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Badgercloak
2009-07-06, 12:35 PM
Sometime ago I read a Wizards of the coast article on dice superstitions, those outragious things people do with and to their dice.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/dd/20060609a

Today I thought lets see what sort of superstitions are in the Playground.

Before each game I give my dice a "warm up" by rolling them till each has hit its highest number atleast twice. This is acompanied by congratulating the high rollers and admoniting the lows.

:smallbiggrin:

Joran
2009-07-06, 12:40 PM
If the DM is rolling high, we steal his die and substitute it with the player's die who is rolling low.

I'm pretty tame, I have 3-4 dice and just rotate around if I'm particularly displeased with a result. I'll do a couple test rolls and then choose a die.

Flickerdart
2009-07-06, 12:43 PM
The dice roller bot in the IRC channel is named "The_TPK", and it doesn't disappoint. We don't have any rituals to make it stop, though we probably should.

evisiron
2009-07-06, 12:45 PM
Me: "Sure, you can borrow some of my dice, which would you like?"
P1: "Uh, the white ones."
Me: "Are you sure? They are... cursed"
P!: "Ha, funny" *Scoops dice*

*17 failed attacks and 1 character death later*

P1: "These dice are cursed!"

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-06, 12:46 PM
Read Darths and Droids?

I can't do it, but I'd love to do the pre-rolling the ones out presented there.

The Rose Dragon
2009-07-06, 12:46 PM
If a dice rolls 1 twice in a row, I save it for special occasions. Obviously it can't roll a 1 the next time due to the extremely low probability.

Also, if a dice rolls 10 twice in a row, it's out of the game, and should be saved until it can roll 1 twice in a row (obviously out-of-game).

Bigbrother87
2009-07-06, 12:58 PM
I consciously refuse to give the die any credit, and believe in chance being stronger than individual dice.

That being said, sometimes when I'm bored at the table, I stack the die into a tower, wait for someone to bump the table and make them fall, and then see what I got.

Zincorium
2009-07-06, 01:00 PM
Gambler's fallacy- it has *exactly* the same probability of rolling a one mathematically.

But in real world terms, if you throw it the same way onto the same surface that it rolled previously on, it'll have a higher chance, because evidently your manner of casting the die and the manner it lands produce 1's. The humor was supposed to be in the silliness of it.


Personally, I don't roll dice I don't find aesthetically pleasing. I feel they would sense my dislike by the way I hold them and seek to punish me. I also will occasionally roll some blank dice I ended up with when I'm a DM.

"Hey uh, what are you rolling back there?"
"Frankly, I have no idea."

shadow_archmagi
2009-07-06, 01:02 PM
But in real world terms, if you throw it the same way onto the same surface that it rolled previously on, it'll have a higher chance, because evidently your manner of casting the die and the manner it lands produce 1's.


I thought that was the point of the massive process of "pre-rolling" the 1's that was outlined in Darths and Droids. To find dice that have freakishly high probabilities of getting 1's and then give them to friends for important rolls.

Ichneumon
2009-07-06, 01:04 PM
I am sorry, but I can't tell you want I think about my dice or else they will punish me by rolling bad.

Melamoto
2009-07-06, 01:10 PM
To a certain extent, lucky and cursed dice won't stay like that forever. It works on an incredibly small scale, but the more you throw the dice and it keeps landing on a certain number area, the more worn away the edges on the bottom will become, making it a more rounded side. This makes it less likely to land on that side, so whichever side it normally lands on will switch to the opposite side of the dice. Although this happens on such a minuscule level I can't really see it having a proper effect on dice results.

kemmotar
2009-07-06, 01:12 PM
Actually, after a particular session I never bought dice again...the dice I own always get cursed....when I started I bought some really nice white dice that were slightly reflective...

The very first roll I ever made was a double 1 and then I saved from killing myself in the first attack of my first game ever...I should have thrown them away that day...

Instead I continued playing and one day I got fed up with all the ones and misses and failed saves i kept piling up (my only critical with that d20 was against a poor goblin in a random encounter...I killed it instantly...but it was pointless) and so passed them behind the DM screen while he was getting pizza and took his...

