Roll of the Die - concept

While playing board games, certain gaming characteristics get one thinking. I thought I'd cover some of them and how they have effected the gameplay in some of the games I have played. One of the most reoccurring mechanics that keeps coming up is RNG, random number generator/generation.

RNG's most basic idea is a die. You roll it, and it generates a number by the side that faces up. So it's a device that creates a random result within a set. Almost all games have a form of RNG, whether its a die or deck of cards. So we talked about dice, so what about cards. 

Well standard playing cards has numbers and symbols. Let's just take out the meaning of the symbols and focus on the numbers. Numbers generally are more important the higher the value so something like a 10 is bigger than a 5 so is worth more. So in that sense there a order. With added symbols, depending on the game, just means that there's a new order, not just with numbers but with the symbols. Something like big 2, once again depending on version, means some symbols are higher value than others. How about if the cards aren't made of numbers, but have different effects? Well depending on situation certain cards are more important than others. I mean its further stretch from the norm but it does have RNG properties. 

However unlike dice, when cards are removed from the deck, the RNG changes because the cards left in the deck has changed. The cards that have been removed are impossible to get from the deck if there are no duplicates, and the chances of getting the other cards in the deck has been raised. In a standard playing card deck the chance of getting one card is 1 out of 52. Once a card is taken from the deck, if the intended card has not been taken, the probability of that intended card becomes 1 out of 51. Not a great change in chance but still a better chance. The smaller the deck, the better the odds.

Roll over to the next post to read how I think RNG relates to the games I've played.