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Lioness
2009-10-07, 12:46 AM
Does anyone have any dice quirks, habits, stories, etc.?

I've found that everyone in our gaming group stores dice highest number up. It's a habit we picked up from our DM, who is pedantic to the point of obsessed with it.

When I buy dice, I also roll them a few times to find the lucky ones.

Today I bought mini dice, they are so cute! And very convenient for throwing at annoying people, too.

Random832
2009-10-07, 12:49 AM
I've found that everyone in our gaming group stores dice highest number up.

What is this "up"? I find it difficult to maintain or know an orientation of any given die in my bag. (or, more to the point - apart from being highest number up, how exactly do you store your dice?)

Funny that you mention rolling dice to find the lucky ones - I was told that that sort of behavior is disrespectful to the dice and will make you get worse results in the long run.

Mongoose87
2009-10-07, 12:50 AM
I am on a lifelong question to find a d20 with 10 1s and 10 20s.

tcrudisi
2009-10-07, 12:54 AM
When my dice are on the table, I keep them all with the highest number facing up. I never roll anyone elses dice, although I will pick it up and toss it to them.

If you are trying to find the "lucky" dice, what you are really trying to do is find the dice that are weighted towards the higher numbers. If you've got a free 20 minutes, check out gamescience's video. I find it interesting, but I think you have to be a very big gaming nerd to find that video interesting.

Vangor
2009-10-07, 01:03 AM
Does anyone have any dice quirks, habits, stories, etc.?

My friend had the worst habit of rolling dice randomly, generally doing nothing, but would note after a few tosses, "Oh, this was for my search," or, "Do I hear anything?" Note the "had".

I don't know if any of us really possess a quirk or habit with our dice beyond what I just said, but I do know if anyone begins getting a string of lucky throws we try to manage the dice away from them. This happens most often in games of Risk, but if a person is getting a few too many N20s we nonchalantly switch for a different d20.

bosssmiley
2009-10-07, 01:03 AM
Does anyone have any dice quirks, habits, stories, etc.?

Kevin Cook, the Dice Collector (http://www.dicecollector.com/), holder of the GWR for most dice held by a single obsessive, and husband to a very understanding Mrs, hangs about here sometimes. He's probably your go-to guy for all things polyhedral.


I've found that everyone in our gaming group stores dice highest number up. It's a habit we picked up from our DM, who is pedantic to the point of obsessed with it.

When I buy dice, I also roll them a few times to find the lucky ones.

It ain't luck. It's unevenness caused by the standard manufacturing process. Lou Zocchi knows all (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2fxoNHIuU).


Today I bought mini dice, they are so cute! And very convenient for throwing at annoying people, too.

*Grrrrr! @ mini dice*

Speaking as a DM I hate those things; too small to read, too easy to roll off the table ("That's an auto-1 btw"). Big chunky dice with clear lettering (none of this paizo over-decorating into illegibility (http://paizo.com/store/paizo/pathfinder/pathfinderAccessories/v5748btpy87ru) nonsense) are the way of truth and light.

Oh, be warned. Dice breed when you're not looking. I'm still trying to figure out where I got so many d10s from. :smallconfused:

@v: Some WoD. Hated the mechanics on a profound and visceral level. More L5R. XkY is fun! :smallbiggrin:

tcrudisi
2009-10-07, 01:15 AM
Oh, be warned. Dice breed when you're not looking. I'm still trying to figure out where I got so many d10s from. :smallconfused:

I'm betting you played some WoD in the past. I used to have handfuls of d10s but they've mostly disappeared. Then again, I lose a lot of dice. :smallfrown:

Lioness
2009-10-07, 01:18 AM
too easy to roll off the table ("That's an auto-1 btw")

Our DM just lets us reroll ours. I'm generally good at keeping them on the table, unless I'm feeling particularly dramatic.

PairO'Dice Lost
2009-10-07, 02:03 AM
Our DM just lets us reroll ours. I'm generally good at keeping them on the table, unless I'm feeling particularly dramatic.

Our table rule is that any 1 or 20 on the floor stays, and anything else is rerolled.

In terms of dice habits, well...I have to ensure all my dice are sufficiently close in shade. By this I mean that I have a set of dark green dice, one in turqoise, one in aquamarine, one in cyan, and the darker blue D&D Deluxe Dice I won in a contest--all of my dice sets have to be close enough that you can line them up and have a nice even color progression. This comes from my 1e campaigns, where I had a set of indigo dice I normally used which rolled average for me; any time I tried to use my friend's red-orange always-rolls-20s dice, I rolled badly, but the purplish-red dice he had always rolled normally, and ever since then all of my dice need to be chromatically centered around the cyan portion of the spectrum.

