Einstein once said he did not think God played with dice. Authors may not either, unless the dice are loaded.
Tropes:
Related indexes:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Artificial Intelligences are very likely to turn evil.
- Artistic License – Statistics: The creator of a work of fiction simplifies the use of statistics or probability to make the story more interesting.
- Bad Luck Mitigation Mechanic: A game rewards persistence by overriding an uncooperative Random Number God in the player's favor.
- Born Lucky: Everything goes right for this character.
- Born Unlucky: Everything goes wrong for this character.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: An improbably long run of losses and bad luck is finally broken.
- Contagious A.I.: An AI expands by downloading itself into other computers.
- Contrived Coincidence: An extremely unlikely event happens for the plot's sake.
- Crazy Enough to Work: An insane, improbable idea works when more reasonable options don't.
- Dork Horse Candidate: Someone unsuited for politics challenges a hitherto unopposed candidate.
- Decided by One Vote: An important election is won by one vote.
- Down to the Last Play: Victory is won by one point near the end of the match.
- Finagle's Law: Anything that can go wrong will in the worst, most spectacular way.
- First Law of Tragicomedies: In a tragicomedy, Cerebus Syndrome ensues as tension rises.
- Gameplay Randomization: Gameplay mechanics that involve explicit randomization in some way or form.
- Gave Up Too Soon: Would have succeeded if they had persisted just a little more.
- Heads, Tails, Edge: A flipped coin lands on its edge.
- If My Calculations Are Correct: A character claims that they made a prediction based on sudden foolproof calculations.
- It's a Small World, After All: Planet equals small town, leading to Contrived Coincidences.
- The Jinx: Bad luck occurs to those around this character.
- Lifesaving Misfortune: Something inconvenient that happens to someone ends up saving them from death.
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Game mechanics that allow you to influence mostly random elements for a more favorable result.
- The Magic Poker Equation: The direr the situation and the more skilled player you are, the better your hand will be.
- Missed Him by That Much: Two characters just barely miss running into each other.
- Memory Gambit: Temporarily sacrificing your own memories for tactical advantage.
- Moral Luck: Praising or blaming a character for an action dependent on blind luck.
- Monkeys on a Typewriter: Given infinite time, even a monkey can produce meaningful text.
- Never Tell Me the Odds!: Disregarding explicitly mentioned unfavorable odds.
- Not My Driver: When someone gets in a vehicle and does not realize that there is something evil driving.
- One Degree of Separation: Every character is tangentially connected to almost every other character.
- Probability Pileup: Once something occurs, it's more likely for it to happen again.
- Random Drop: Enemies drop randomly-determined rewards when they die.
- Random Drop Booster: Anything in a game that improves the frequency and/or quality of Random Drops.
- Random Effect Spell: A spell or item that pulls randomly from a pool of different effects.
- Randomized Damage Attack: An attack deals randomized damage or is low-damage but deals critical hits randomly.
- Randomized Title Screen: When the Start Screen appearance changes randomly, either after being loaded, or determined before the screen appears.
- Randomized Transformation: Wanting to transform something or someone leads to changing, unpredictable results.
- Random Number God: Probability is sentient, and needs appeasing, lest it afflicts you with downright rotten luck.
- Roll-and-Move: Rolling a dice and moving playing pieces according to the result in a Board Game.
- Superpowerful Genetics: Regardless of origin, superpowers are hereditary.
- Theory of Narrative Causality: Things happen not because they are likely but because they are needed to tell a fictional story.
- Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: An untested tool is put to use at the insistence of higher-ups.
- Unluckily Lucky: A character who gets out of trouble as easily as they get in said trouble.
- Unpredictable Results: Something has effects impossible to predict beforehand.
- We Only Have One Chance: Solving a situation can only be done with perfect timing of certain events.
- What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Tempting Fate by stating that nothing will go wrong causes things to Go Horribly Wrong.
