Russian roulette has been around since the mid-nineteenth century. The potentially deadly game of chance is estimated to have taken the lives of thousands of people, yet despite its risk of death, people continue to play it to this day. In this post, we’ll go over some of the reasons why people find themselves attracted to Russian roulette and decide to play the game despite being aware of the risks involved.

Extreme Thrills

Many people get a kick out of doing extreme activities, such as highly dangerous sports. They do these things knowing there’s a risk of them being hurt and that risk makes the activity all the more appealing and satisfying. With Russian roulette, there’s obviously a chance that you’ll die and for some people, this is the biggest possible risk there is. To these people, because Russian roulette involves the ultimate risk, it’s much more thrilling than any other kind of extreme activity. Sure, when you play dangerous sports, for example, there is a chance of death but it’s very low indeed. With Russian roulette, the chance of being killed is much higher – 1/6 if you’re using a six-chamber revolver with six people playing, and higher in many other instances. For some people, the risk involved with playing Russian roulette is worth the adrenaline rush that the game gives you.

Showing Off

If you’re playing Russian roulette with other people, you’re not technically guaranteed to get shot. For example, if there are two of you playing and the revolver has six chambers with only one loaded with a round, you have a 1/2 chance of being unlucky enough to get shot. Some people play the game because they want to show off to others and prove that they’re brave enough to take the game on and beat the odds. Some gangs have been to have initiation ceremonies where potential new members are made to play the game to prove they’re willing to take risk. In these games, the revolvers are empty so there’s no chance of dying at all, but those being initiated are made to believe one of the chambers is loaded and that they’re actually playing a proper game of Russian roulette.

Suicidal Thoughts

Some people who are thinking of committing suicide decide to play Russian roulette by themselves, or even with others, as a way of tempting fate. Those who play alone do so because they have a chance of dying, which part of them wants, but at the same time they’re not going as far as deliberately killing themselves outright – there’s a chance that after a pull of the trigger, they’ll survive. Suicidal people, therefore, may play this game because they don’t have the courage or willpower to shoot themselves straight away knowing they’ll face instant death – they’d rather play a game where there’s only a risk of death and they can stop and carry on living at any time.

Curiosity

Russian roulette is well known, undoubtedly because of its extreme and controversial nature. Some people play the game simply because they’re curious about it and they want to see what all the fuss is about. They accept the risk and still go ahead with playing despite potentially dying because they’ve heard of many other people playing it, and surviving, and want to experience it for themselves. They think that if others have played the game and come to no harm, they themselves should be able to play it and walk away unscathed. Part of what attracts people to the game is that they’re interested in experiencing the feelings of excitement and relief when the trigger is pulled and no round is fired.

Don’t Take The Risk

We’ve gone over some of the main reasons why people decide to play Russian roulette. We can’t stress enough that you should never play the game, no matter how much it appeals to you or how much someone else wants you to play. Even though you may well survive, there’s still a high chance you won’t make it and plenty of people have died from playing the game. If you’re after extreme thrills, practise a sport that’s much safer instead. If you want to show off to others, find some other way of doing so. If you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, speak to someone and get help. If you’re curious about the game, just read about it and don’t take things further by playing it.

Even though playing Russian roulette is strongly discouraged, people will no doubt continue to play the game for one reason or another. If you find yourself determined to play, do the sensible thing and try a non-lethal version of the game instead, or anything at all that doesn’t involve shooting guns and potentially killing yourself or others. There are some safe alternatives that simulate the experience of playing the game but without the extreme risk of death. It’s better to play a safer game and get to live, then to foolishly play a lethal game and end your life too soon.

Russian roulette is a game of chance with some seriously lethal consequences. In this post, we’ll have a look at some of the maths behind the game and reveal what the chances of surviving the game are in different circumstances. Even though the odds can be favourable, we would never encourage you to play as there’s still a significant chance something could go wrong and if it does, you will end up paying the ultimate price.

Chances Of Survival With One Trigger Pull

In many instances of Russian roulette, a six-shot revolver is used and there are two players who take it in turns to pull the trigger while pointing the revolver at the other player. Throughout this post we’ll use this particular type of gun in our examples. Let’s say you’re playing a potentially deadly game of Russian roulette. You load a six-shot revolver with a single round by placing it in one of the six chambers and spin the cylinder. Then, the other player places the muzzle right up against your head and pulls the trigger.

If the loaded chamber is lined up against the revolver’s barrel and primer percussion mechanism, the round will be shot out and you will, most likely, die. If, however, the chamber is empty, when you pull the trigger nothing will happen and you’ll live. In this situation, you have a 1/6 chance of dying. This is simply because the revolver has six chambers and only one is loaded. If two chambers are loaded, the chances of you being shot are 2/6 or 1/3; if three chambers have rounds in them, the chances are 3/6 or 1/2 and so on. Again, most Russian roulette games have a single chamber out of six loaded so as to improve a person’s chances of surviving.

Chances Of Survival With Multiple Trigger Pulls

So what about if you pull the revolver’s trigger more than once? We’ll use the example from above. You’ve got a six-shot revolver with one out of the six chambers loaded. We’ll assume that after each trigger, you don’t spin the cylinder again (doing so randomises the position of the loaded chamber and effectively gives you a fresh 1/6 chance of being shot).

To carry on from the example above, the revolver’s trigger was pulled and no round was fired. There are now five chambers left to be fired and one of them has the round in it. Now it’s your turn. You hold the gun against the other player’s head and pull the trigger. They have a 1/5 chance of being shot. For the third pull of the trigger, which the other player makes against you, it’s a 1/4 chance of being shot. For the fourth pull, which you make against the other player, they have a 1/3 chance of having the round getting fired at them. It’s the other player’s turn and they’re making the fifth pull of the trigger, which has just a 1/2 chance of resulting in a shot being fired. If by now the round hasn’t been fired, the sixth and final pull of the trigger will definitely result in someone getting shot – it’s your turn and if you pull the trigger, the other player will get shot and die.

But what about if the cylinder is spun after each trigger? Let’s say you’re playing Russian roulette with someone else and that other person is going to pull the trigger six times, spinning the cylinder after every pull. Each individual pull of the trigger gives you a 1/6 chance of being shot. But what are the chances of surviving six consecutive trigger pulls? The sum to do for this would be 1 – (5/6)6, which works out at roughly 66.5%. The 5/6 refers to the chances of your surviving each pull and the power of six refers to each pull. So, if someone pulls the trigger six times and spins the cylinder after each pull, you have a 2/3 chance of making it through without getting shot.

No matter how many times the cylinder is spun and the trigger is pulled, you’ll only have a 1/6 chance of getting shot with each individual pull. If the cylinder is spun, there’s never a 100% chance you’ll get shot (providing there’s at least one empty chamber, of course).

In this game, where there are two people playing and the cylinder has six chambers, only one of which is loaded, you have a 1/2 chance of getting shot. If there are three people getting fired at twice each, your chance of getting shot decreases to 1/3. Likewise, if there are six people – one fire for each person – your overall chance of being unlucky and getting the round fired at you is 1/6.