people often play D&D and Pathfinder online), why aren’t they using point buy? Solves that problem before it becomes a problem. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/68 "2016-09-04T17:59:56Z")
Point buy just gives you the stats. You still need to roll the dice to determine whether you succeed or fail at, well, pretty much everything. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2016, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/69 "2016-09-04T18:19:33Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > It’s the 21st century (and so people often play D&D and Pathfinder online), why aren’t they using point buy? Solves that problem before it becomes a problem. I dislike point buy it makes characters feel too generic. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/70 "2016-09-07T02:10:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Point buy just gives you the stats. You still need to roll the dice to determine whether you succeed or fail at, well, pretty much everything. I’m perfectly fine with that too. You make lots of skill rolls, attack rolls, saving throws, and other rolls in a game. You only roll your set of stats once per character. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/71 "2016-09-07T13:41:56Z")
And it’s the skill rolls, attack rolls, and saving throws that the OP was tracking. He never said anything about how stats were generated. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/72 "2016-09-07T13:54:02Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > We used them to randomize (with the obvious drawback) the day of the month, and the phase of the moon… Is this a whoosh? “We” are who? ---
**Author:** ![willthekittensurvive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/91b2a8/32.png) [@willthekittensurvive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/willthekittensurvive)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/73 "2016-09-07T14:00:30Z")
We used pre generated characters (the iconics) for the stats, but made our own backstories… I’m not the Dungeonmaster, at first she was willing to accept one player be extra lucky, but turns out that the game becomes unplayable if one player succeeds at everything, so now everyone has to use [dicelog.com](http://dicelog.com) ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/74 "2016-09-07T15:57:44Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > I remember that article! And, with a quick google, I came up with a [PDF of the issue that contained that it](http://annarchive.com/files/Drmg078.pdf). This issue may or may not have helped me with a book report my freshman year of High School on the subject of the NPC article (The Deryni). I loved that magazine back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559/75 "2016-09-08T03:19:28Z")
I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this but D 20s frequently have uneven weight distribution and will roll some numbers more frequently than others. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/VI3N4Qg-JZM/maxresdefault.jpg "How to check the balance of your D20 with the dice float test - Original") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VI3N4Qg-JZM) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/d-d-dice-rolls-statistics/764559.md?page=3)