History Main / RandomNumberGod

** Fire Emblem has a major history in regards to its RNG regarding hit rates, to the frustration of many players through its history. In the first five games, the RNG is a simple one-RN - what you see is what you get. Then, starting with VideoGame/FireEmblemTheBindingBlade, it begins implementing 2 RN, where the game will roll two numbers and the average will factor whether the attack or miss based on hit rates, hence the term "True Hit" by fans. But in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' and ''VideoGame/FireEmblemEchoesShadowsOfValentia'', the RN is completely reworked which uses [[https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/ae5666/echoes_absolutely_uses_fates_rn_bonus_explanation/ this formula]] when factoring hit rates at least 50 hit, otherwise uses one RN for anything lower than 50. Then ''VideoGame/FireEmblemThreeHouses'' went back to using a 2 RN system. Expect horror stories from many players when the odds are against them and lose a valuable unit out of a bad gamble.

* ''Videogame/FallenLondon'': It plays a huge part, since the entire game is based on stat checks, along with the occasional card that's entirely up to chance. Nothing like raising your scandal to huge, unmanageable levels because you failed an 80% success chance five times in a row. It got so bad the players actually got an ''apology card'' (and a pair of dice as a make-up gift) from the RNG during one of the Christmas events. It's that sort of game.

->''"There are a limited number of “twenties” in any given d20. That is, no matter how many times you roll a d20, you cannot roll another twenty once the supply has run out. These twenties can only be replenished by rolling a corresponding one with the same die. Thus every gamer is duty-bound to protect their supply of good rolls. If a friend rolls a twenty using your die, not only have they stolen your good roll, but they have doomed you to the extra one required to replenish the twenty. [...] Statisticians have known about this behavior for years. They call it “the probability seesaw”. Unlike the bell-shaped curve, in the seesaw system the odds of rolling high or low is directly proportional to what has been rolled in the past. They usually pretend this isn’t true. If a statistician hands you a die insisting that 'any given roll has the same odds of rolling a one or a twenty', it means '''he's handing you a depleted die in the hopes of taking advantage of you'''. Don't fall for it!"''

->''"If a statistician hands you a die insisting that 'any given roll has the same odds of rolling a one or a twenty', it means '''he's handing you a depleted die in the hopes of taking advantage of you'''. Don't fall for it!"''

The name of this trope comes from VideoGame/{{Angband}}'s and VideoGame/NetHack's fanbases ([[TropeMaker coined in the Angband fanbase]], [[TropeCodifier spread by Nethack's]]), as a fanciful expansion of "RNG", for "UsefulNotes/RandomNumberGenerator"; both games use GameplayRandomization and are partially [[LuckBasedMission Luck-Based Missions]], considering how many [[KilledOffForReal Instant Death]]s there are, and the players of both games have been known to build altars to the "Random Number God" or curse his/her/its name. Or both.

* In ''VideoGame/Persona3'', if you're unlucky you'll be mercilessly killed by bosses by random chance, i. e., getting Mudo'd by the Intrepid Knight or charmed the whole battle by the 4th full moon boss. At higher difficulties, getting back attacked meant the protagonist getting attacked several times in a row and dying before you can do anything.

* The "desire sensor" is a superstition that permeates across multiple gaming genres: if you really want a RareRandomDrop, the game will "sense" your desire for it and rig the odds against you, forcing you to work harder or spend more to acquire it. Sometimes the sensor will also "spook" you by giving you a ''different'' rare drop -- often [[UndesirablePrize the one that you want the least]]! Long story short, if there is a Random Number God, it is malicious.

* The ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' fandom has come to the conclusion that the series has a sadistic, psychic, "desire-based" RNG for determining how often a really rare item RandomlyDrops, also known as the [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/943655-monster-hunter-tri/54801743 desire sensor]]. It ''will'' skew the odds out of your favor if you really want something, and the only way to end your curse is to not want it. You can't ''act'' like you don't want it, you have to ''actually'' not need it; the system is immune to reverse psychology. So if you spend hours farming the same giant monster for its armor plating, you may go through fifty corpses without seeing one, but you'll end up swimming in the stuff once you give up and move on to a different goal. The only other way to appease it ''may'' be petting the pig. The lead designer of the games has officially stated that the desire sensor does not exist, and confirmation bias is the true enemy. He, however, does admit to questioning the nature of the game at times when even he can't catch a break after 30 back-to-back hunts.