From that point on in that session he almost never hit us or made a save...it was only at the end of the session the DM realised what had happened when I asked for my dice back:smallbiggrin:

No one touched them ever again...

MCerberus
2009-07-06, 01:20 PM
My blue and clear d20s are cursed to the point where my players have dubbed them "The eyes of satan" and have statted out a magic item to reproduce the effects it usually has.

My d10's usually don't act up until I roll a random encounter. Always the most situationally inappropriate.

Ent
2009-07-06, 01:21 PM
I must roll "on a book". Usually the PHB or equivalent.

evisiron
2009-07-06, 01:27 PM
Oh yeah, I am a character-gets-their-own-dice kind of player. At a Con, I got some red dice to use with my upcoming fire based sorcerer. I joined a game though that was low on dice, so I used my new ones.

A 3 hour combat intensive session against generally low AC monsters, and through it I got 1 successful hit.

I actually missed more than anyone, since in the system when you missed shooting into combat, you rolled to hit your ally against their AC. I missed both rolls every time bar that single attack. The amount of almost friendly fire worried many a player. :smallamused:

The Rose Dragon
2009-07-06, 01:27 PM
Gambler's fallacy- it has *exactly* the same probability of rolling a one mathematically.

Which part of "superstition" eluded you again?

valadil
2009-07-06, 01:28 PM
I don't believe superstition affects my dice, but I have a few rituals I go through because I get bored when it's not my turn.

At the start of game I roll all my dice and sort them in descending order. I start with the dice that rolled high. When one of them rolls low it goes to the back of the line and I use the next best die instead. If a die fails me repeatedly or on important rolls it goes back in the bag.

I'm often the player who rolls nothing but 2s. The exception to this is if I lend someone else a bag of dice. The moocher will get my bad luck while my dice make up for all their bad rolls. This has worked reliably for the last 6 months or so and I've stopped encouraging the new guy from buying his own dice.

The best superstition I've heard is about training your dice. A friend of a friend punishes his bad dice. When a die fails him repeatedly he lines up all the other dice to watch as the failure die is microwaved into a steaming pile of fluid. Apparently his other dice behave very, very well.

Asheram
2009-07-06, 01:29 PM
I don't really have any rituals over my dice...
But whenever I roll low, I change the die to another and bless the dicecup.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-07-06, 01:33 PM
If the DM grabs a player's die to make a roll, that die recieves "bad DM ju-ju" and must be cleansed. This used to consist of rolling the bad luck out of it by passing it to each player in order until each of rolls over about a 12, but, as of last night, we may have a new tradition.

Which, strange as it may seem, consists of our one female players spontaneously grabbing the die in question and dropping it down...well...a rather chesty area. Her claim was that (and I quote) "Boobs make everything better."

That said, I did roll exceptionally well the rest of the night...

Zincorium
2009-07-06, 01:34 PM
Which part of "superstition" eluded you again?

Er, not one whit of it?

I was *Identifying* the particular type of superstition, in an 'oh, I know that one!' sort of way.

If it really irks you, I can stop.

Lord Loss
2009-07-06, 01:36 PM
My accursed ''DM D20'' never fails to dissapoint. My DM d20 always ends up rolling against the PCs. If a player forgets his die, I lend him this die, and he has a hideous evening rolling LOW. If I roll it, it gets whatever helps the enemies of the PCs. The Kobolds about to get speared? Natural 20!

I have a long list of rituals to cleanse bad dies (out of bordeom, not superstition). A most famous day was the time I threw my Sapphire Blue D20 off the balcony into myu pool when my Final Boss failed his save on hold person wth a natural 1...

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-06, 01:44 PM
Which, strange as it may seem, consists of our one female players spontaneously grabbing the die in question and dropping it down...well...a rather chesty area. Her claim was that (and I quote) "Boobs make everything better."

That said, I did roll exceptionally well the rest of the night...

This is hilarious, I cannot stop laughing at it.

