Fifty seven gold pieces

Ygramul

The RNG is weird: I swear I see far too many instances (over multiple years, actually, not just one run) of random mobs dropping 57gp.

Is this Arnie playing with my mind, or does it happen to others as well?...

Loub

Nope, most often my loot contains many stacks of 33 gold, which too is a fault in the RNG.

the_spyder

I've heard loads of tales of the RNG not being quite so random as all that. It is quite likely that it isn't really that great an RNG as far as they go.

but I've also observed how people (myself included) have a tendency to see patterns where none exist, and to 'Remember' things a certain way, not because it actually IS that way, but because of imperfect remembrances of things.

Ygramul

*My* confirmation bias is clearly more structured than *your* confirmation bias.

the_spyder

I remember a similar thread popping up surrounding Melicamp the chicken's survival rate. and another surrounding scribing failure. If I recall correctly, someone actually put together stats on 'To hit' rolls in one thread. So it is a fairly common assertion that the RNG isn't so Random.

Either way, it is probably pretty easy (if quite a bit tedious) to confirm. Track the loot drops from every monster you kill throughout the game and tabulate them. Then you will know. If the gold drops fall outside of a standard bell curve, you have your answer.

Of course, in order for the sample size to be large enough to be statistically valid, you may have to play through the game several (hundred) times. but then it wouldn't be anyone's confirmation bias that causes the problem. you'd have statistics.

atcDave

An additional issue is the "treasure type". Different monsters use different formulas for their treasure. I'm going to guess that BG is using very different treasure types than 2E PNP does (so I'm not even going to try and guess what any of them "should" be), and its possible the treasure types on certain monsters are very odd and tends towards a certain bias.

meagloth

In regard to what the_spyder said! I've been pretty sure the RNG was against me. I'm pretty sure I've had imoen fail to scribe 10 scrolls in a row once, and had failed mellicamps quest so many times I looked up what I was doing wrong.

enqenq

Here's another thing to consider except confirmation bias and selective memory. If you always reload when something fails, until it succeeds, you'll eventually remember a few bad streaks. The thing is I really doubt you're gonna reload when it succeeds too, to see how big a success streak you can get. Think of that before you call an anecdotal horror story a data point

Rewolf

Gold = Gold. I don't care how much I get, as long as I get it!

Gotural

RNG is indeed pretty strange i think, with scroll scribing especially. 96% chance and still failling 1/6 of the times.

Aristillius

Yea, the scribbling is indeed very strange @Gotural. When you have 19 INT you shouldnt feel stressed out when scribing web.

DregothofTyr

Gotural said:

RNG is indeed pretty strange i think, with scroll scribing especially. 96% chance and still failling 1/6 of the times.

With regard to scribing scrolls, one thing to keep in mind is that specialist mages get a +15% chance to scribe spells from their school and a -15% chance outside it, so even with a 100% chance, that's still 85%, which is consistent with your 1/6 chance. (15% vs. 16.66% chance of failure)

Zanian

Rewolf said:

Gold = Gold. I don't care how much I get, as long as I get it!

You must be every employer's dream.

Rewolf

Zanian said:

Rewolf said:

Gold = Gold. I don't care how much I get, as long as I get it!

You must be every employer's dream.

Well, I DO work for the Dutch IRS/taxes......

the_spyder

considering this is a 10 year old video game, I don't think they were likely to break the bank on a top of the line RNG. I personally don't think it is so bent that it is broken. But it is (seemingly) very bent.

Gotural

@DregothofTyr‌ So the legends are true then ? I thought that because it wasn't indicated in the class description this rule never made it to the actual game but you are totally right !