Jimbob
2009-10-07, 07:12 AM
I have a set of dice that I have had since I first started playing DND 13 years ago and I never ever use any other dice even if I have to roll the D6 10 times for a fireball I never use another set and always have them set up with 1 facing up.

Lioness
2009-10-07, 07:17 AM
Why the one?

Jimbob
2009-10-07, 08:27 AM
Just have always done it, guess if they are facing 1 then they are less likely to roll a 1 lol

The Rose Dragon
2009-10-07, 08:31 AM
My dice are all black and white. A habit I picked up from a game called Qin: the Warring States, where you roll two d10s, one black (yin) and one white (yang). Some actions are considered yin, where you want yin dice to be higher than yang, some are considered yang, where you want it to be the other way around, and some are neutral, where you just get the difference. Currently, I have only one turquoise set that breaks that uniformity.

valadil
2009-10-07, 08:42 AM
At the start of each game I roll all my d20s (or in GURPs d6s) and sort them into a line. I start with the dice that rolled well, but push them to the end of the line if they fail me. If they botch on something really important they go back in the dice bag. This isn't something I'm superstitious about - it's just something I do to keep entertained between turns.

I also play 24 if other people are taking a while. Roll 4 dice. d12s are best but anything as low as a d6 will serve. Add, subtract, multiply, and divide the results by each other to get to 24. ie 3 3 5 6 reaches 24 if you do (5*6)-3-3 or (5+3)*(6-3) or (5*3)+6+3.

Tyndmyr
2009-10-07, 08:43 AM
I'm betting you played some WoD in the past. I used to have handfuls of d10s but they've mostly disappeared. Then again, I lose a lot of dice. :smallfrown:

Or 7th Sea. I think I still have 20+ D10s hanging around from that game.

Dice build up...I have ludicrous amounts of them, in all sorts of styles. Im not even sure where some came from.

Fluffles
2009-10-07, 08:55 AM
I store all my d20s in a bag with a d20 that has nothing but 20s. It helps :smallbiggrin:

oxinabox
2009-10-07, 09:06 AM
I like to Roll the Bad out of my dice (i always use my own), i roll them til they've rolled a couple of bad rolls in a row, 'cos that means they have some good coming up, (the chances of 3 one's in a row is small (however i do study proability at uni and know that the chance of rolling a 3rd 1 after rolling 2 is equal to the chance of rolling a 1 normally) it's just a habit.

The bigger my dice pools are (nWod) the worse i roll.
eg dice pool of 3: 10, 9, 6, reroll 10: 8, so 3 successes.
on of my top skills (survival + INT) dice pool of 7: 1 success
then my bigest dice pool of all time: (a knowledge occult one): size 9, zero successes.

The Big Dice
2009-10-07, 09:31 AM
I've got a fair few dice. I'd say the bag with them all in weighs around 4 pounds, maybe 3. Lots and lots of them are D10s from my L5R days. Like around 70 or so of them, plus half a dozen pewter ones. I don't roll them, but I do threaten to throw them at annoying players :smallbiggrin:

I'm not superstitious about making sure they're in a certain pattern or that they show a certain number when I'm not rolling them. But I definitely have my favourites. There's 5 red and 5 blue D10s that I use for L5R, a set of six identical D6 that I use in threes, with three as a substitutes for GURPS and four D20s that I use for games that involve them. A black one with red numbers, a blue one with white numbers, a red one with white numbers and a clear crystal one with black numbers. The black and blue ones are my main dice, while the red and clear ones are my backups for when my main ones start rolling bad.

I've also got some red D6s that I use for my damage dice in games that use them for damage.

It can take me a while at the start of a session to find my dice from among the masses in my bag...

ondonaflash
2009-10-07, 10:20 AM
I'm lethal with a d20. I have one that I specifically use for whinging at people.

My college room mates learned to duck whenever I'd reach for my dice bag. It was fun.

Roukon
2009-10-07, 10:23 AM
I have six sets of dice. A red set, a blue set, a multi-colored set, a white set, a black set and a gray set. The colored sets are my PC dice. I use them when I play and when I DM, I let my players use them if they don't have dice themselves. Usually they are the communal dice for when someone doesn't have enough for something. The white, black and grey sets are my DM dice. Players are almost never allowed to use them. Only once, but that was because my player's dice were not being nice to her, even with character creation rules that allow for slightly higher stats. As I use a screen, I use the white dice when rolling for a good encounter, the black for a evil encounter and the grey for a neutral encounter. If needed, I will borrow from the other sets of DM dice, but most have to be from the alignment dice.

That is really about it for me.

Roukon

Sinfire Titan
2009-10-07, 10:33 AM
I have the antiflag for a die.

