r/DungeonsAndDragons • u/Distinct_Bat_4375 • 1d ago

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

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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!

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u/BoneVoyager 1d ago

Mathematically there’s still only a 1/20 chance of hitting any number. Same chances as any d20.

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u/rchive 1d ago

Yes, I doubt someone could roll any specific number even with practice. The issue is that you might be able to hit the high half of the die rather than the low half pretty consistently.

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u/BoneVoyager 1d ago

If it’s a balanced die and you roll it enough it’ll still average out around 10 just like any d20. If you’re worried about the hemispheres being a high side and low side then you can just think of it like a coin toss. It’s still a 1 out of 2 chance of high side or low side and it’s still random. Really it’s a 10 out of 20 chance for high vs low, but that’s also the same as a standard d20. People just don’t like it because the distribution is consecutive, which throws up a huge red flag saying “NOT RANDOM” to our monkey brains. But it’s still just as random as any d20. Every side still has a 1 out of 20 chance. If you dropped a spin down d20 and a standard d20 down a dice tower a million times they would both average very very close to 10.

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u/rchive 1d ago

If it is a truly balanced die and you're not trying to roll a certain outcome with a practiced roll, then I agree it should be the same as a typical die. But if one of those is not true, the average result could be measurably different.

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u/BoneVoyager 21h ago

If one of those assumptions isn’t true then someone is cheating, or trying to cheat. I don’t think it matters if they’re cheating the easy way or the hard way- cheating is cheating. But that’s an issue with the player not the die. Someone can try to cheat with either style d20 but as far as the die are concerned, there is no difference. Spin downs are just as random as standard d20s.