mole75:
What does chaos theory have to do with randomness? Chaos is the study of dynamic systems and their feedback mechanisms.
I'm not trying to be an apple, I honestly want to know more. Do you have any reference to this?
I was rather referring to what has been found in studying the world with chaos theory. The universe is one big chaotic system after all.
If you consider the probabilities of a d6, then over X number of rolls, you should get about 1/6th of the rolls landing on each number. For a million rolls this is actually quite close, but as X gets smaller, particularly below a dozen, then it doesn't hold true very well.
Take a look at the line of d20 results posted above my last remark (msg #8). Not very evenly distributed even though probability would suggest a mostly even distribution. Despite only 20 rolls you actually have two results that each came up trice. The first 6 results were all below 10 and most of the results clustered around 8 with 14 and 11 bringing the majority. Of the remaining results, half were 1-2 while the others were scattered and only 3 of the 20 rolls were 15 or more even though in theory five rolls should have been 15 or more.
This effect is what I was referring to.
Within this aspect of results drifting so far from probability for any short streak of results, is where really strange things happen that are easily attributed to things unexplained by science. Whether it be chance, fate, divine intervention, or something else entirely, strange patterns appear that probability suggests as very unlikely, yet happen all the time.
For example, in my very first campaign, I had a sorcerer and when rolling for magic spells, I always used my sparkling d4s, because they always rolled well for magic, but always rolled poorly for anything else, and none of my other d4s rolled well for magic damage.
Probability says this is possible but very unlikely. Think about it, over a few hundred rolls, the only high rolls had a very strong correlation to something that could not physically impact the results.
The chances are astronomical that it would work out such that from a pool of dice only specific ones should roll high and only when the narrative met certain conditions, yet such patterns are common and so far unexplainable (except by religion).