We call it that because of its habit of rolling 20s, but only when used to make an attack against a specific player's character. It never threatens a critical against anyone but him (we've kept track, currently sitting at a record 74 critical hits against him, 2 against anyone else). It works both when I DM and when I play under him (in the latter case, I get critical hits left and right against anything he sends at me, to the point that he refuses to allow me to play anything that needs a d20 to attack).


Oddly enough, the die itself only scares the bejewels out of him, it's never actually managed to kill one of his characters.

bosssmiley
2009-10-07, 10:40 AM
I store all my d20s in a bag with a d20 that has nothing but 20s. It helps :smallbiggrin:

Good idea. They bully the smaller, weaker dice if you don't keep them isolated. :smallamused:

Rixx
2009-10-07, 11:10 AM
I'm not particularly superstitious about my dice, but I will put a die away if it consistently rolls badly.

Doc Roc
2009-10-07, 11:14 AM
I have a pretty odd quirk as a GM. I own only one d20, and no other dice excluding a cursed pair of d10s that are used exclusively for call of cthulhu. This means that I borrow dice from my players continuously, with famously horrible results.

Nai_Calus
2009-10-07, 02:24 PM
I want a d20 with nothing but 20s. :<

I switch out dice when they misbehave, to the point where I've bought more dice during a session at a gamestore where all six d20s I had with me were failing me.

I have over a thousand, so it's not particularly hard to have enough, and playing Shadowrun has gotten me in the habit of carrying large quantities of dice. I could probably go ten sessions without once needing to use the same die twice for anything.

Tyndmyr
2009-10-07, 02:46 PM
I have a pretty odd quirk as a GM. I own only one d20, and no other dice excluding a cursed pair of d10s that are used exclusively for call of cthulhu. This means that I borrow dice from my players continuously, with famously horrible results.

Borrowing dice is nearly always horribly unlucky.

Dairun Cates
2009-10-07, 03:03 PM
The dice of improbability. My blue d20 I've used since the beginning of my role-playing days. Rolls 1's when it's hilarious and ironic, rolls 20's when the $#!^ hits the fan. This is true for both my play as a player AND as a GM. Needless to say, it's lead to some hilarious bluff checks, and some epic peasants. I don't honestly know what's going on there though. I know that dice luck can sometimes be improper balancing, but it's only dice I've ever seen that has perfect dramatic timing and will roll to suit the story.

Sinfire Titan
2009-10-07, 03:08 PM
The dice of improbability. My blue d20 I've used since the beginning of my role-playing days. Rolls 1's when it's hilarious and ironic, rolls 20's when the $#!^ hits the fan. This is true for both my play as a player AND as a GM. Needless to say, it's lead to some hilarious bluff checks, and some epic peasants. I don't honestly know what's going on there though. I know that dice luck can sometimes be improper balancing, but it's only dice I've ever seen that has perfect dramatic timing and will roll to suit the story.

There's an article in the Dragon Compendium regarding this. Your brain instinctively remembers such instances in favor of other occasions, giving you the illusion that the die is doing that. It may happen every so often, but when it happens just right, your brain hardwired the phenomena as being related to that die.


Still it happens.

Rhiannon87
2009-10-07, 03:13 PM
I have to have my dice arranged from highest to lowest (d20 to d4), with the highest number face-up when I'm at the table. My chrome d6s (so pretty! so heavy!) have to be arranged in rainbow order (each die has different colored pips). I used to prefer my copper set of dice, but now that the d20 from that set has proven to be a faithless harlot, I've switched to my plastic grey dice. I'd like to get another set soon, preferably another metal set. I love the way metal dice roll.

I also really want a nice set of wooden dice, not just d6s but the whole set of 7, preferably stained and/or varnished. I just think they'd look really cool. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find any others.

When I'm at a gaming store, I'll test roll dice for the hell of it, but since I buy most of my dice online, I rarely test the ones I'm going to be using. I usually don't try to get out the bad rolls of dice prior to game; I'm more concerned about arranging the dice properly so they learn which side is the right one to land on.

I will lend out my dice if someone needs it ("I cast searing light, can I have some d8s?"), but I expect them back as soon as the rolling is done. I also hate it when people borrow dice without asking. I never borrow someone else's dice (though one of the guys in my group has a pair of heavy silver d6s that I will sit and compulsively roll when we're not playing.)

So, in conclusion, am I neurotic about my dice? Yes. Yes I am.

Superglucose
2009-10-07, 03:22 PM
Highest number showing, touching each other to form polygons by type (so my d20s are all douching at least one side with at least one other d20 to form a polygon).

This is true except when I play a wizard. If I'm playing a wizard, only the D20s come out. And a single d6 and single d4.

lsfreak
2009-10-07, 03:22 PM
We take turns DM'ing, but no matter who's DM'ing, we all roll obscene amounts of crits against one guy. The guy is much, much more of a rolepalyer than a rollplayer, so his character aren't the strongest, but not entirely out of line with the rest of the group either.