That said, I may adopt you PREVIOUS method of cleansing the dice.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-07-06, 01:47 PM
I have several sets of dice, all varying shades of blue and green. The aquamarine d20 has never rolled any result but 1, 2, 19, or 20 for me while playing. I kid you not; I've rolled this thing a bunch of times, and though my players can borrow it and get the full spectrum of results, and I can roll it randomly a bunch of times and get other results, every time I actually use it for an in-game roll it gets one of those 4 results. It's gotten to the point where any time a player says "You know what would be cool...?" I roll that die for it, figuring that doing anything but succeeding spectacularly or failing spectacularly wouldn't do his crazy idea justice.

I won a set of those dark blue "deluxe" dice in a design contest on the WotC forums, and they seem to have the opposite problem--once again, out of game any old result comes up, but while we're actually playing none of them will roll the minimum or maximum result, whether my players are rolling or I'm rolling. These are my "fudge" dice--if I know that maximum damage will kill a player or above-minimum damage will kill a monster and a lower result wouldn't, I use these dice (though I must admit, I only used them for the former once, and only because I had misread a monster ability; I generally use them while playing so I have the best kill ratio in the party :smallbiggrin:).

Asheram
2009-07-06, 01:54 PM
Oh, by the way, I just remembered something about my dice. They do hate being rolled onto a hard surface.
A friend were borrowing my dice and complaining about the low rolls. I asked her to roll them onto a notebook, and the average went from about 5 to 12.
Be kind to your dice, and punish those who doesn't roll well, then they'll behave properly.

And by the way there are three gods that every gamer should worship: The Lady, Murphy and Fate.

-Cor-
2009-07-06, 02:01 PM
Nope... no real superstitions... or dice rituals.

I use whatever dice are handy behind my DM screen at the moment for what I need right then. Sometimes I have off nights... sometimes I can't roll under a 16 to save my player's lives....

That said, we used to "Woogie" the dice at a friend's house whenever we let them make a decision for us (like where to eat, what game to play next, etc...) Woogie-ing meant pointing at and chanting in some way at the dice while they were being rolled. If you Woogied, you had to obey the dice or the Gods of Chance would punish you.

Magicus
2009-07-06, 02:08 PM
Whenever my dice are rolling poorly, I try to Turn them like a bunch of undead, using whichever die has been rolling well as my holy symbol. It gets out the evil spirits infesting them, you see. Strangely, though, it only seems to work when I'm not the DM... :smallfrown:
My Turning abilities also work on traffic lights, but that's a different matter.

shadzar
2009-07-06, 02:29 PM
Never loan your dice to anyone else.

Never roll a dice until you need to roll it.

AstralFire
2009-07-06, 02:34 PM
I uh...

I...

I don't really pay attention to how it does on average?

Ograbme
2009-07-06, 02:45 PM
When rolling on an uneven surface, like a battlemat, and the dice tries to climb a hill but can't quite make it, it will ALWAYS roll backwards onto a lower number. No exceptions.

Haven
2009-07-06, 02:47 PM
Which, strange as it may seem, consists of our one female players spontaneously grabbing the die in question and dropping it down...well...a rather chesty area. Her claim was that (and I quote) "Boobs make everything better."

That said, I did roll exceptionally well the rest of the night...

I've never been able to get into any ritual that consists of actually rolling the dice, because what if you get a really good roll? Then you've used that up!

But I really can't disagree with the logic behind this idea.

-Cor-
2009-07-06, 02:54 PM
When rolling on an uneven surface, like a battlemat, and the dice tries to climb a hill but can't quite make it, it will ALWAYS roll backwards onto a lower number. No exceptions.

This is true... it is the Gods of Chance way of teaching the dice humility.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-07-06, 03:01 PM
I've never been able to get into any ritual that consists of actually rolling the dice, because what if you get a really good roll? Then you've used that up!

You'd think so, but my group has a tendency to roll in long strings. I could tell you of last night, where our Bard rolled three 1s in a row...or the day of great failure, with it's nine ones and a single two during a social encounter (first time I've ever seen a party fail so badly that the DM asked us to make a bluff check to convince someone of the truth, since our diplomacy failed so poorly he refused to believe anything we'd say). Then we have encounters that go swimmingly because of a chain of four criticals. This is par for course for us, so a string of high rolls is promising for our game.


