Welcome!

I’m going to tell you right now, this is a niche blog.

I play a lot of games, from board and card games to Dungeons and Dragons to stupid mobile idle clicker games. They let my brain unwind.

But then, when my brain gets too unwound, I need to do the math to figure out the optimal strategies, probabilities of success, or inner workings of the games.

I make spreadsheets, I fill pages with tiny formulas and symbols, and sometimes I even figure out some kind of answer.

This blog is a place for me to report my findings.

It’s also a place for people who are curious about game design and balancing, as the things that catch my interest tend to revolve around how different randomization systems create the total spread of outcomes.

It’s also a place for people who want to learn advanced Excel techniques. I will use any conceivable feature to get me to the result I need. VBA scripting, custom formulas, data connections, power queries, pivot tables, pretty much anything that is buried deep in help file and Google searches.

So there it is. If you find something of value for you in this blog, stay awhile! Send me a message if there’s something you want me to write about. If this is too nerdy for you, I completely understand. Enjoy this picture of an otter!

For anyone wondering about the name, “Stochastic” is a mathematical term that refers to random processes. I just like otters.