Magic 8 Ball results for Referees

[Spinward Scout]

Did you ever have a Magic 8 Ball when you were a kid? You ask a question, shake it up and turn it over and it gives you an answer like: Outlook good, or Don't count on it?

Well, it turns out that inside that Magic 8 Ball was a very large d20 die that had answers written on it instead of numbers. Ten of the answers are Positive, five are Negative, and five are Neutral.

They have all of the possible answers on this wikipedia page.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8_ball

It's very easy to simulate this in Traveller with 2d6 dice.

Roll 2d6

2-7 Positive
8-9 Neutral
10-12 Negative

If you do have a d20, the results are this:

Roll 1d20

1-10 Positive/Yes
11-15 Neutral/Uncertain/Maybe
16-20 Negative/No

Have fun!

 

[McPerth]

TO be used as the coyns for the Droynes, I guess...

 

[whulorigan]

TO be used as the coyns for the Droynes, I guess...

I guess you wouldn't want your Casting Ceremony to come up "Answer Hazy . . . Ask again later".

 

[rancke]

TO be used as the coyns for the Droynes, I guess...

For that you'll need a D36. Or a D38 for certain historical periods.


Hans

 

[McPerth]

For that you'll need a D36. Or a D38 for certain historical periods.

I know it's d36 (didn't know about d38), so I guess I expressed myself wrong.

What I meant is to use it to affect decision taking as the coyns affect Droynes', depending on the results de Ball (Coyns in case of the Droyne) give.

It might even exist a sect of 8-Ballers that use it in such a way (they could provide for funny patrons/hirelings...)

 

[JimMarn]

I remember reading a web site several years ago on making your own Magic 8-ball. I didn't bookmark it, but it might still be out there.

A google search came up with thousands of page hits on making your own.

 

[Spinward Scout]

What I meant is to use it to affect decision taking as the coyns affect Droynes', depending on the results de Ball (Coyns in case of the Droyne) give.

It might even exist a sect of 8-Ballers that use it in such a way (they could provide for funny patrons/hirelings...)

Magic 8 Balls from the Solomani Rim. I wonder how much you could sell those for...



They could almost be like the Tarot in Dune.

 

[JimMarn]

I know it's d36 (didn't know about d38), so I guess I expressed myself wrong.

What I meant is to use it to affect decision taking as the coyns affect Droynes', depending on the results de Ball (Coyns in case of the Droyne) give.

It might even exist a sect of 8-Ballers that use it in such a way (they could provide for funny patrons/hirelings...)

I'm reminded of the Puppeteers manipulation of the birth lotteries on Earth in the Known Space series. A slightly weighted side to give a small percentage more of the results wanted...

 

[Vargas]

I guess you wouldn't want your Casting Ceremony to come up "Answer Hazy . . . Ask again later".

Sounds like an adventure scenario in the making!

 

[Timerover51]

I found some interesting dice at a shop in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin last week. They are a pair of D6, with on one the odd number negative, and on the other the even number negative. I have not yet laid out all of the possible outcomes, but I figure they will be interesting to use to determine whether an encounter is positive, negative, or neutral, and the degree to which it is positive or negative.

 

[JimMarn]

I found some interesting dice at a shop in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin last week. They are a pair of D6, with on one the odd number negative, and on the other the even number negative. I have not yet laid out all of the possible outcomes, but I figure they will be interesting to use to determine whether an encounter is positive, negative, or neutral, and the degree to which it is positive or negative.

Ah, the home of TSR.

I'm not the guy in the Guinness Book, but he has lots of dice, over 40 thousand. All unique.

http://www.dicecollector.com/

You might check his site for that die and see if he knows how it is used.

My dice collection is much much smaller.

 

[Timerover51]

Mine weights about 2 pounds or so. Always in the market for more.

 

[Spinward Scout]

As half the results are positive, one quarter are neutral and one quarter are negative, the D66 results for the Magic 8 Ball would be:

11-36 Positive (18 results)
41-53 Neutral (9 results)
54-66 Negative (9 results)

 

[Timerover51]

Following up on my earlier post about the positive/negative D6, I have put together the results table, and hopefully get it posted. I do have it in PDF format if somewhat wants to email me for it.

The results are six "0", which should be expected, 15 negative results, and 15 positive results. Interestingly enough, there is no result of either positive or negative 1. The greatest positive result is +11, the greatest or worst negative result is -11, with one chance in thirty-six of either.

Presumably, a +11 would mean a response bordering on adulation, while the -11 response means that the character is shot on sight.

I will definitely have to give consideration to using these as a good variant way of determining successful results, along with allowing for some die roll modifiers.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Is it weird that I think all this dice probability stuff is cool?

 

[Timerover51]

Is it weird that I think all this dice probability stuff is cool?

No, you are totally, completely, 100% sane and normal. You have to be as I feel the same way.

 

[aramis]

No, you are totally, completely, 100% sane and normal. You have to be as I feel the same way.

Wow - 3 of us agree... (checks for the now obviously impending end of the world...)

 

[JimMarn]

Hmm... for my AD&D DM d20... I rolled one of Zocchi's d20s and found that one of the 2s pip rolled slightly more often up than the other one. I used around 800-900 rolls from a dice tower. I marked that 2 as the 20. My players hated that d20.

So, maybe there are 4 of us.

Not that I understand probabilities much, must be all that over the top sf I read over the years.

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Oh Noes!

Wow - 3 of us agree... (checks for the now obviously impending end of the world...)

Now how in the WORLD could 4 of us agree?
Is the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) in sight?

 

[aramis]

Now how in the WORLD could 4 of us agree?
Is the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) in sight?

It's a statistical improbability, but we know those really do happen, so...

In all seriousness, lots of gamers are curious about the probabilities, and that was one of the reasons people groused about with both T4 and Vampire 1E...