But I really can't disagree with the logic behind this idea.

I know. It's pretty good logic. :smallbiggrin:

Magicus
2009-07-06, 03:07 PM
I've never been able to get into any ritual that consists of actually rolling the dice, because what if you get a really good roll? Then you've used that up!
+1. It is a well-documented fact that all dice have a limited number of good rolls in them; risking wasting your natural 20 on a meaningless roll is simply foolish.

Djinn_in_Tonic
2009-07-06, 03:14 PM
+1. It is a well-documented fact that all dice have a limited number of good rolls in them; risking wasting your natural 20 on a meaningless roll is simply foolish.

Hmmm...given the way my games go (see my previous post), perhaps I should institute a Dice Exchange Program. I send people dice that have rolled a lot of low numbers recently, in exchange for dice that other players think are out of good numbers. Maybe we'll both benefit from the deal. :smallbiggrin:

crimson77
2009-07-06, 03:26 PM
This is an interesting set of videos from game science (pt 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2fxoNHIuU) & 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxmkWrDbn34&feature=related)) on dice and why your dice might be rolling on average high or low. Makes me want to get a set of his dice.

warrl
2009-07-06, 03:48 PM
Streaks...

Rifts game, we came up against a BBEG. Our Crazy, with her magic staff (really it was - Millennium Tree branch, but we didn't know that yet) and word of power (did nothing, she was a Crazy), and with an armor rating of approximately 100,000 MDC due to something that had happened previously, proceed to jump into the air - the BBEG really was big - and whack the BBEG on top of the head (called shot bonuses) about eight times. So a roll for the jump, a roll to hit, a roll for damage if she hits, 24 rolls total; she made ALL the jumps, I think all but one of the to-hit rolls were critical hits, and all the damage rolls were high.

(She did blow her dodge when the BBEG hit back - but with that armor, big deal. She picked herself up out of the remains of some poor innocent tree, and went straight back to work.)

daa18
2009-07-06, 03:51 PM
My dice have a sense of humor. Whenever my character makes a joke before attacking I almost always succeed (which is why i love my rouge).

Oh, and if i need a roll of 17 to succeed I will always roll a 19.

Master_Rahl22
2009-07-06, 04:02 PM
I train my dice by setting them on the highest number to teach them what is acceptable. This doesn't apply to d6s since I play 40K and have around 60 of those. :)

I never roll outside of the game since I don't want to use up all of the good rolls, and I stick with specific dice for specific purposes. Attacks, skills, and saves all get seperate d20s, etc.

Justin B.
2009-07-06, 04:07 PM
Touching my dice is frowned upon. Rolling my dice is unacceptable. This causes my dice to have some sort of attachment to you, thereby lessening their attachment to me. Keep your juju off of my dice.

You need to choose some dice and stick with them. They are your friends, they learn to love you over time. Perferably, choose two or three sets that are your "best dice." Love them, but not too much, for it is better to be feared than loved.

If they begin treating you badly, tell them sternly that they are bad dice and set them out of the game for a while.

The dice must sit high number up on the table before being rolled. This way they know that this is the acceptable position. After rolling, place them back down with the high number facing up.

Always roll weapon and attack damage using the same set of dice. A set of dice is a family, and families love to be together. Roll attack and damage dice at the same time, this not only speeds combat, but allows the dice to work together, this makes them happy. Happy dice are dice that roll well.

Random832
2009-07-06, 04:16 PM
See, in my superstitions, all your superstitions would offend the dice and they wouldn't roll well for you. You're not respecting them.

The Dark Fiddler
2009-07-06, 04:25 PM
Actually, now that I think about it, I had a plan to try to 'bond' with my dice, so to speak. When they arrive (ordered Saturday), I plan on carrying them around with me, and rolling them jokingly to fool people into thinking I use them to decide mundane things (What is the answer to question number 12?). This way, the dice know I'm not ashamed of them or the fact that people think I trust them more than myself.

