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xkcd #3015: D&D Combinatorics
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this post was submitted on 24 Nov 2024
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I have never played ~~R&D~~ D&D (or, I did once, but had a bad experience), so bear with me.
Is it ever allowed to simply do the thing, instead of rolling dice? For example in this case, to place 5+5 tokens upside down, and pick two of them? Or fold pieces of paper, etc?
Edit: I meant D&D of course. Don't know where the R came from.
I'd absolutely allow something like that at my table. Something like this isn't going to have explicit rules, so even in a serious RAW (Rules As Written) game, the GM is going to have to come up with something. It's just that we all have dice and may not have the right setup for tokens, etc.
Really, the simple way to do it is have arrows #1-5 be the cursed ones. The player then rolls a D10 to see which ones are pulled, rerolling on repeat "arrows".
You have less arrows to pull from on subsequent rolls. You can't keep using a D10.
That’s why you reroll on already taken numbers. Or drop down a die size every two arrows.
Now someone has to do the math on how many rolls on average it will take to resolve the action given the chance of rerolls.