When I’m not being a father or husband or woodworking, motorcycling, teaching, or any host of other things, I’ve been known to engage in miniature wargaming.  For those not in the know, think green army men on steroids.  Or Dungeons and Dragons on the battlefield.  Or…

Anyways, I have two students which need to learn fractions and probability at the fifth/six/seventh grade level.  My hook: Probability Dungeon Crawl.  With miniatures.

Rules after the jump….

Probability Dungeon Crawl

You’ll probability die.  Probably.  – a grim saying of Misterios Patricus, a Monarchian Legion Captain

You and your blonde-haired companion have been locked in a dungeon.  Things squirm.  Things go bump.  Things smell.  Mostly the smell comes from your guide, a crusty, old and decrepit soldier from the lost Monarchian Legion.  He has potions which he says can defeat any monster.

Each turn, you may walk three spaces.  When you peek into a new chamber, D3 nefarious monsters just happen to be there, because that’s what monsters do.  A D3 is a large fuzzy die which is rolled on the table.  Divide the result by 2 and round up.  This is very important to remember.

If you happen upon a nefarious beast in the dungeons, you have two options.

One: Defeat him (only dude-monsters in this dungeon!) with a probability or fraction potion.  Take a potion card, solve the problem.  Deploy potion.  This goes for any sized monster.  Even that big bull-headed one.  Or spiders.  I hate spiders.  And snakes.  And rats….

Two:  Attack with your weapon of chance.  If you are bigger than your opponent, use the “Bigger” spinner.  If you are smaller than your opponent, use the “Smaller” spinner.  Spin the wheel.

If you miss, your opponent spins.  If your opponent hits, you may block.  Then your opponent spins again.  Repeat as necessary.

If you get a hit, spin again.  Continue until something dies.  Hopefully, it won’t be you.  Small monsters can withstand one hit or its equivalent, medium monsters can withstand two hits or its equivalent, big monsters can withstand 3 hits or its equivalent on the spinner.

If you are hit, you may “block”.  In order to block, you must calculate the “probability” of something happening.  Spin both spinners, and then calculate the probability of getting that result on the two spinners.  If you are right, the hit is “blocked”.

Words of Advice from Ol’ Patricous:  You are a small person with a big heart.  I dub thee medium-sized.  On the off-chance you fight a medium monster, use the “Smaller” spinner.  If your companion fights with you, BOTH of you may spin a “Bigger” spinner.  If you BOTH fight a BIG monster, you BOTH get a spin on the “BIGGER” spinner.  As long as one of you spins a “hit”, you don’t lose your turn in when attacking a monster.  I suggest you work together.

As this is your first time through a dungeon, let’s say you can get poked in the ribs by a Nathanious Orc five times before succumbing to the sweet sleep of … DEATH.  At the end of each fight, you heal all your wounds, just like heroes in those moving-pictures I hear young folks talk about.

I must say, this is a very strange dungeon.  Good luck, wayfarer.