RTGoodman
2009-07-06, 04:31 PM
I've got a few sets of dice that seem to have their own "personalities" or at least "traits."

The smoky grey translucent set was my first set, and it's always my first choice, especially as a DM. It's not always the best, but it rarely lets me down totally. If it does, we have a Gentlemen's Agreement that I'll put him on the bench. That has only ever happened twice - once back in college, and at the meet-up in Johnson City.

The plain white-with-black-numbers set, the second I bought, has ALWAYS sucked. I never used it as a DM or PC after noticing that, and even when I loan it to folks THEY get the bad luck from it. (I think Krade was using this set at the meet-up and never rolled much higher than a 5 or so.)

The red set with gold numbering was bought as a gift that, it turns out, the person didn't need/want, so I just kept them, and they rewarded me for their generosity. I've only ever used them for one PC (who almost never rolled badly) and as a DM (where they DESTROY parties unless I fudge the rolls). They're out for blood, and everyone knows it. :smallamused:

The first and last of those three sets I don't let anyone else roll, and rarely let them touch. The white ones anyone who wants to risk failure can feel free to grab. :smalltongue:

Random832
2009-07-06, 04:35 PM
Anyway, speaking of superstitions, has anyone else had any related to anything other than dice?

In college we would generally set up in the common areas of the dorm buildings, and there was this one table that was cursed. dozens of rolls with several different dice and hardly any were above 15.

9mm
2009-07-06, 04:35 PM
Old Dm refused to roll his dice on anything except the Book of Vile Darkness.

me, I always call darkness when rolling a d6, for a guaranteed 6 or 1.

Zuki
2009-07-06, 05:13 PM
I only regularly roll some of my dice, the rest I tend to buy because they're pretty, but then I find out I don't like the shape or the quality of the edges, or something. I like crisp edges. So I only roll some of my dice, the ones that have performed well for me in the past.

Whenever I go to a new game store, I like to buy some dice from it. Even if I'm just visiting the town for a day or a weekend.

When I chronically borrowed dice from a friend because we played Exalted, I'd already figured out which dice of his that rolled well for me by the time I'd gotten my own set.

When I really want good rolls, because the stakes and the tension are running high, I get out all my dice and arrange them, with the highest number up. This includes when I'm playing online; I'll do it on my desk.

Pretty standard stuff, really.

arguskos
2009-07-06, 05:16 PM
I have 6 confirmed sets of dice, and roughly 40 non-set dice of all manner of shapes and sizes

I have 2 sets of dice that came from D&D starter sets. These suck and I use merely as roll fodder when I need to roll lots of dice at once.

I have an opaque purple set with golden inking. This is a good set, though not amazing. It tends to roll in the 8-14 range, which is good enough to use as a player.

There's my opaque turquoise set with gold inking. This set hates me (nothing above 7 the last ten sessions on the d20), to the point that I lend it to other people... or I did, until the ink wore off (****ty ink jobs make me :smallfrown:). Now, it just sits in my box and cries to itself.

My forest green semi-transparent set with gold inking is wonderful. It's a great set, and my personal favorite to roll as a player (just after the purple and gold). It always rolls high, and is great fun.

The last set is a Game Science clear red with white ink. It's a statistically normal set, and it's what I use as a DM (I like my players to know that I don't fudge rolls, save for in major fights, where the last die comes into play; see below). This set is actually a 12-piece set, coming with a d3, d5, d14, d16, and d24. Love the d5, it's my favorite!

The only one of the loose dice worth discussing is my very first d20: a bright orange one with white ink. This thing is a player-killing MONSTER. It slaughters anything and everything in sight with a cavalcade of 20s. Last time I broke it out in force, I killed three players in the span of an hour. I only use it now in major boss fights where I need the power of the Die of Death. My players loathe and fear this die, and I love it. :smallamused:

Weezer
2009-07-06, 06:16 PM
For me old dice usually do the best. My luckiest die are always ones from a set that my uncle gave to me a few years ago that he used when he played dnd about 5-7 years ago, so the die are at least 10-15 years old (and look it). THey are always the best die, roll high when high is called for and low when low is appropriate. I dont know why but the newer die never seem to keep up.

