The idea of using different dice or different probabilities for Argument successes (a closely related concept) has been floated many times on the list. Although it is arguable that methods other than the traditional D6 have various slight advantages over the D6, D6 rolls continue to be used for (I believe) the following reasons: 1. It's traditional. People don't like to break with tradition until they come across a new method that is clearly superior. 2. It requires no special equipment. Everyone has a D6, whilst only hardened gamers (admittedly most of the members of this list, but then MGs have always been aimed at a wider market than those who are actually playing them at present) normally have access to the fancier dice. 3. It's simple. One can go to tables of the normal distribution (which always seems more "scientific", but probably isn't), derive a set of probabilities and roll percentile dice, or make up 20 different grades of success and then roll an isohedron, but having only 6 (named) grades of success with a straight liner distribution which a 6 year old can understand is a simple system that anyone can use. 4. Is any other system really more realistic? Despite many methods being floated to make adjudication of Arguments more "objective" in one or other sense of the word, there is always a fair degree of subjectivity being applied. It is hard enough to decide which of 6 probability categories to fit an Argument in, rather than which of 10, 12 or more. The feeling of "greater precision" engendered by rolling a die with more sides is thus illusory, as the human judge is the limiting factor, not the die. Back to Table of Contents -- Matrix Gamer #24 To Matrix Gamer List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by Chris Engle. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com