* Defied by the titular character in ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer'' whose tagline is "He does not let anyone roll the dice". Considering the whole setting is based on [[spoiler:tabletop gaming played between 'Truth' and 'Illusion']], everything should be decided by chance... But GS is too meticulous to leave anything to chance, he always comes in prepared with multiple contingencies that could turn the table in one fell swoop. At one point, the whole thing is illustrated by a figurine representing him kicking a bad die roll as if defying fate itself ''and succeeding''.

* ''LightNovel/OnlySenseOnline'' has the RunningGag of Sei getting repeatedly screwed over by the "greed sensor" (the same as ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'''s desire sensor, mentioned under Video Games), as the random loot distribution system in the game is almost guaranteed to hand over whatever she wants to another party member or someone who comes shortly after her, often forcing her to grind excessively or make expensive trades. Meanwhile, Yun's sheer indifference to whatever drops eventually gives him a reputation as a lucky companion, especially since he's willing to trade fairly if he got what someone else wanted.
* Defied in ''LightNovel/GoblinSlayer''. The {{Tagline}} of the eponymous main character is "He does not let anyone roll the dice." InUniverse, he's not much more significant than a NonPlayerCharacter. What he ''does'' have, are deep insight, creativity and CrazyPrepared antics, so much that he always have contingencies for any situation. At one point, the whole thing is illustrated as his figurine kicking over a dice rolled by [[KillerGameMaster Truth and Illusion]], [[ScrewDestiny defying and changing the original result.]] It does bear mentioning that it's also in his best interests for him to never, ever leave things up to chance, as true to the trope whenever he ''actually'' ends up in the dice's clutches [[BornUnlucky he tends to have shit luck]].
* The Bible says in Proverbs 16:33 that man casts lots, which were a form of chance equipment like dice (or perhaps literally drawn like straws), but the result comes from God, making Jehovah/Yahweh the literal Random Number God.

* The Monopoly-inspired ''VideoGame/{{Richman}}'' series has the player roll the dice to move across the board. Naturally, RNG is involved when rolling dices, as well as checking what card you will get at card spots and chance spots. A lot of players find that it's unusually common to walk into a mine or opponents' nukes when using regular dices, walk into the direct they don't want to go when passing through path splits, or get a chance card that will screw them up, while opponents often slip through the players' nukes just by throwing regular dices. You can prevent this to an extent by using various cards like remote dice or scapegoat (and depending on the game you play, some of these cards will not work against other cards or chances), but good luck if you run out of them.

* The Monopoly-inspired ''VideoGame/{{Richman}}'' series has the player roll the dice to move across the board. Naturally, RNG is involved when rolling dices, as well as checking what card you will get at card spots and chance spots. A lot of players find that it's unusally common to walk into a mine or opponents' nukes when using regular dices, walk into the direct they don't want to go when passing through path splits, or get a chance card that will screw them up, while opponents often slip through the players' nukes just by throwing regular dices. You can avoid this to an extent by using various cards like remote dice or watertight, but good luck if you run out of them.

* The Monopoly-inspired ''VideoGame/Richman'' series has the player roll the dice to move across the board. Naturally, RNG is involved when rolling dices, as well as checking what card you get at card spots and chance spots. A lot of players find that it's unusally common to hit the mines or opponents' nukes when using regular dices, walk into the direct they don't want to go when passing through path splits, or get a chance card that will screw them up, while opponents often slip through the players' nukes just by throwing regular dices.

* The RNG manifests in ''VideoGame/BillyVsSNAKEMAN'' as a monster that players in a village (read: clan) can fight. While all other monsters of that class have accurate HitPoints displays, the RNG has nonsensical numbers or words to represent remaining and total life. It also shows up during [[HolidayMode The Festival,]] where it runs a game where you roll ten dice; anything higher than a one gets you an obscenely valuable item. The item cannot be obtained there because you only ever roll ten ones. Getting it actually requires completing an entirely different quest.

