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Experimental Study of 29 Polyhedral Dice Using Rolling Machine, OpenCV Analysis (markfickett.com)
enFi writes: All dice are slightly unfair; automating 3k rolls x 29 dice allows detailed exploration. For example: GameScience claims their d20s are fairest, and actually has the fairest die in the study. Chessex d20s are consistently mid-range and all favor the same numbers; Wiz Dice d20s are highly variable (some rival GameScience). Shape differences measurable with calipers account for some of the larger observed differences, but not everything. Read the details for graphs, a video of the Arduino-powered rolling machine, and an explanation of using OpenCV to sort die rolls.
(Disclaimer: I'm the author.)
(Disclaimer: I'm the author.)
unless you somehow find a source for casino grade dice (and do they make casino dice in !D6??)
here is a trick
1 get a bucket and fill it with water (optional step have your local rabbi/priest bless the water)
2 drop a die in and roll it around for a bit keeping track of which number shows on top and then repeat as needed
3 Dice that roll a bunch of high end rolls are "blessed" and of course low end rolls are "cursed" dice
4 Sort as required
5 Profit!
>> Can we please stop using physical dice now?
Not a chance. I play with developers...
All computers of that day had pseudo-random generators. Even today, the vast majority of random number generators are pseudo-random, unless they're using external entropy from the network, mouse, or even a specialized entropy generator and these are only really used for encryption. Pseudo-random doesn't mean bad, it just means that the numbers are being generated from an algorithm and not some truly random source.
Mad Software: Rantings on Developing So
The best random distribution I got was by taking the modulus of a hash of a GUID generated by .NET. Over the course of a million d20 rolls it came damn near close to perfectly even distribution.