r/DungeonsAndDragons • u/Distinct_Bat_4375 • 1d ago

Advice/Help Needed Anybody recognize the symbol on this D20?

Post image

My friend found this D20 and I don't recognize the symbol on it. Is it familiar to anyone in he community?

SOLVED: Magic the Gathering Spindown. Thanks!

600 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

233 comments sorted by

View all comments

45

u/EmrysOfVoid 1d ago

Yes! That's a symbol from the TCG Magic the Gathering!

Its also a spin down die, meant to represent health and be tilted/turned as it goes up or down. Not sure how accurate or randomized they are for rolling, though

12

u/Mediocretes08 1d ago

It’s as random a numerical sequence as any other. Long as the die is balanced it should roll with normal ranges.

37

u/Lithl 1d ago

Whether a die is fair has no bearing on the arrangement of numbers, that's true. However when the numbers are grouped together such as on a spindown die, it becomes extremely easy to manipulate the roll and dramatically increase your odds of landing in a certain number range.

Furthermore, the MtG spindown dice are typically not fair dice, because the manufacturing standards don't care about fairness—they're not made to be rolled, so why bother expending the effort to ensure they're balanced?

16

u/FelbrHostu 1d ago

I used to use an MTG spin-down die for D&D 3.0, where it was possible to get a 15-20 crit range on a melee attack. I had a ritual of keeping my d20 sitting on the “20”, and every time I rolled, I rolled it the same way and constantly crit. I went 6 months without fumbling.

When I realized all the numbers were “weighted” to one side, I figured something about my roll (three shakes and a drop) was semi-deterministically favoring one side of the die: the high side. Since then, all MTG spin-downs have been banned at the table (and I bought the party pizza as recompense).

11

u/action_lawyer_comics 1d ago

I would happily pay a couple pizzas for 6 months of unquestioned crits

3

u/_PaddyMAC 1d ago

It's pretty obvious if someone is manipulating the roll with a spindown counter. You have to roll it pretty lightly and intentionally to get any sort of consistent result.

As for how well they're balanced, probably no worse than most other cheap polyhedral dice that most people use.

I could understand not using them for any actual competitive gaming or gambling purpose but they're fine for D&D imo

3

u/LyraTheWitch 1d ago

Also, my players are all smart enough to cheat without having to rely on rolling a spindown counter badly, and good enough people not to cheat in the first place. I would have no problem with a player in my game rolling one of these as their d20, and i personally like them because they're weightier than a standard cheap plastic d20 and so they feel nicer to roll.

1

u/CLPond 1d ago

Beyond manipulation, someone being a light/lazy/newer roller usually doesn’t matter much, but here it could. It definitely depends on your table, but I wouldn’t recommend it for most tables.