Playing with people who struggle with math

[Rennaivx]

Berti Blackfoot wrote:

I have a degree in math but have a hard time adding quickly at the table (a math degree seemed to involve writing a lot of proofs using Greek letters rather than calculating, engineers do that sort of stuff :) ).

Truth. :)

[Chris Lambertz]

Removed the entire "hillbilly" derail. If it's not advice, keep it out of this subforum.

[Bandw2]

Chris Lambertz wrote:

Removed the entire "hillbilly" derail. If it's not advice, keep it out of this subforum.

oh thank god

[Aniuś the Talewise]

Thank the gods

[Broken Zenith]

You could always go diceless. That removes basically all of the math.

[Goth Guru]

Even with long time gamers, when I play a buffer, such as a bard or cleric, I always have to remind the other players.

Barbarian: Oh I just..
Me: Did you add the bard song?
Barbarian: I hit!

Sometimes this is a nomadic gamer who attends every convention on the north American continent.

[Aniuś the Talewise]

Broken Zenith wrote:

You could always go diceless. That removes basically all of the math.

without dice, where is the element of uncertainty?

without dice pathfinder would become a very different game. not worse, just different.

sounds very interesting.

[Broken Zenith]

Aniuś the Talewise wrote:

Broken Zenith wrote:

You could always go diceless. That removes basically all of the math.

without dice, where is the element of uncertainty?

without dice pathfinder would become a very different game. not worse, just different.

sounds very interesting.

There's less uncertainly, certainly, but the biggest part is you need to gather information. The most uncertainty is at the start of the combat, when you are trying to determine the enemies AC and attacks.

[Electric_337]

Aniuś the Talewise wrote:

One of my players has dyscalculia (meaning that they have severe difficulties processing math and numbers), and though I don't have dyscalculia, I do have adhd and I'm not so hot with math either. I can process mathematical problems carefully one step at a time, but this is demanding in terms of both time and brainpower.

8 years ago! It still needs to be addressed.

I have several very justifiable things to say about this, and they need to be split into separate postings.

Thank you very much for asking about this.

I have Dyscalcula as well as severe ADHD. The fact that a third party even called attention to Dyscalcula is pretty important, let alone Dyscalcula and gaming.

Calling attention to the two things together is important. Calling attention to all three in the same post is (to me) magical. I have a lot to say, which will probably go unread.

[Ryze Kuja]

Easiest way I can think of doing something like this would be to have a calculator nearby, and then use a Dice Rolling program or simply use Google, and it will add all of the dice up for you.

You can go to Google Search and type in: "roll 20d8" and it will roll all of them for you and add it up.

So lets say you're a crossblooded sorcerer and have a fireball that deals 15d6+30 damage. Type: "roll 15d6" in Google and hit enter. I just did it right now, and I got a result of 40. So now take your handy dandy calculator and type 40 + 30, and you'll get 70 as your final result.

If you're handy with Excel Spreadsheets, you could create your own dice-rolling program using formulas: =RANDBETWEEN(1,20), =RANDBETWEEN(1,12), =RANDBETWEEN(1,10), =RANDBETWEEN(1,8), =RANDBETWEEN(1,6), and =RANDBETWEEN(1,4), and then in adjacent columns put your +15, or +30 bonus, or whatever, and then use =Sum(K4:K8) or =Sum(A1+K3+G12) or w/e cell you need to add them all up for your totals. <---- K4:K8 means that it will add up all the values in cells K4, K5, K6, K7, and K8.

[Taja the Barbarian]

Electric_337 wrote:

Aniuś the Talewise wrote:

One of my players has dyscalculia (meaning that they have severe difficulties processing math and numbers), and though I don't have dyscalculia, I do have adhd and I'm not so hot with math either. I can process mathematical problems carefully one step at a time, but this is demanding in terms of both time and brainpower.

8 years ago! It still needs to be addressed.

I have several very justifiable things to say about this, and they need to be split into separate postings.

Thank you very much for asking about this.

I have Dyscalcula as well as severe ADHD. The fact that a third party even called attention to Dyscalcula is pretty important, let alone Dyscalcula and gaming.

Calling attention to the two things together is important. Calling attention to all three in the same post is (to me) magical. I have a lot to say, which will probably go unread.

Offhand, it seems like you should probably look at D&D5e as its bounded accuracy system really minimizes the math (static bonuses/penalties are largely replaced with a 'roll twice and take the better/worse result' mechanic): A lot of people dislike the lack of 'advancement' feeling (Base attack bonuses only increase by 4 points over 20 levels) but that might actually work as a 'plus' for you.

Of course, WotC has a new edition coming in the near future and they just alienated a lot of their playerbase with recent attempts to change their 'open gaming' rules...

[Azothath]

being highly educated and adept with math it is hard for me to really grasp the problem, BUT, every GM wants their players to enjoy their game and will help or try to help. It is a group of folks playing 'let's pretend'. So no one is alone as your friends will try to help as everyone has different skills in different areas.

One thing that can really help is Preparation! Write down you common attack sequences per weapon with your feats then rewrite them sorted by 1) weapon sequence/combinations by overall descending damage, then 2)feats and then 2a)descending damage. Condense everything to simple additions. That provides you with a simple sorted grouped list of attack sequences.

With spellcasting it is more complicated as it varies by the spell BUT you can write it on 3*5 cards, your 'spell stack'.

If you are still experiencing problems you can pick the 3*5 card and roll some dice and your designated math buddy can help. Most players aren't doing anything when it is not their turn so it is not a big issue. The GM is often too busy.

If you are playing virtually, scripts are the same thing but directed to the application's message process.
It is possible to do the same thing with spreadsheets.

[Mysterious Stranger]

One thing that I have found is that the more I use something the easier it gets. Obviously if you have Dyscalcula that is probably not going to help, but in other cases just sticking with gaming can actually help you with getting better at math. Before I started gaming, I was horrible at math, but once I started gaming my math improved. That many years ago but just doing something you are not good at can help.