The Dragon 7
First Anniversary Issue. Gygax's article on The Origins of D&D addresses Dave Arneson's role in the creation of the game, and announces "a complete revision of the game is in progress."
The Dragon Issue #7, Vol. II,No. 1
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CONTENTS
- ARTICLES
- Dragon Rumbles
- Strategists Club Ballots
- Alternate Number Generation Methods, Omar Kwalish
- The Origins of D&D, Gary Gygax
- Mapping the Dungeon
- Mystery Hill—America's Stonehenge?, Lynn Harpold
- The Journey Most Alone—a saga of magic, Morno
- Military Formations of Tekumel, M.A.R. Barker
- Bonus Figure Plate
- Beginning a new adventure of Finieous Fingers, or, One Day in the Marketplace, J.D.W.
- Featured Creature—The Prowler
- Editors Library—Ogre and The Judges Guild reviewed
- Gnome Cache: Chapter Seven, Garrison Ernst
Random Number Generation
The article by by Omar Kwalish, called Alternate Number Generation Methods in the table of contents, but actually titled What To Do When the Dog Eats Your Dice in the body of the magazine, suggests 9 different techniques for playing D&D without polyhedral dice.
The first technique is an approximate technique for producing percentages or d20 rolls with two six-sided dice. The following table is reproduced from Fight In The Skies:
| Approx % | 2d6 Result | Actual % | Exact Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | 11 | 5.6% | 2/36 |
| 10% | 9 | 11.1% | 4/36 |
| 15% | 6 | 13.9% | 5/36 |
| 20% | 7,12 | 19.4% | 7/36 |
| 25% | 4,7 | 25.0% | 9/36 |
| 30% | 7,8 | 30.6% | 11/36 |
| 35% | 2,4,5,6 | 36.1% | 13/36 |
| 40% | 5,6,8 | 38.9% | 14/36 |
| 45% | 6,7,8 | 44.4% | 16/36 |
| 50% | 4,5,6,7 | 50.0% | 18/36 |
| 55% | 5,6,7,8 | 55.6% | 20/36 |
| 60% | 3,5,6,7,8 | 61.6% | 22/36 |
| 65% | 4,5,6,7,8 | 63.9% | 23/36 |
| 70% | 3,4,5,6,7,8 | 69.4% | 25/36 |
| 75% | all except 2,3,4,10 | 75.0% | 27/36 |
| 80% | all except 2,4,10 | 80.6% | 29/36 |
| 85% | all except 3,11,12 | 86.1% | 31/36 |
| 90% | all except 9 | 88.9% | 32/36 |
| 95% | all except 11 | 94.4% | 34/36 |
The exact ratios in the 4th column are not in the original table; I added these myself because the numbers in the 3rd column are rounded off. Also, there is an error in the table: the chance of rolling a 3,5,6,7, or 8, which is used to simulate 60%, is about 61.1%.
One could construct a table like the above which used the results of a 3d6 roll and which would be accurate to within 0.23%.
See also the earlier article by Steve Jackson on random number generation in The Space Gamer 10.