* One of the main cons in ''VideoGame/DragonBallXenoverse''. Everything that is not the storyline is virtually dictated by the RNG, from the skills you want, to the clothes you wear and even the mentor you want and it even extends to the missions themselves. All missions have bonus objectives that have you fight more or the same enemy twice after clearing the mission quick enough, but even activating the bonus parts is controlled by RNG. That's right, you can literally curbstomp everyone around you with having lost any of your teammates, and you '''still''' will not get the bonus objective, despite fulfilling it. Even worse is when you're trying to get certain items or skills to drop and they simply refuse to, no matter how hard you try.

* ''VideoGame/EuropaUniversalis'': random events can spawn completely out of the blue, or could be weighted if certain conditions are met. Many players would swear that the infamous "hunting accident" event triggers more if your heir is young and talented, while your monarch is old and unlikely to have new children. Or maybe it's the disappointment before [[SaveScumming reloading]].

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX:'' On a related note, the patch notes for the 1.01 update of the HD remaster include the intriguing comment "Random number generation is now truly random."
** This was because in the original release of the [=PS4=] version the RNG wasn't implemented properly causing fights to always play out the same, always be in the same places and drops to be predictable.

* Items appearing at random times and from random places in the ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' series have caused a lot of resentment and frustration, such that nearly all tournaments, official or not, turn them off. Among high-level players, or at least players for whom Smash Bros. is SeriousBusiness, they loathe the random nature of the items so much that most Smash Bros. {{Game Mod}}s leave items completely untouched, even if the mods might cause them to crash (Brawl Minus is the only high-profile exception), under the assumption that everyone who will play with these mods will never play with items to begin with.

* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'' also holds [=RNGesus=] dear, though a far larger crowd (particularly Vauban players) attempt to invoke [[http://images.akamai.steamusercontent.com/ugc/489020692874195249/2B673445FEAB189A54AAB84B8FD75F694E4E8AF8/ Lootcifer]] instead, claiming Digital Extremes (the devs) are in league with him. Back when Prime items dropped from the Void, there was also frequent talk that the game borrowed the desire sensor from the ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' series; if you were hunting for Forma blueprints, it felt like you were almost guaranteed to find only Prime parts, and vice versa.

* Don't let its adorable aesthetics fool you, ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossing'''s entire gameplay revolves around randomness. Who your village starts out with, what your native fruit will be, who moves in, who wants to move out, where and what things will spawn, what items will appear in shops... the list goes on and on. After all, real life isn't exactly pre-planned, now is it?

* The fanbase of ''VideoGame/SpaceEngineers'' have their own take on this trope; namely a fictional god named "Klang" [[JerkassGod who enjoys making the in game physics engine suddenly malfunction for no logical reason.]]

* The multiplayer mode of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' uses a random unlock distribution based on Collectable Card Game style "packs" that contain different characters, items, and boosters. Basically, they were LootBoxes before the term became commonplace. Naturally, players were quick to complain about how annoying it was, especially given that different characters and weapons of the same rarity were very much [[JunkRare not equal in usefulness.]] This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by one of the random conversations you can overhear in the Citadel DLC, where an N7 Fury (a biotic that favours light weapons) is arguing with a requisitions officer that keeps trying to give her upgrades to a very heavy shotgun.

* ''VideoGame/{{Destiny2}}'' gives out weapons and armor based on this, especially towards its coveted Exotic engrams, with Guardians more often cursing than praising [=RNGesus=] for how quickly their collection of weapons and armor grows.

* The multiplayer mode of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' uses a random unlock distribution based on Collectable Card Game style "packs" that contain different characters, items, and boosters. Naturally, players were quick to complain about how annoying it was, especially given that different characters and weapons of the same rarity were very much not equal in usefulness. This is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by one of the random conversations you can overhear in the Citadel DLC, where an N7 Fury (a biotic that favours light weapons) is arguing with a requisitions officer that keeps trying to give her upgrades to a very heavy shotgun.

