Gaming philosophy conundra

[RogerBW]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Spheroid. With an eccentric weight to make it come to rest in a consistent orientation. Like a lawn bowl.

I have some spherical d6s, bought some time in the late 1980s. As best I can tell, they have an octahedral cavity in which a ball bearing moves freely.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Spheroid. With an eccentric weight to make it come to rest in a consistent orientation. Like a lawn bowl.

Originally Posted by Anders

It's a Gömböc.

Yeah, this sounds about right. I was going to suggest a sphere with a flattened section for the same effect, but I believe this would accomplish that much more successfully.

Here's an interesting one though - technically, a coin is not a d2, it's a d3 where one side (the edge) has a much lower probability than the others (apparently for a US nickel you're looking at landing on its edge once out of 6000 throws - so you're looking at something like 5999/12,000 for Heads, 5999/12,000 for Tails, and 1/6,000 for Edge.

So... what would an actual d2 be?

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Yeah, this sounds about right. I was going to suggest a sphere with a flattened section for the same effect, but I believe this would accomplish that much more successfully.

Here's an interesting one though - technically, a coin is not a d2, it's a d3 where one side (the edge) has a much lower probability than the others (apparently for a US nickel you're looking at landing on its edge once out of 6000 throws - so you're looking at something like 5999/12,000 for Heads, 5999/12,000 for Tails, and 1/6,000 for Edge.

So... what would an actual d2 be?

You just need to round (or narrow to a point) the edges of the coin so it's not stable to sit on them. Theoretically most dice could balance on edge. Or vertex for that matter - they're symmetric about them after all. In fact they're duals of each other (the vertices of a d6 or d12 are equivalent to the faces of a d8 or d20). They're just usually not flat enough for that the be a [stable] equilibrium, so they won't stay there very long in the real world. The coins usually won't either, but the edge is just wide enough for some of them it looks plausible.

[Agemegos]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Here's an interesting one though - technically, a coin is not a d2, it's a d3 where one side (the edge) has a much lower probability than the others (apparently for a US nickel you're looking at landing on its edge once out of 6000 throws - so you're looking at something like 5999/12,000 for Heads, 5999/12,000 for Tails, and 1/6,000 for Edge.

So... what would an actual d2 be?

Biconvex, like the lens in a standard magnifying glass.

[Daigoro]

Following on, both the player and GM have a d∞ each.

In a quick contest, the GM rolls his d∞, and the player must beat the roll. Is the player better off knowing or not knowing what result he must beat before he rolls?

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Following on, both the player and GM have a d∞ each.

In a quick contest, the GM rolls his d∞, and the player must beat the roll. Is the player better off knowing or not knowing what result he must beat before he rolls?

Can the player's knowledge affect the outcome of the die roll?

[whswhs]

This is a departure from the original topic of this thread, I think, but it occurs to me that three of the powers in GURPS Powers: The Weird are based on philosophical concepts: Logos, Noumena, and Void. Logos is about the idea of a primal true language; Noumena is about access to a realm that transcends the illusions and distortions of the senses, as in Plato or Kant; Void is about the idea of nonexistence as a power independent of and opposed to existence—the Manichean rather than the Boethian view of evil.

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by whswhs

Can the player's knowledge affect the outcome of the die roll?

Surely whoever rolls second always wins. The probability space between the first roll X and infinity is always infinitely larger than the space between 0 and X, right?

[Lovewyrm]

Originally Posted by Daigoro

Following on, both the player and GM have a d∞ each.

In a quick contest, the GM rolls his d∞, and the player must beat the roll. Is the player better off knowing or not knowing what result he must beat before he rolls?

They both roll the d∞ at the same time, and then they fight using the dice as swords.
If one can't lift his die, then that's a loss.
If both can't lift them, it's a draw.

(This is not really fair since it brings reallife capabilities into rolling for stuff, but if you have something extraordinary like a d∞, then why not do something extraordinary with them?)

[The Colonel]

Originally Posted by Lovewyrm

They both roll the d∞ at the same time, and then they fight using the dice as swords.
If one can't lift his die, then that's a loss.
If both can't lift them, it's a draw.

(This is not really fair since it brings reallife capabilities into rolling for stuff, but if you have something extraordinary like a d∞, then why not do something extraordinary with them?)

This assumes, does it not, that amongst an infinity of numbers, one of them must be "sword" ... or am I misreading?