Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
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Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
As the title says, this is a "meaningless musing." That means that I'm not being serious, and the answer is not all that important. Nonetheless, I've had a long day, a good beverage, am relaxing by perusing the good ol' DCC RPG rulebook, and a question occurs to me. On pg. 359 under "Heroes" there is a helpful breakdown of population incidence per NPC level. These numbers don't add to 100%; there is a missing 1.9% (1.86749% for those who are taking this seriously ). Who are these missing 1.9%? What do they do? Where did they go? All theories are welcome...
Terry Olson
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Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
Maybe the 1.9% are the Hypermagical. The only beings who can use ANY Magic and suffer absolutely NO negative effect, ever. Of course these beings (the 1.9% spread randomly across all races) do not all KNOW they have this power. After all, Many of the already rare beings never have anything to do with Magic in their lives. Not to many people out of the whole ever choose to make using Magic part of their life.
Yes, indeed, they are a small number, these Hypermagicals, but they can (obviously) be very, VERY powerful. MWAH HA HA HA!!!
Yes, indeed, they are a small number, these Hypermagicals, but they can (obviously) be very, VERY powerful. MWAH HA HA HA!!!
- finarvyn
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Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
Huh. Funny that I never noticed that; usually I'm one of the first guys with a calculator looking at numeric patterns and all...Pesky wrote:On pg. 359 under "Heroes" there is a helpful breakdown of population incidence per NPC level. These numbers don't add to 100%; there is a missing 1.9% (1.86749% for those who are taking this seriously )
RANDOM STUFF:
1. How did you handle "2-3 per epoch"?
2. When I crunched numbers I got a missing 1.68749% and wonder if you transposed a couple of digits. (I ignored the "epoch" dudes.)
3. Quick fix is to edit the first entry, 95% becomes 96.7% (or 96.68649% for the picky). It makes sense that the missing folks won't be at the top of the pyramid.
4. My favorite explanation is that the missing folk represent 0-level characters who are non-confirmed kills; you don't want to count MIA as actually alive or dead...
Marv / Finarvyn
DCC Minister of Propaganda; Deputized 6/8/11 (over 11 years of SPAM bustin'!)
DCC RPG playtester 2011, DCC Lankhmar trivia contest winner 2015; OD&D player since 1975
"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own."
-- Gary Gygax
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
-- Dave Arneson
"Misinterpreting the rules is a shared memory for many of us"
-- Joseph Goodman
DCC Minister of Propaganda; Deputized 6/8/11 (over 11 years of SPAM bustin'!)
DCC RPG playtester 2011, DCC Lankhmar trivia contest winner 2015; OD&D player since 1975
"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own."
-- Gary Gygax
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
-- Dave Arneson
"Misinterpreting the rules is a shared memory for many of us"
-- Joseph Goodman
Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
finarvyn wrote: 4. My favorite explanation is that the missing folk represent 0-level characters who are non-confirmed kills; you don't want to count MIA as actually alive or dead...
Haha... that gets my vote.
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Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
finarvyn wrote: 4. My favorite explanation is that the missing folk represent 0-level characters who are non-confirmed kills; you don't want to count MIA as actually alive or dead...
Maledict Brothbreath, level 4 warrior, STR 16 (+2) AGI 7 (-1) STA 12 PER 9 INT 10 LUCK 15 (+1), AC: 16 Refl: +1 Fort: +2 Will: +1; lawful; Armor of the Lion and Lily's Blade.
Brother Sufferus, level 4 cleric, STR 13 (+1) AGI 15 (+1) STA 11 PER 13 (+1) INT 10 LUCK 9, AC: 11 (13 if wounded, 15 if down to half hit points), Refl: +3 Fort: +2 Will: +3, chaotic, Robe of the Faith, Scourge of the Maimed One, Darts of Pain.
Brother Sufferus, level 4 cleric, STR 13 (+1) AGI 15 (+1) STA 11 PER 13 (+1) INT 10 LUCK 9, AC: 11 (13 if wounded, 15 if down to half hit points), Refl: +3 Fort: +2 Will: +3, chaotic, Robe of the Faith, Scourge of the Maimed One, Darts of Pain.
Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
I would have thought the percentage for this would be higher than 1.9% though...Pesky wrote:4. My favorite explanation is that the missing folk represent 0-level characters who are non-confirmed kills; you don't want to count MIA as actually alive or dead...
Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
Thanks for the thoughtful answer finarvyn, and for checking my math! Let me address your questions/comments:finarvyn wrote: 1. How did you handle "2-3 per epoch"?
