Home Strategy High scores, dice-rolling strats, and computer crashes

Things have been busy and hectic here in my headquarters, primarily thanks to a couple computer issues, which I’ll detail later. Also, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIII, battling WiNG in Pac Man Championship Edition DX, and playing even more Dragon Quest IX during my commute. Speaking of the Pac Man High Score Duel 2011 Ultra Mega Championship, here are the current standings, in case you’re interested:

pacmanatari

Mistakes were made. Lessons were learned.

NOTE: All scores are for 5 minute runs.

Course SergeT3’s Score WiNGSPANTT’s Score
Championship II 1,402,800* 1,382,820
Highway 1,250,190 1,412,810*
Junction 1,114,300* 943,230
Spiral 1,167,430 1,464,630*
Manhattan 1,589,470* 1,265,950
Dungeon 1,254,150* 1,248,190

So, as far as 5 minute play goes, we’re at 4-2, my side. For now…*

So, what can I talk about while you all wait (anxiously, I’m sure) for my computer issues to be fixed? Dungeons and Dragons! Because Top Tier Tactics hopes to be your #1 source for all things tactics-related, we’ll review premiere info and strategies to help you own at the table! So, let’s get started with the basics: dice rolling.

Dungeons and Dragons is a game about many, many things. Fantasy, swords, sorcery and roleplaying are generally considered chief among them. However, with 4th Edition, a lot can be done with just dice rolling! With this being the case, you need to have your dice rolling skills at their maximum. But there are a couple things you need before you can even start thinking about rolling those dice. Chief among them? Fingers.

Other prerequisites include an arm, a hand, and a central nervous system. Once you’ve got these all set up, you’ll need a set of at least 6 polyhedral dice, 1 of each: 4-sided, 6-sided, 8-sided, 10-sided, 12-sided, and 20-sided**. 7 is preferred by most D&D players as the minimum, where you have 2 d10, 1 which has single digits while the other has the numbers as multiples of 10, which if rolled together act as a d100. Of course, you could just go the Power-Gamer route and buy a bag of dice (roughly a pound of these things) so you can just grab what you need if you’ll be using multiples of the same die a lot. That option is a bit more expensive, but it’s a great way to support your local hobby shop and begin building a good store-customer relationship with the people who work there. That is, if you even have such a shop. They’re rare beasts these days.

Next, you will have to consider your rolling surface. Will you be rolling on a wood surface? Perhaps a table cloth? Maybe you’ve gone all out and you’ve gotten a special felt rolling surface. Regardless of any of these things, learn how the surface will affect your rolls. See how the dice bounce, if they roll further, if they slide, etc. Use this information to maximize on each one of your rolls. Also, try to learn a couple good techniques, like snapping your wrists or rolling the dice off of your fingers. DM’s will give you a bonus +2 on your rolls if you show some flair with each throw!†

That’s all you need to know about dice-rolling for D&D. Next time I talk about strategy, it will be a little different, and will only apply if you play the game in person with actual people around a table. I’ll teach you how to appropriately behave at a gaming table, what you can do to psyche everyone else out, and how to read the other players and DM accordingly.

Let’s Play Zelda 2 Update

I’ve been having issues making my Let’s Play of Zelda 2. I did a test run before recording the legitimate session, so I have at least that but it’s very, very rough. Before I recorded again, I installed something for another project, but that mucked up my sound card, meaning I’m going to have to spend more money to get an external sound card for a temporary fix after buying the things that caused the problem in the first place. I can’t really work on anything if I can’t properly listen to the sound, you know? However, I’m working very hard on getting everything good and fixed so I can get these videos finished and out.

*When I pulled up the game to record the scores, I saw WiNG beat my Manhattan score. I then proceeded to destroy his new record before finishing this article. I take no shame in this course of action.††
**From here on out, I will refer to the dice as “dX”, where d represents a die, and X is the number of sides it has. This is standard notation in pretty much all Dungeons and Dragons books, and most tabletop RPGs at that. At least the ones that use the d20 system.
†+2 bonus not guaranteed. The DM might just tell you to sit down and make the damn roll already.
††Just as I take no shame in secretly hiding links to Japanese rape manga in this article. ~WiNGSPANTT

5 replies to this post
  1. RAPE MANGA WHER-I mean, hope you get that Zelda 2 LP up and running. Can’t wait to see you suffer through the freaking mazes that some of the dungeons turn out to be.

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