Determining handedness...

[Lincoln Hills]

Yes, I know there are no penalties/advantages to being left or right-handed, or even ambidextrous. But sometimes a minor detail of the campaign rests upon handedness. Found an old system that is quick, fun for players, works fairly well, and apparently comes close to the actual proportions.

Each player rolls 1d6 and 1d20. If the d20 roll is higher, the character is right-handed. If the d6 roll is higher, the character is left-handed. And if the rolls are equal, the character is ambidextrous.

[Bascaria]

Lincoln Hills wrote:

Yes, I know there are no penalties/advantages to being left or right-handed, or even ambidextrous. But sometimes a minor detail of the campaign rests upon handedness. Found an old system that is quick, fun for players, works fairly well, and apparently comes close to the actual proportions.

Each player rolls 1d6 and 1d20. If the d20 roll is higher, the character is right-handed. If the d6 roll is higher, the character is left-handed. And if the rolls are equal, the character is ambidextrous.

Wikipedia says 1 in 10 people is left handed, and 1 in 100 is naturally ambidextrous. For the purposes of this, I'm guessing we are ignoring trained ambidexterity, as all characters are assumed to have at least that.

The d6/d20 method will give 1 in 20 people as ambidextrous and 1 in 8 as being left handed.

You could also just roll a d%
1-10=left handed
11-99=right handed
100=ambidextrous

[Elven_Blades]

One of the groups i play with uses the old 2nd edition critical chart, so knowing what hand your stronger with is important. We generally decide at character creation, but this might interest them. Thanks for the post :)

[Lincoln Hills]

Bascaria wrote:

Wikipedia says 1 in 10 people is left handed, and 1 in 100 is naturally ambidextrous... The d6/d20 method will give 1 in 20 people as ambidextrous and 1 in 8 as being left handed...

OK, now I have to actually do the math.

Ambidexterity: 70% of the time there is a 0% chance of the numbers matching (results 7-20), and 30% of the time there is a 1 in 20 chance of the numbers matching (results 1-6). Comes out to a 1.5% chance.

Left-handedness: 75% of the time there is a 0% chance of the d6 being higher (results 6-20), with the remaining 25% having a median 15% chance of success. Odds of rolling a lefty with this system are around 3.75%.

There. I didn't want to do the math but you made me do it. I feel dirty. The whole point was to provide a fast fun method, not an equation.

[Nimon]

Heres a fast way, you pick left or right at character creation, and if you want natural ambidextrious you spend a trait.

[lalallaalal]

In my family game we roll some percent (can't remember exactly) to see if you are ambidextrous and if you are you don't take penalties when fighting with 2 weapons.