[The_Gun_Nut]

And they really don't study physics as much as the physics/chemistry students, who are required to study statistics in order to prepare and present their experimental findings to their peers.

I'm not arguing pure math here, I'm talking about the physics of the roll.  A random number generator won't take the physical, material properties of real physical, material dice into account.  That happens through pure experimentation.  And experimentation says that pipped out dice do NOT roll true.

Casino dice, with a near perfect center of mass, flat facings and sharp edges and corners come the closest to true random that you will find.  Rounded edges and corners, pips dug out, and inferior quality control mean that the rounded dice do not roll true, and are more significantly affected by the changes to the CoM and the rounding.

Will casual play with typical numbers of dice rolls during a game of Shadowrun show them to you?  While the odds are skewed, they are still random, and one could easily see 50% of the dice roll 5 and 6.  But that small number of rolls do not make an adequate sample size.  Hundreds of thousands of rolls will most likely display the real odds generated by each die.

EDIT:  For spelling.

[Usda Beph]

I do want to try Casino dice for that exact reason. I watched a show on how they make em. I was very impressed how they balanced them to within like .00004 true! The rounding was for impact resistance as the story goes. I need to see how 'different' true cube dice roll vs the everyday die. We do realize how mundane our lives are when we want to eek out such a small advantage as casino dice v gaming dice for our ficticious characters!

[FastJack]

There is no "true" random. Anywhere.

It's the Schroedinger's cat of the Statistics world. If we use tools such as dice to determine a random number, we have to mark each side of the die to distinguish what we're looking at. An no matter how you mark it, there is no way to create a "perfect" mark (or even a perfect cube) that won't influence the outcome, no matter how miniscule.

What about the "Random" function on a calculator? Or RAND() in Excel? Both use a Pseudorandom Number Generator that mimics the properties of random numbers. Even the random number from Random.org are generated by atmospheric noise, which seem to be the most random thing in our limited environment. But even that can be debated.

The thing is, you work with what you got. Are Casino Dice more balanced than most gaming dice? Yes, since casinos have to live by rules that enforce a higher standard (if there was a professional gaming league, they'd be using the same dice to be sure). And for every study that shows pipped dice roll low more often than high, you can find another that says the opposite.

Which brings us back to the original topic. Superstitions arise from because people believe that their objects have 'memory'. Las Vegas was built on that principal. When you go to a roulette table in a casino, they usually have an LCD screen showing what the last 10-20 numbers were. This is to entice you to bet that the table "remembers" those numbers and will influence the outcome of the next number. Many gamers will bring their dice out at the beginning of the game and roll them a half-dozen times to "get the 1's out".

My point of all this? As long as you aren't using loaded dice, the differences are so minuscule to not matter. And that's coming from somebody that graduated with a Mathematics degree and took Advance Physics for fun.

[Usda Beph]

LOL I scold gamers for that. Cause you waste your 6s!

[The_Gun_Nut]

Well, 29% vs 16.7% seems pretty significant to me, FJ.  Especially since all the other chances have to change as a result.  The article didn't say how likely the 6 was, but assuming worst case scenario, then it dropped by a similar amount (not likely, I'd say).  That would make it a 3% chance of happening (really doubt that result).

I don't forsee that in my upcoming trials, but I will display all the results when I finish.

[FastJack]

I agree that's significant. However, it's the outcome of one tester's findings. That's the wonderful thing about Random numbers. They're random and not going to follow the rules. Yes, flipping a coin results in Heads coming up 50% of the time. However, if you flip a coin 100 times, do you expect to get 50 heads? Most likely not. The probability chance that you get exactly 50 Heads in 100 flips of a coin is 7.96%.

[Caine Hazen]

I have found that rubbing te dice on my nipples produces not only excellent rolls, but also serves to creap out my players/opponent.  It was hillarity unleashed when I did it at the Mechwarrior World Fellowship Championship.

[Usda Beph]

I will have to try this technique Caine!

[FastJack]

I have found that rubbing te dice on my nipples produces not only excellent rolls, but also serves to creap out my players/opponent.  It was hillarity unleashed when I did it at the Mechwarrior World Fellowship Championship.

That wouldn't even make some of the gamers I know blink. Let just say one or two of them have claimed to be "intimate" with their dice.

[Jadehellbringer]

I have found that rubbing te dice on my nipples produces not only excellent rolls, but also serves to creap out my players/opponent.  It was hillarity unleashed when I did it at the Mechwarrior World Fellowship Championship.

That wouldn't even make some of the gamers I know blink. Let just say one or two of them have claimed to be "intimate" with their dice.

That's...

...

...I'm not going to lie, that's really a horrible mental image. I'm locking up my dice bag and never using anyone elses again now. You've ruined gaming for me forever, and I'm going to go jump off the Washington Monument on my lunch break.

[FastJack]

I have found that rubbing te dice on my nipples produces not only excellent rolls, but also serves to creap out my players/opponent.  It was hillarity unleashed when I did it at the Mechwarrior World Fellowship Championship.

That wouldn't even make some of the gamers I know blink. Let just say one or two of them have claimed to be "intimate" with their dice.

That's...

...

...I'm not going to lie, that's really a horrible mental image. I'm locking up my dice bag and never using anyone elses again now. You've ruined gaming for me forever, and I'm going to go jump off the Washington Monument on my lunch break.

Don't worry... Those individuals have been carefully removed from any contact with society. They live in a small closet next to the laundry room and aren't allowed to roll their dice on the table, but have their own tray to roll dice in.

[Chaotic Insane]

RFLMFAO.

I'm laughing too hard to come up with a witty retort to that. Especially not a PG-13 one.

[Doc Chaos]

This is just so wrong... the gods of gaming can't be amused :/

[The_Gun_Nut]

I agree that's significant. However, it's the outcome of one tester's findings. That's the wonderful thing about Random numbers. They're random and not going to follow the rules. Yes, flipping a coin results in Heads coming up 50% of the time. However, if you flip a coin 100 times, do you expect to get 50 heads? Most likely not. The probability chance that you get exactly 50 Heads in 100 flips of a coin is 7.96%.

This is quite true, but saying that doesn't change the fact that that is the most likely result.  There are hundreds of possible outcomes of the 100 coin flips, and the 50 heads/tails mark is the most likely.  Just like a 7 is the most likely result of rolling 2D6 and adding the faces together, and that is a 16.7% chance.

When the dice are rolled hundreds of thousands or even millions of times, the most likely outcome will (most likely) show up in the percentages.  Since the result cannot be predicted (easily), then I want to know the chance that each result will show up.  And if I'm wanting an edge in playing, I want the dice that favor the best possible outcome.  Will they roll that consistanly?  Over time, yes.  For an individual roll?  Who knows.  That's not the point.  What I want is that edge, that little bit of chance to swing my way, and that is the reason I favor casino D6's for games like WARMACHINE, HORDES, Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40K and Shadowrun.

[Doc Chaos]

*pets Shadowrun symbol dice* I'll stick with style