I've been playng role-playing games for a while now, and I haven't been able to figure out what the damage actually means. DOes 2D6 mean multiply 2 by 6 to get the damage, and then add 2? Does this make it the same as 1D14? Evidently not as the damage done is never the same (even within a reasonable range). It's not essential for me to know, I'd just like to be a ble to figure out which weapon is better without equipping a weapon in the inventory, looking at in the record, changing the weapon in the inventory and then going back to the record... and so on. Anything about this would be appreciated,

Thanks

<font color=skyblue>A 2d6, like you gave in your example is 2 dice that have six sides, each. If you were to roll the dice, you'd have at lowest a 2 and at most a 12 for your throw. If you had a 1d12...you would have at lowest a 1 and highest a 12 for your roll. I have never played with dice, but that is how it was explained to me.</font>

Oh Cool! Thanks

LOL

its second nature to me
2d6 means roll a standard 6 sided die twice.
so 1 to 6 + 1 to 6.
min 2, max 12, average 7.
Also, rolling 2 six sided dice give you varying probabilities compared to say rolling 1d12 (a 12 sided die just once)
e.g.
2d6 gives you:
1/36 chance of getting 2
2/36 chance of getting 3
3/36 chance of getting 4
4/36 chance of getting 5
5/36 chance of getting 6
6/36 chance of getting 7
5/36 chance of getting 8
4/36 chance of getting 9
3/36 chance of getting 10
2/36 chance of getting 11
1/36 chance of getting 12

but 1d12 gives you:
1/12 chance equally of getting any value between 1 and 12 with an average of 6.5.

Thus if everything else is equal, taking the 2d6 weapon will be slightly better than the 1d12 weapon in the long term.

much more info than you ever needed huh? ;)

[ 10-19-2002, 05:32 AM: Message edited by: MasterPooBaa ]

Of course, that's for rolling real, honest dice; in games, you never can be sure they aren't cheating by weighting the dice rolls ;) In fact, I'm sure they have diddled with the dice. Even so, you're right, 2d6 is generally better than 1d12.

<center>Nightowl2</center>