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Your dice don't hate you, Chessex does.

Started by J Arcane, July 02, 2009, 10:53:08 PM

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Premier

#15
July 03, 2009, 07:13:37 AM
Well, technically a "die" is something with six sides. So if you're holding a Platonic solid with 12 numbered sides, you're really holding one object worth two "dice". A Platonic solid with 20 sides, one object worth 3.3333 dice.



*runs away from linguists and mathematicians alike*
Obvious troll is obvious. RIP, Bill.

Phantom Black

#16
July 03, 2009, 07:59:40 AM
I use pip dice whenever i show and tell people the "1 out of 6 rolls" empirical
evidence that 1 roll out of 6 is almost always a six.

It goes like this:
I roll 6 times, a "series". If there's a six among them: Great. Statement fulfilled.
If there's no six: Even better, it will show up in the next series.
And it always does.
At least, when i try to persuade people when it comes to dice-rolling...
Rynu-Safe via /r/rpg/ :
Quote"I played Dungeon World once, and it was bad. I didn\'t understood what was happening and neither they seemed to care, but it looked like they were happy to say "you\'re doing good, go on!"

My character sheet was inexistant, and when I hastly made one the GM didn\'t care to have a look at it."

KenHR

#17
July 03, 2009, 08:10:52 AM
Quote from: Claudius;311589You have every reason to be irritated, grammatically it's wrong.

I think it's orthography's fault, dice should be spelt "dies", with an -s like a plural, there would be no confusion.

Depends on who you ask.  I endured an entire excruciating session in linguistics on this subject.  Due to its derivation (Middle English dees or dyce, pl dyces, from Old French de, from Latin datum), "dice" as singular is considered technically correct by many linguists, though I doubt many would use it that way; I have heard a couple people from England use "dice" as singular, but they weren't too bright so I wouldn't put much stock in that.

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dice
http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.com/2006/09/die-and-dice.html
http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/5879.php

So: annoying, yes, but incorrect?  Unfortunately -- though only technically -- no.
For fuck\'s sake, these are games, people.

And no one gives a fuck about your ignore list.


Gompan
band - other music

jgants

#18
July 03, 2009, 09:51:32 AM
Doesn't British English use dice for singular and plural?
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Hairfoot

#19
July 03, 2009, 10:07:12 AM Last Edit: July 03, 2009, 10:07:46 AM by Hairfoot
Not in Australia, and it must be British English we speak here because I scream at Word every time it replaces my Ss with Zs.  "Analyze"?  Fuck off.

JongWK

#20
July 03, 2009, 11:56:44 AM
Quote from: Premier;311620Well, technically a "die" is something with six sides. So if you're holding a Platonic solid with 12 numbered sides, you're really holding one object worth two "dice". A Platonic solid with 20 sides, one object worth 3.3333 dice.


You are just trying to mess with Sett's mind, am I right? :p
"I give the gift of endless imagination."
~~Gary Gygax (1938 - 2008)

MarionPoliquin

#21
July 03, 2009, 12:05:15 PM
Quote from: Phantom Black;311627If there's no six: Even better, it will show up in the next series.
And it always does.
At least, when i try to persuade people when it comes to dice-rolling...

Your understanding of statistics is flawed.
 

aramis

#22
July 03, 2009, 04:48:26 PM
US dictionaries list "dice" as plural of "die", and tend to specify cubes.

tellius

#23
July 03, 2009, 05:52:37 PM
Quote from: Hairfoot;311645Not in Australia, and it must be British English we speak here because I scream at Word every time it replaces my Ss with Zs.  "Analyze"?  Fuck off.

That shitted me off no end as well, until I found the Australian English dictionary option in Word. That made me happy :)
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