Calculating character money

I was thinking about this myself. As I'm not a D&D player I can't call myself an expert, but what I read it as was "55 * (4d4*10)" was actually ((55 * 4)d4) * 10. So instead of rolling 55 dice like JWalsh said, you actually roll 55 * 4, or 220 dice.

Some clarification would be nice though.

Hello All,

I was afraid this part would be a bit confusing, let me attempt to clarify again, using your "3d4x10" as an example.

In the string "3d4x10" I'm actually identifying three different parts. The first part is the number 3. Any time you have a number before the letter 'd', it identifies HOW MANY dice to roll, in this case 3.

The second part is the number 4. Any time you have a number after the letter 'd' it tells you what SIZE dice you're rolling, in this case a 4-sided die. For simplicity, attempting to communicate the size of a die, without an indication of the number of dice to roll is often written just 'd4'. For example, if I were to ask what size die a Wizard rolls for health each level, someone might say "he gets d4."

Now, the combination of "3d4" tells you how many dice to roll and the size of each dice. A string in that format always suggests you sum up the total value. So 3d4 could result in a random number between 3 and 12 - all three dice could be 1's or they could be 4's.

The final part is the "x10" This is a multiplier, and means to take whatever value was previously rolled, and multiply it by 10. In the case of "3d4x10" it means you're creating a random value between 30 and 120.

In terms of the character's gold, this means that at level 1, the character rolls 3x 4-sided die (d4) and then sums up the value. So for example, lets say I rolled 3 dice and got a 2, 2, and 4. The total would then be 8. I then take that value and multiply it by 10 to scale it. That would be 80. So based on my 3 random rolls of 2, 2, and 4, my level 1 character would receive 80 gold, or 80g as it's written.

Now, the part that's a bit confusing for people is what I do after level 1. Each level after level 1, you add to the character's gold, an amount equal to the level, multiplied by the number of dice for a level 1 character. So using the 3d4x10 example above.

level 1: =  3d4x10level 2: += 6d4x10level 3: += 9d4x10level 4: += 12d4x10...

All I'm doing is adding an amount to the character's total gold, equal to the level number 2-20, multiplied by the number of dice originally rolled for a level 1.

So, if I wanted to generate a level 10 character, he would need to accumulate gold for 10 levels. At the first level he get 3d4x10, at second level he gets 6d4x10, etc....all the way up to level 10, where he gets 30d4x10.

Now, if you wanted to calculate the TOTAL number of 4d4's necessary to be rolled to calculate the money this character receives, add up the level numbers..1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10. This value is 55. So a level 10 character will have received a grand total of (55x4)d4x10 gold over the course of his 10 levels. Or, worded differently this is 220d4x10 Total. This gives money in the range of 2200g to 8800g.

Using this formula you can generate the amount of gold owned by a character of any level.

I hope this clears it up a bit, if not, please let me know and I'll make another attempt. [lol]

Cheers!

[Edited by - JWalsh on August 14, 2007 2:36:20 PM]

Quote:

Original post by JWalsh Now, if you wanted to calculate the TOTAL number of d4's necessary to be rolled to calculate the money this character receives, add up the level numbers..1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10. This value is 55. So a level 10 character will have received a grand total of 55d4x10 gold over the course of his 10 levels. This gives money in the range of 550g to 2200g.

Maybe I'm not understanding something, but aren't you missing a 4 in there? In your example on the project description you say the formula for the Bard is 4d4x10. But, then you say after 10 levels its 55d4x10. Wouldn't it be 55*4d4x10?

Perhaps...lets give it a check to make sure.

Level 1: 4d4x10
Level 2: 8d4x10
Level 3: 12d4x10
Level 4: 16d4x10
Level 5: 20d4x10
Level 6: 24d4x10
Level 7: 28d4x10
Level 8: 32d4x10
Level 9: 36d4x10
Level 10: 40d4x10

Total: 220d4x10. Yup. it's 55 times 4d4x10, which is 220d4x10.

I see the confusion now, let me make sure I've worded it correctly everywhere.

Cheers!

I've re-worded the description for money generation above and in the original specification, as well as moved the parenthesis to make it more clear what was intended.

Thanks to those who pointed it out, including EternalNewbie, though I deleted his post because I finally got it updated correctly and didn't want his post to cause any more confusion. =) But thanks anyways.

Cheers!

Hey that was helpful!
thanks!