{"id":3783,"date":"2017-03-11T17:38:58","date_gmt":"2017-03-11T17:38:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=3783"},"modified":"2017-03-11T17:38:58","modified_gmt":"2017-03-11T17:38:58","slug":"dice-dogs-zombies-hobbits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/dice-dogs-zombies-hobbits\/","title":{"rendered":"DICE AND DOGS, ZOMBIES AND HOBBITS"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do a lurcher rescue site, a journalist on Egyptian travel, a scientist’s view of RPG dice, and a blog about the writers of Weird Tales<\/em> magazine have in common? We can’t be sure, except that they’re all worth a visit, and perhaps they embody the spirit of greydogtales<\/em>. Eccentricity, curiosity and taking a chance. So come with us, dear listener, and have a look\u2026<\/p>\n

\"dogends\"<\/a>
two longdogs wonder what the heck we’re on about<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

DICING WITH HOBBITS<\/h1>\n

Firstly the curious case of the d2. Years ago we used to be heavily involved in role-playing games. Seemingly endless sessions, some lasting until 4 in the morning, taking on the mantle of one fantastical figure after another. A lot of over-acting was involved. We mostly used the Dragonquest and the Powers & Perils systems, just to be wild and free from AD&D for a while.<\/p>\n

Greydog’s<\/em> favourite character was born of his distrust of hobbits. Sebastian Killingworth Sidewinder<\/strong> was an anti-hobbit.<\/p>\n

Of humble origins on the edge of the hobbit world, born of a family of brigands, he didn’t comb his feet or look forward to a nice pie. His most likely interaction with noble elven folk was to rob them blind. Dwarves he viewed as hobbits after too many gym sessions. Humans were, of course, his favourite prey. Early in life he had discovered that a) most humans didn’t take hobbits seriously, and didn’t expect you to be a bastard, and b) if you came up behind them and knifed them in the kidneys, height no longer mattered.<\/p>\n

Developing his own network of thieves, Sebastian ruled wisely. In the sense that he was wise enough to knife anyone who looked like a threat to his command position. And he was quite lucky with his dice rolls. This all came flooding back when we read a recent post at Skulls in the Stars<\/em>. This fascinating blog described itself as \u201cThe intersection of physics, optics, history and pulp fiction\u201d.<\/em> With such a tag, we were always going to enjoy it. As the author says:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>
a d2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The latest post there, The Geometry of Weird-shaped Dice<\/em>, is a fascinating exploration of the sort of dice used in role-playing games. It’s erudite and scientific, but entirely accessible to anyone who’s ever argued over what a d120 said as it teetered on the edge of a rulebook. And instead of tossing a coin, now you can replace loose change with a two-sided dice, which is much cooler.<\/p>\n

In the case of mercenary hobbits, even the d2s would have been fixed. Much more here:<\/p>\n

The geometry of weird-shaped dice<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n