Editor’s note: Switching to posting Friday instead of Sunday.

Psychological research shows that small amounts of alcohol can lower inhibitions enough to improve certain kinds of creativity.¹ But those papers frequently qualify that with “however, getting completely shit-faced has never helped anyone’s bottom line.” Or, you know, something equivalent in dry academic language.

On the other hand, Michael Baker from The Magic Company drunkenly stumbled upon a massive improvement to a classic prop and doesn’t even seem to realize it:

As you can see, the force color is in the second position instead of the third. But what he doesn’t note is how much nicer this makes the forcing procedure. In particular, I’m referring to the procedure Andy Jerxmann described in these two posts.

Consider how he handles different imaginary die rolls in the latter post. He has nice ways to count to the third position if they say 2, 3, or 4, but half the time—for 1, 5, or 6—he has to make them pick a different number or fall back on a more complicated surefire procedure.

But if it’s in the second position from the left? Well, now we can just start counting for five out of six named die rolls!

• One: Use the “game board²” counting method starting from the left.
• Two: Obvious
• Four: Use the “game board” counting method starting from the right.
• Five: Obvious
• Six: Again, use the “game board” counting method starting from the right, but turn around when you get to the end to count “six,” just like you would for Phill Smith’s Quinta.

And what if they say “three,” you ask?

Well, first of all, if you followed Andy’s presentation, the first thing that happens is you pretend you’re rolling the “imaginary die” first, and if you just make your imaginary roll a “three,” you’ll greatly reduce the chances of them picking that anyway.

And if you’re using Andy’s “we’re just rolling examples right now” patter, even if they do copy you and name “three” also, you can just dismiss the “three” call as part of the tutorial and have them “roll” again.

Or if you don’t like that, you can just add their “three” to your “three” and count to six as described above.

That’s it. Only one special case. How much easier is that? I look forward to The Magic Company being immediately inundated with special orders for intentionally mis-made hot rods thanks to his revolutionary discovery. I hope the success doesn’t drive him to drink, lest he accidentally revolutionize the Die Box somehow as well.

1. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/creative-insights/202603/does-alcohol-boost-creativity ↩︎
2. Come to think of it, you could justify the “gameboard” mechanic by a reference to Chutes and Ladders or The Game of Life. These games use spinners instead of dice, and in fact the latter has values running from one up to ten. You can absolutely allow numbers that large using a Quinta-style count: seven works like five, nine and eleven work like one, ten works like two, and eight is another exceptional case that can be handled just like three. The simplified general rule for any number is: Add 2 to the number. If it’s a multiple of 5, it’s an exceptional case. If the ones digit is less than 5, start from the left, using the “gameboard” count for odd numbers. If the ones digit is more than 5, start from the right, using the “gameboard” count for even numbers. ↩︎