2. When I crunched numbers I got a missing 1.68749% and wonder if you transposed a couple of digits. (I ignored the "epoch" dudes.)
3. Quick fix is to edit the first entry, 95% becomes 96.7% (or 96.68649% for the picky). It makes sense that the missing folks won't be at the top of the pyramid.
4. My favorite explanation is that the missing folk represent 0-level characters who are non-confirmed kills; you don't want to count MIA as actually alive or dead...
1. I ignored them, as you did.
2. Transposing digits is certainly possible, as it was a long day. Now that its another day, and my "good beverage" has worn off, let me do it again:
lvls = 3/100+1/1000+1/5000+1/10000+1/50000+1/250000+1/1e6+1/1e7
zeros = 100*(1.0-lvls) = 96.86749000
extra = zeros - 95 = 1.86749
That seems to be what I entered before. Perhaps my beverage wasn't strong enough, or I'm still suffering its effects. .
3. Yes, indeed, I made that edit in my book after I made the post.
4. Oh yes, I like that
Terry Olson
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Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
I redid my calculations on Excel and now I get the same number you get. Strange, because I swear that I double-checked my numbers before posting.Pesky wrote:2. Transposing digits is certainly possible, as it was a long day. Now that its another day, and my "good beverage" has worn off, let me do it again:finarvyn wrote: 2. When I crunched numbers I got a missing 1.68749% and wonder if you transposed a couple of digits.
lvls = 3/100+1/1000+1/5000+1/10000+1/50000+1/250000+1/1e6+1/1e7
zeros = 100*(1.0-lvls) = 96.86749000
extra = zeros - 95 = 1.86749
That seems to be what I entered before. Perhaps my beverage wasn't strong enough, or I'm still suffering its effects.
Odd to be so close but slightly off. Now I want to reverse-engineer the whole thing to figure out where I went wrong ... twice.
Marv / Finarvyn
DCC Minister of Propaganda; Deputized 6/8/11 (over 11 years of SPAM bustin'!)
DCC RPG playtester 2011, DCC Lankhmar trivia contest winner 2015; OD&D player since 1975
"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own."
-- Gary Gygax
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
-- Dave Arneson
"Misinterpreting the rules is a shared memory for many of us"
-- Joseph Goodman
DCC Minister of Propaganda; Deputized 6/8/11 (over 11 years of SPAM bustin'!)
DCC RPG playtester 2011, DCC Lankhmar trivia contest winner 2015; OD&D player since 1975
"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own."
-- Gary Gygax
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
-- Dave Arneson
"Misinterpreting the rules is a shared memory for many of us"
-- Joseph Goodman
Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
No worries, finarvyn! The easiest way to get your number is to change "1/5000" to "1/500" for the level 4 NPCs.finarvyn wrote: Odd to be so close but slightly off. Now I want to reverse-engineer the whole thing to figure out where I went wrong ... twice.
This discussion, especially your "MIA" comment, has given me a fun idea for a campaign arc. I don't want to divulge it here, since some of my gaming group may see it. Nevertheless, the initial observation of the missing 1.9% didn't end up being "somewhat meaningless" after all.
Terry Olson
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Re: Somewhat Meaningless Musing: The Missing 1.9%
Thanks! I did my work on an old cruddy calculatior and I'll bet one of the keys didn't type in well.Pesky wrote:The easiest way to get your number is to change "1/5000" to "1/500" for the level 4 NPCs.finarvyn wrote:Now I want to reverse-engineer the whole thing to figure out where I went wrong ... twice.
Marv / Finarvyn
DCC Minister of Propaganda; Deputized 6/8/11 (over 11 years of SPAM bustin'!)
DCC RPG playtester 2011, DCC Lankhmar trivia contest winner 2015; OD&D player since 1975
"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own."
-- Gary Gygax
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
-- Dave Arneson
"Misinterpreting the rules is a shared memory for many of us"
-- Joseph Goodman
DCC Minister of Propaganda; Deputized 6/8/11 (over 11 years of SPAM bustin'!)
DCC RPG playtester 2011, DCC Lankhmar trivia contest winner 2015; OD&D player since 1975
"The worthy GM never purposely kills players' PCs, He presents opportunities for the rash and unthinking players to do that all on their own."
-- Gary Gygax
"Don't ask me what you need to hit. Just roll the die and I will let you know!"
-- Dave Arneson
"Misinterpreting the rules is a shared memory for many of us"
-- Joseph Goodman