5d6 Bell Curve

[Morrus]

I need to create the diagram of the bell curve produced by 5d6.

What's the quickest, easiest way to do that?

 

[Lindeloef]

Follow this link maybe

for example or do you mean calculate it yourself?

 

[Quartz]

Do you mean a plain 5d6, which is a simple normal distribution, or a best 3d out of 5d6, which will be a normal distribution just shunted to the right, or 5d6 max 18?

 

[Morrus]

Follow this link maybe

Absolutely perfect - thank you! I used that, then put the results in Excel to make my own graph. That's exactly what I needed!

Do you mean a plain 5d6, which is a simple normal distribution, or a best 3d out of 5d6, which will be a normal distribution just shunted to the right, or 5d6 max 18?

Just 5d6.

 

[Morrus]

So, stats folks, I need a tiny bit of help.

I already knew what the bell curve would look like. The average roll, slightly different, is 5x3.5=18.

Now, what I need to do is hammer down some DC values for a dice pool system where a typical human will be rolling 5d6. So that's my benchmark.

Using that above graph, how do I determine at which point we're in the "this is what will probably happen" area of the graph, and not the "this probably won't happen". In other words, how far from the center of the graph do I go in placing a range of DCs that I want folks to be passing about half the time?

 

[Neonchameleon]

So, stats folks, I need a tiny bit of help.

I already knew what the bell curve would look like. The average roll, slightly different, is 5x3.5=18.

Now, what I need to do is hammer down some DC values for a dice pool system where a typical human will be rolling 5d6. So that's my benchmark.

Using that above graph, how do I determine at which point we're in the "this is what will probably happen" area of the graph, and not the "this probably won't happen". In other words, how far from the center of the graph do I go in placing a range of DCs that I want folks to be passing about half the time?

Half the time is the middle. But going back to the same link, select the at least option for the graphs and that should give you your numbers.

http://anydice.com/program/1c7

 

[Quartz]

Using that above graph, how do I determine at which point we're in the "this is what will probably happen" area of the graph, and not the "this probably won't happen". In other words, how far from the center of the graph do I go in placing a range of DCs that I want folks to be passing about half the time?

The obvious answer is 18, the mean value. A DC of 18 on 5d6 means that things will happen with equal probability. And it's to a book on probability theory to which you should turn. Understand things like mean, median, standard deviation, and variance. That's all 30 years in the past for me, alas.

 

[Morrus]

Half the time is the middle.

I don't quite understand what I'm doing there. The middle values occur 10% of the time. Those on either side, a little less often.

Do I just start counting out from the middle (in both directions) until I reach 50%?

 

[Morrus]

OK, so if I add up:

10.03 + 10.03 + 9.45 + 9.45 8.37 + 8.37 I get 55.7%

So can I therefore say that - roughly half the time - a player will roll from 15-20?

(I think I output the graph wrong above - it should be highest at 18, no?)

 

[Halivar]

I don't quite understand what I'm doing there. The middle values occur 10% of the time. Those on either side, a little less often.

Do I just start counting out from the middle (in both directions) until I reach 50%?

If you want to know what is the smallest slice of numbers that occur the most often up to 50%, then sure, that works. I think everyone else assumed you meant "everything from this and higher is 50%", like a D&D Difficulty Class.