Rolling dCarcosa

[waysoftheearth]

Carcosa has a unique method for rolling hit points and damage that produces numbers between 1 and 12 -- weighted toward the lower results.

In fact, the Carcosa method yields 5 chances in 40 of a 1, 2, 3 or 4, 4 chances in 40 of a 5 or a 6, 3 chances in 40 of a 7 or an 8, 2 chances in 40 of a 9 or a 10, and 1 chance in 40 of either an 11 or a 12.

It's fun and it's variable, but it can be a bit awkward at times to rolling six dice to get one number, especially if you have to do so repeatedly.

It would be ideal to put the possible outcomes on a single forty-sided die and be done with it, but it isn't easy to find a genuine d40.

d20s, however, are positively commonplace. So, you can set yourself up with a few "dCarcosa"s by writing the numbers 1-12 on a few of your spare twenty-siders, as follows:

d20	dCarcosa
1	1
2	1
3	1
4	2
5	2
6	2
7	3
8	3
9	4
10	4
11	5
12	5
13	6
14	6
15	7
16	7
17	8
18	9
19	10
20	12

The twenty-sider odds are not quite exactly the same as the forty sider would be, but they pretty darn close... and you can get yourself a result with a single throw.

Enjoy

[crusssdaddy]

"11" is missing? Or is that part of the math?

[Ynas Midgard]

Aug 22, 2012 4:22:55 GMT -6 waysoftheearth said:

1 chance in 40 of either an 11 or a 12.

There is 2.5% chance of a 11 and 2.5% of a 12; the 5% of a 12 given in the table is a fair approximation.

[shanes]

Actually, it is a 1.6% chance of 11 and the same for a 12 (1/5 * 1/12)

I believe the odds come out to this:
1 14.50
2 14.50
3 14.50
4 14.50
5 9.50
6 9.50
7 6.17
8 6.17
9 3.67
10 3.67
11 1.67
12 1.67

A d62 gets pretty close.

[Aplus]

I really dig the dice mechanic. I use a slightly modified version of it in my games for the damage of energy weapons in a state of decay (thus making them unpredictable).

d20: which die to read
1-2: d4
3-4: d6
5-6: d8
7-8: d10
9-10: d12
11-12: 2x d4
13-14: 2x d6
15-16: 2x d8
17-18: 2x d10
19-20: 2x d12

Probably off-topic, but there you have it!

[funkaoshi]

I actually finally got to play using the "roll all the dice" mechanic on the weekend, and it's actually strangely satisfying rolling everything. I think the actual numbers are less interesting than the fact you're rolling a ton of dice.

[kesher]

Ditto that.

[vito]

I love the dice mechanic myself, but my players don't. They just want to role the hit dice for their classes once and be done with it, and they love consulting tables for variable weapon damage.
I'm so sad.

[Deleted]

I ran an adventure in Carcosa for players somewhat newish to ODD style play. They were a bit hesitant at first but they really bought into it after a while.

[funkaoshi]

I don't remember if I linked to this somewhere else or not, but here is a web page that rolls a dCarcosa.

[crusssdaddy]

Feb 23, 2013 11:02:29 GMT -6 funkaoshi said:

I don't remember if I linked to this somewhere else or not, but here is a web page that rolls a dCarcosa.

That's nice to have handy.

[Mushgnome]

+1, very handy!