Quadibloc
2013-12-27 09:06:50 UTC
Recently, I had been searching for information on various unusual shapes of dice.
One of the ones I saw was the d34, currently sold by Chessex.
I wondered what it was for; although many other strange dice with unusual numbers of sides were shown on the dice collector site where I first saw it.
Anyways, I came across a forum post which noted that the rolls of 3d34 range from 3 to 102, and so 3d34-2 creates an approximation to a bell curve that meshes with the rolls of percentile dice... in about the same way that 3d6 works together with d20.
So I understood what it was for. (You could use 9d12 or 11d10 to get 100 possible results, but with more dice, the bell curve is narrower; the likely results would be restricted to the neighborhood of the mean.)
However, one thing I haven't been able to find through a web search: what FRP or other game actually makes use of the d34 in this way. That a d34 could theoretically be useful for something is not, in itself, a reason for Chessex to bother to try making and selling them.
John Savard
One of the ones I saw was the d34, currently sold by Chessex.
I wondered what it was for; although many other strange dice with unusual numbers of sides were shown on the dice collector site where I first saw it.
Anyways, I came across a forum post which noted that the rolls of 3d34 range from 3 to 102, and so 3d34-2 creates an approximation to a bell curve that meshes with the rolls of percentile dice... in about the same way that 3d6 works together with d20.
So I understood what it was for. (You could use 9d12 or 11d10 to get 100 possible results, but with more dice, the bell curve is narrower; the likely results would be restricted to the neighborhood of the mean.)
However, one thing I haven't been able to find through a web search: what FRP or other game actually makes use of the d34 in this way. That a d34 could theoretically be useful for something is not, in itself, a reason for Chessex to bother to try making and selling them.
John Savard