New Dice to Move your Mice

I've going to have to get some of these for my collection, because dice!

More info at The Dice Lab.



Visit +Henry Segerman for more mathy goodness. :-) 

Levi's Double Dice

Just a quickie - On the new G+ Gamecraft community (and communities are brand new) Levi Kornelsen asks the following:

Okay, so, dice mechanic thing; kind of a "little idea" I keep playing with.Consider a character with skills like those in Skyrim - so, ranging generally from 15 - 30 to start, and up to near 100.Now, imagine you roll 2d10, and read them as percentile both ways.  So, 9,2 is 29 AND 92.If you succeed (roll skill or less) one way of reading?  Partial success.  If you do it both ways?  Complete success.How does that hit you, overall?  Gimmicky or good?    #rpg    #roleplaying   #rpggames  

And here is what the cumulative distribution if Partial and Complete success looks like, assuming you need to roll your skill level or less, and "00" is both "0" and "100":

That's it --- I said it was a quickie!
Edit: Maybe the chart title should be "2D10 Double-Dice". Oh well ...

1917 Russian Revolution: Why the Reds Won

Battletech fans, examine this photo closely:

Then go read this!

 

The Grinder - September 2012

The most recent of my collection of miscellaneous articles, which were found in my refrigerator on return from vacation.

--- --- --- The Grinder --- September 21, 2012 --- --- ---

A little bit of Battletech history from a Mechwarrior Online interview with Jordan Weisman (source 1, 2):

MWO: What was your inspiration to create BattleTech?
Jordan Weisman: I had seen images and model kits from the Japanese shows Macross, Southern Cross, and Crusher Joe. I loved the visuals but wanted to create a story for them in which the Mechs where only machines, but machines that their pilots imbued with personality like we do with our warplanes, tanks, and even cars. I wanted to adapt these wonderful machines to setting that was born from Western tradition, in this case a retelling the Roman Successor States. And most of all, I wanted to create a game which merged the reality of tank warfare with the sci-fi/fantasy of giant suits of armor.

Emphasis added: I never knew about the historical reference to the fall of Rome. Parts of the Battletech universe story line makes more sense to me now (not much more sense, but hey, it's Battletech).

image: From The Warp

Painting Pink - From the Warp -- A nice little tutorial on an often misunderstood color. -->

(Some of you may recall my own misadventure with this lovely hue.)

Node-Based Scenario Design -

 The Alexandrian 

From WIRED: An interview with Jon Peterson, author of Playing at the World.  I want.

Web site for the book, and the Amazon page.






From Technology Review:

Mathematics of Sudoku Leads To "Richter Scale" of Puzzle Hardness

There might be some studying in my future, if I want figure this one out.


And now it's time to go clean out the 'Fridge, and maybe shave.
~

History of Wargaming Videos

I have previously mentioned John Curry's History of Wargaming Project, mostly in reference to Fletcher Pratt's Naval Wargame (FPNW). I just discovered a series of YouTube videos from John Curry, and I am working my way through them. This will be a brief review, and maybe serve as a launch point for your own exploration.
--- More after the fold. ---

The Grinder - March 2012

Haven't done this for a while, so there is a lot of grist for the mill.
Also, GBR has a Google+ page.

--- The Grinder, March 16, 2012 ---

Dice Sculptures, via Proof Math is Beautiful

Three recently released books from John Curry's

History of Wargaming Project:

1. Donald Featherstone's Tank Battles in Miniature Vol 4
2. The Wargame Pioneers
3. Innovations in Wargaming
And a video, the first of a series = a future post topic.

www.graphicshunt.com

Why you think you are good at something (when you really aren't).

From The Psychology of Video Games:
The Dunning-Kruger Effect and Multiplayer Games

More on Dunning-Kruger at Improbable Research.


**** The World's Funniest Joke ****


Eighteen (!!!) years in the making. This is love of miniatures!
Toy Soldiers Forever: The "Old Third": All Present or Accounted For

Via GrogNews:
Make your own game counters online
and
Warfighter 101 Designer's Notes (a great read)
and
something fishy.


Maybe this should just be the GrogNews edition of the Grinder
Via GrogNews:  Games and Simulations, with Dr. James Sterrett

Gamasutra: How tough is your game? Creating Difficulty Graphs

The relationship between cubes and hexagons, animated. 

from Proof (Math is Beautiful)

These posts are fun, I should do them more often. ;-)

Hot Topic: Battlemechs Dropped from Orbit

This happens in the cartoons, and in the occasional Battletech scenario, where a battlesuit/battlemech drops from orbit; these folks say it will get a little bit warm on the way down.

Journal of Physics Special Topics
P2_7 Mobile Suit Gundam: Falling From Space
R. Hall, A. West, M. McHugh, J. Blake,
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Leicester, Leicester, LE1 7RH.
November 30, 2011
Abstract
This paper explores the upper limits of the active cooling system on board a Mobile Suit from the Gundam series as it goes through atmospheric re-entry. A Mobile Suit falling through the Earth’s atmosphere experiences drag forces of nearly 10,000 kN. The increase in temperature due to the resistive drag forces felt upon re-entry would require an active cooling system with an output of 112MW which is over 37 times greater than known power outputs on board Mobile Suits.

That's going to go over 30 on the heat scale. I also see they don't take into account any heat generated by deceleration, which means either more heat, or a very sudden stop. ;-)

The full article is a short exploration into some fun physics - find it here.