Thurbane
2009-07-06, 07:03 PM
I must roll "on a book". Usually the PHB or equivalent.
Yep, exactly the same with one of the guys I game with.

I have once threatened a dice, and then destroyed it with a hammer after it kept rolling poorly. I kept the fragments to show my other dice as a warning! :smallbiggrin:

Olo Demonsbane
2009-07-06, 08:01 PM
me, I always call darkness when rolling a d6, for a guaranteed 6 or 1.

Reading this, I rolled my black d6 and got a 1 :smalleek:

Anyway, it is a known fact that I roll exceptionally better for stats when I am not actually using the character in a game.

For example: I have a level 3 party that I am test running a campaign with. Their stats (they each have a +2 to a stat magic item):
20, 16, 16, 16, 14, 14; +18
22, 20, 14, 14, 12, 10; +16
20, 18, 16, 14, 12, 8 (He doesnt have a stat boosting item); +14
22, 18, 16, 16, 14, 10; +18

Then, the character that I made for a game got these beauties:
17, 16, 14, 13, 13, 12; +11

A seven point difference in the bonuses. Ouch.

ninja_penguin
2009-07-06, 08:05 PM
One of my white d20s has been referred to as the 'Soul Die', ala the Soul Calibur. It is powered by the suffering and deaths of the player characters, and we believe that it influences other d20s in this same way. When DM'ing, anybody using the Soul Die will crit at least three times every encounter. When used as a player, you will rarely roll above a 10, unless you have been reduced to 0 HP this encounter, where instead you will now be able to crit a few times.

And they laughed when my 4e Paladin took Armor of Bahamut.

Arcane Copycat
2009-07-06, 08:54 PM
Whenever I make an important role, I use dice that used to belong to my ex girlfriends mother before she passes.

We call them the haunted set because when I used them for the first time, I rolled 5 natural 20's in 1 combat encounter.

Strangely, they work better for me than my ex

Mystic Muse
2009-07-06, 08:57 PM
only done this twice but if I say "hulk smash" before rolling dice I roll high.

Rhiannon87
2009-07-06, 10:23 PM
Touching my dice is frowned upon. Rolling my dice is unacceptable. This causes my dice to have some sort of attachment to you, thereby lessening their attachment to me. Keep your juju off of my dice.

You need to choose some dice and stick with them. They are your friends, they learn to love you over time. Perferably, choose two or three sets that are your "best dice." Love them, but not too much, for it is better to be feared than loved.

If they begin treating you badly, tell them sternly that they are bad dice and set them out of the game for a while.

The dice must sit high number up on the table before being rolled. This way they know that this is the acceptable position. After rolling, place them back down with the high number facing up.

Always roll weapon and attack damage using the same set of dice. A set of dice is a family, and families love to be together. Roll attack and damage dice at the same time, this not only speeds combat, but allows the dice to work together, this makes them happy. Happy dice are dice that roll well.

Yeah, this is pretty much what I do. I have two sets of dice that I use exclusively, I am utterly NEUROTIC about having the dice facing upright... if left within arm's reach of me, fellow players will find their dice all arranged with the highest number up. I generally roll damage out of the same set, but as I often need 4 to 7 d6s, this does not always work. Although after I get my birthday present, I will have a pretty set of chrome dice to roll as a damage unit.

Theres
2009-07-06, 11:48 PM
my theory which now seems eerily true is that the larger the dice (size wise not numerul) the better my rolls. i got like 10 small travel backgammon dice and they all roll the worst characters with mostly 7-9s. my three large red dice and a normal blue one roll out uber characters that never fail and deal great damage

Bugbeartrap
2009-07-07, 02:03 AM
I do the standard placing dice highest number up whenever possible, and I find that rolling dice in families really does make a difference. When I was DMing Castle Ravenloft, I let my then-girlfriend use a set of six mickey mouse d6s for her sorceror, and they consistently rolled a majority of 6's. They were quickly named the "Necromancy Dice" (on account of Walt Disney is secretly a lich still biding his time underground in Florida, raising Cubans as Undead). Then when it comes time for Count Strahd to lay down some Fell Lightning on the party, they come up all ones!:smallconfused: I now use them with my warlock, who needs extra d6's beyond just the Necromancy Dice and have not once, from 6th to 12th level, rolled at least average.:smallmad:

I don't believe in probability anymore.

