History Main / RandomNumberGod

!!Examples

!!Examples:

!!Examples

!!Examples:

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* ''{{Saki}}'' proves that this trope applies to mahjong tiles as much as it does to dice. Nodoka [[AgentScully refuses to believe]] in players being "loved by the tiles" and such, but other players' freakish abilities to defy all probability when playing (as someone mentioned on the page, "how much can we make a statistician somewhere cry?") pushes her into FlatEarthAtheist territory.

*** This got so bad, so widespread, that Apple rewrote the "Shuffle" program on their newer iPods so that no two songs from the same artist are close to each other, if possible. One could say random really isn't all that random!

** Many dice superstitions are explored in this strip. Bob refers to his dice by name, keeps them segregated according to purpose and game genre. Dave refers frequently to having his section of the table "trained" the way he likes it for dice rolling. All of the Knights, even the sensible Sara, have dice rolling styles. But the most infamous incident had Brian and Bob "fame-rubbing" their dice on Gary Jackson's corpse (a "legendary RPG creator" pastiche of Gary Gygax and Steve Jackson) to charge them with good luck. This backfired because Gary, being dead, was obviously out of good luck, and all the fame rubbed dice performed poorly in game play. (Or possibly because [[spoiler: that corpse wasn't Gary Jackson's.]])

* Averted in {{Foxtrot}}: During a TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}} game, Jason is shown holding dice in his hands and shaking them muttering "doubles... I need doubles...", but it turns out his strategy is to do that until the other players forfeit. When playing [=RPG=]s, he has no particular rituals.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher.\\\
In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher. In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher.\\\
In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher. In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher.\\\
In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher. In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher.\\\
In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.
::: The thing is, the Random Number Table really WAS very much skewed and not really random, considering that the numbers in the grid are in a fixed position and you could more or less "aim" for sections of the RNT which were more likely to grant a favorable result. With practice, you could pull out a 0,1 or 9 anytime you wanted.

In many of those cases, 'not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.
:: The thing is, the Random Number Table really WAS very much skewed and not really random, considering that the numbers in the grid are in a fixed position and you could more or less "aim" for sections of the RNT which were more likely to grant a favorable result. With practice, you could pull out a 0,1 or 9 anytime you wanted.

* ''Literature/LoneWolf'' has the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you have to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher. In many of those cases, 'not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events. The thing is, the Random Number Table really WAS very much skewed and not really random, considering that the numbers in the grid are in a fixed position and you could more or less "aim" for sections of the RNT which were more likely to grant a favorable result. With practice, you could pull out a 0,1 or 9 anytime you wanted.

* ''LoneWolf'' had the dreaded Random Number Table, a grid in the back of each book numbered 0-9, that you had to use whenever you were in combat or were just trying not to get killed by some random. A few gave you bonuses based on Disciplines and equipment, but many more would gladly kill you if you didn't get a seven or higher.
** In many of those cases, ''not'' having that discipline would be even worse off as Lone Wolf would gleefully leap into deadly ambushes, activate ancient traps, fail to notice certain death curses or swallow poison whole. Giving you a 7-or-higher chance to live was actually the ''better'' path to follow in those events.
*** The thing is, the Random Number Table really WAS very much skewed and not really random, considering that the numbers in the grid are in a fixed position and you could more or less "aim" for sections of the RNT which were more likely to grant a favorable result. With practice, you could pull out a 0,1 or 9 anytime you wanted.

* All players of the ''VideoGame/MassEffect 3'' multi-player know that the items store is governed by a Random Number God. Say for example that you prefer to play snipers, so of course you want to unlock some powerful ultra-rare sniper rifles. Maybe you've really got your sights set on that Black Widow. Of course, you'll get shotguns. You'll get assault rifles. You'll get SMGs. And if you do get a sniper rifle, it'll be the Incisor. And at some point, you'll have all your weapons maxed out but the Black Widow is still only at level 2.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' takes this to a literal extreme in [[spoiler:Vault 11 - where one citizen is chosen to be killed every year. At first the choice is made by the Overseer - but once the first Overseer understands what he must do, he volunteers himself to be the first sacrifice. Then the person elected as Overseer becomes the next sacrifice, until one Overseer becomes sick of the voting blocs that have been set up, and declares that the next person chosen as Overseer (and thus, to die) will be picked by the Vault's random number generator.]]

[[/folder]]

* ''TheSimsMedieval'' gives you "success odds" of certain tasks your Sim can perform, but "medium" is more likely than not to result in failure on difficult things. Never try, for example, picking the lock on the stocks with your Spy when the odds are only medium. You ''will'' get caught.

* Due to the nature of the makers (and fanbase) of ''DragonFable'' the RNG is nicknamed the Rude (or Reall) Nasty Gnome. He sits on a floating pile of all of the gear in the game and throws items at heroes who finish quests. Those heroes that 'amuse' him, get a better item thrown at them (albeit faster).

* Averted in {{Foxtrot}}: During a TabletopGame/{{Monopoly}} game, Jason is shown holding dice in his hands and shaking them muttering "doubles... I need doubles...", but it turns out his strategy is to do that until the other players forfeit. When playing RPGs, he has no particular rituals.

[[folder:Comicbooks]]

[[folder:Videogames]]