** The ''VideoGame/HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft'' community has taken to naming their God [=RNGesus=]. With a significant number of cards having [=RNG=]-based effects, many streamers [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClYoiv338Uk actually ''pray'']] to [=RNGesus=] when they need a random effect to go the way they need. There's also the most random card in the entire game that also happens to be a god. When someone plays Yogg-Saron, for each spell the player played, he'll cast a totally random spell on a totally random target. He can either win the game with a board wipe, a ton of token minions, and/or large heals, or completely throw the game by buffing an enemy minion, make you overdraw cards to the point of Fatigue damage, or Pyroblasting you in the face. Anywhere between turning the game around and throwing a winning game has happened with Yogg-Saron.

* The ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter'' fandom has come to the conclusion that the series has a sadistic, psychic, "desire-based" RNG for determining how often a really rare item RandomlyDrops, also known as the [[http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/943655-monster-hunter-tri/54801743 desire sensor]]. It ''will'' skew the odds out of your favor if you really want something, and the only way to end your curse is to not want it. You can't ''act'' like you don't want it, you have to ''actually'' not need it; the system is immune to reverse psychology. So if you spend hours farming the same giant monster for its armor plating, you may go through fifty corpses without seeing one, but you'll end up swimming in the stuff once you give up and move on to a different goal. The only other way to appease it ''may'' be petting the pig.
** The lead designer of the game has officially stated that the desire sensor does not exist, and confirmation bias is the true enemy. He however does admit to questioning the nature of the game at times when even he can't catch a break after 30 back to back hunts.

* ''WebVideo/DoorMonster'' takes this trope UpToEleven in "[[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons D&D]]: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_b47zsPzTLI Bad Dice]]", as Kyle not only rolls an entire ''box'' worth of 1's, he manages to do so with nine of them at once.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' players have adopted the [=RNGesus=] meme from Hearthstone. Those who repeatedly fail to win his favour occasionally turn to Lootcifer in hopes of better rolls.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXI'', however, goes the other direction. as [=RNG=] is the abbreviation for Rangers, some have taken to calling it the Random Number [[YouBastard Bastard]]. For good reasons.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX:'' On a related note, the patch notes for the 1.01 update of the HD remaster include the intriguing comment "Random number generation is now truly random."
** This was because in the original release of the [=PS4=] version the RNG wasn't implemented properly causing fights to always play out the same, always be in the same places and drops to be predictable.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'': Not helping the usual human inability to understand how statistics work, a mistake in calculation renders probability of success inaccurate for events that have a less than ten percent of failure. This gives even veteran players a sense that not only is the RNG out to get them, the game is actively ''lying'' to them.

* With weapons and gear having multiple parts available for each item, players of ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', ''VideoGame/Borderlands2'' and ''VideoGame/BorderlandsThePreSequel'' have had a love/hate relationship with [=RNGesus=].

*** Rolling a 1 when rolling a single die gets you an Eridium and a ''live grenade''.
*** Rolling ''two'' 1s gets you 4 Eriduim and ''[[OhCrap 3 live grenades]]''!

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'' players have adopted the RNGesus meme from Hearthstone. Those who repeatedly fail to win his favour occasionally turn to Lootcifer in hopes of better rolls.

* Much of the mechanics in ''VideoGame/SummonersWarSkyArena'', but most notably the summoning mechanics, are handled by the [[FanNickname RNGeesus]]. Players have formulated theories on how the system works, how to influence the RNG to grant them that elusive OlympusMons, up to the weird rituals one could do to 'surely' get a natural 4* at least.

** Your starting position in the galaxy is random. If you are lucky, you could spawn near a nebula (that you can harvest for resources), with many bountyful systems nearby, enclaves, some useful leviathans, and no rival empires nearby. If you are unlucky, you could spawn relatively next to a fanatical purifier empire. If you are really unlucky, you could spawn [[https://www.reddit.com/r/Stellaris/comments/77y1wg/i_feel_insulted_this_is_the_worst_spawn_i_ever_had/ out of range from the closest system until you research more advanced jump drive engines]] (pre-2.0), or in a hyperlane chokepoint blocked by a leviathan, a marauder empire, or worse.
** Research options are drawn like cards from a set of possibilities. What pops up might be a game-changer, for better or worst.