Shpadoinkle
2009-07-07, 05:18 AM
It's bad luck to use somebody else's dice. It's also bad luck to let anybody else touch your dice, for both you and the other person.

My preferred method of rolling consists of cupping both hands together with the dice between them and shake twice, then roll. Seems whenever I roll one-handed I get lower (though not neccisarily low) results.

I have six sets of dice. Three are normal size, and three are slightly less than half that. Generally I only use the large or the small sets in one game, and don't mix them, unless I have to roll more than three dice at a time for damage.

Zergrusheddie
2009-07-07, 05:56 AM
Well, I had a blue D20 that everyone called McCritty. This was back when I played an Orc Barbarian with a Greataxe. This dice would roll at least 2 20's every night like clockwork, followed my a X3 crit. Sadly, McCritty was killed one day when I was making a roll to bypass DR with my Beguiler. One of McCritty's side exploded and the d20 became a d18.5.

Ravens_cry
2009-07-07, 06:05 AM
Well, I had a blue D20 that everyone called McCritty. This was back when I played an Orc Barbarian with a Greataxe. This dice would roll at least 2 20's every night like clockwork, followed my a X3 crit. Sadly, McCritty was killed one day when I was making a roll to bypass DR with my Beguiler. One of McCritty's side exploded and the d20 became a d18.5.
McCritty may very well have been defective and it may not have been superstition at all, but an actual malformed die.
Superstitions, eh? I have placed dice low end up, shifted the dice to a different number after rolling before rolling again, and used different dice after a good or bad run.

Justin B.
2009-07-07, 02:18 PM
See, in my superstitions, all your superstitions would offend the dice and they wouldn't roll well for you. You're not respecting them.

In my experience, dice are cruel mistresses. You cannot 'respect' them. They cannot be bartered with, they cannot be begged for mercy. Every single time I have seen a person go "Roll well for me" or "Love me" they have ended up failing miserably. If you respect the dice, the dice take advantage of you.

They must know their place, as you must know yours. A die can roll bad occasionally, but repeated failure is completely unacceptable.

You must assume the dominate role if you ever wish to leave this dungeon alive...

Autopsibiofeeder
2009-07-07, 03:23 PM
I train my dice by setting them on the highest number to teach them what is acceptable.

Aye, I do that too. Somewhere in the back of my head there is this voice that convinces me that all dice are a tiny wee bit viscous and you can 'train' them to effectively become weighted. One of my fellow gamers does this as well and since we both alternate as DM most players (including me in his case) have taken up the habit to reverse this process as often as possible.

Rolling a dice so that it collides with an other dice that is in such a 'training' is a horrible event: the sudden shock may undo hours of training and you are never sure in what direction the dice has to be trained to reverse the effect!

Zain
2009-07-07, 03:33 PM
I always, always, always, always, always, make a temple to the dice gods out of spare die, it works

Nicodamus
2009-07-07, 07:17 PM
In NWoD where I have to roll a number of d10 (sometimes more than 10 dice) I usually shake all my dice in my cupped hands and roll just the number that is required, only dropping the dice that I feel are ready to be rolled.

I get fairly good results, about 1/2 success rate (8 to 10 is a success, 10 also rolls again making 1/3 success rate the expected average) with the success rate even going beyond 1/1 in crucial moments. (Evil badass demon dude out to tear us a new one, my character barely skilled in ranged weapons using a magnum revolver which was bound to just fly out of his hands from the unexpected recoil aims for the head with a pool of 3 dice scoring 7 successes. I don't even want to know what the chances of that were.)