I put them up against scythe-wielders and the first crits I rolled in weeks were against him. Fight a dragon and the on AoO he provokes getting in range? Crit. He decides to take on 6 low-level guys at once? Misscritcritcritcritcrit.

Dairun Cates
2009-10-07, 03:59 PM
There's an article in the Dragon Compendium regarding this. Your brain instinctively remembers such instances in favor of other occasions, giving you the illusion that the die is doing that. It may happen every so often, but when it happens just right, your brain hardwired the phenomena as being related to that die.


Still it happens.

Believe me, as someone who's about to get their MFA in design, I understand this effect more than anyone. I'd probably say the same thing too, but I've actually bothered running some numbers for this dice at one point, and it just seems to love improbability.

An example. During one campaign, a character with points in a vision skill (the ability to see the future, divine, etc.) picked up a stick to help with a vision check at one point. He rolls a 19. He decides to keep it. The next time he uses it, he gets a 20. In the rest of that entire campaign, vision checks with that stick went under 18 TWICE and one was a Nat 1. This is about 50 rolls on a dice with about a 15% chance of the roll each time.

The dice is just weird.

Glass Mouse
2009-10-07, 03:59 PM
I'm not particularly superstitious about dice. I don't even put away bad-rolling ones. However, I am very loyal to one particular die. It was a gift, and it tends to roll badly, but it is always my first choice.

Upon acquiring more than one set of dice, though, I'm starting to use dice that match my characters in mood. I've got a set for "dark" and serious characters, one for the good-guy types, one nature-ish, and one very bland. I actually bought the "dark" set because it matched my current character.

I really love dice, despite not owning a lot. Sometimes, I'm glad I'm just a poor little student. Otherwise, I'd just ruin myself in dice :smallbiggrin:

Also, I roll dice compulsively during play. Roll. Roll. Roll. Roll. "Will you please stop that?!!!" "Oh. Oh, sorry." Game. Game. Roll. Roll. Game. Roll. Roll. Roll. Rollrollrollroll! Repeat.
In my defense, though, I only use the rolls made after announcing what I'm rolling for. The "roll first, then decide" is kinda pathetic.

Sillycomic
2009-10-07, 04:08 PM
Whenever I am playing I line up all my dice so that the 1 is facing up. I just think it is the only way to get rid of the 1, when it rolls it will be bored with being 1 for so long that it will roll something else.

I have a theory about priming dice. Usually if you are rolling for practice you wait until you get a particularly bad roll... under 5 for a d20 or my friends usually play Warhammer so any critical failure there (77, 88, 99, 100)

That die is now primed! It just rolled horribly, so it got rid of its bad roll, there are only good rolls left in it.

I don't have dice "time out," but my friends do. Usually if they have a die that rolls bad, they will surround this die by a bunch of his other ones, who I suppose taunt and torment this die into rolling better. It is called the circle of shame.

I don't know if it works or not, but he sticks by it.

One thing I tell my friends is that when you have new dice to break in, you have to tell the die what you are rolling. Dice are stat specific, and they will do well on certain rolls and bad on others. Before you roll call out what you are doing... a reflex save, or an intimidate check, or an attack.

Whatever the die rolls consitantly high on, that is the particular stat for it. My friend ended up with a die she uses for saves, one for attacks, one for skill checks, and one for simple ability checks. It worked out fairly well.

Morchana
2009-10-07, 08:29 PM
When I was looking for my first set of dice, I had quite an adventure. . . Apparently there aren't many gaming shops in the area where I live, and as I was just starting out I really had no idea where to look. Finally, I and some other friends who were just starting out found a gaming store and went to get dice.

I got a really pretty set-- sparkly purple!-- and the others got full sets as well. Now, we all got the same brand of dice on the same day, but they don't roll the same. Mine always seem to roll pretty well, my old roommate's dice roll average, as does another set bought that day, but the one guy can't roll anything to save his life! :smallmad: Sad thing is, I think it is something to do with him, because my dice don't like him and his dice like me. (Unless one of us girls breathe on his dice for him-- then they roll well!)

As for in-game, I line up all of my dice largest to smallest, high number up-- so they get used to being that way. Makes sense to me. :smallbiggrin:

Thurbane
2009-10-07, 08:41 PM
To echo a lot of what has already been said, my dice superstitions include:

Never letting anyone esle use my dice
Pre-rolling at the start of a session to see which dice are "running hot"
Putting them high number up when they are sitting on the table
Discarding dice that fail me on a crucial roll (I actually took one green d20 home and pulverised it with a hammer after a character death!)

oxinabox
2009-10-07, 08:44 PM
I love the way metal dice roll.

Metal dice seem to dense and don't roll propperly.
the dm has a full et of metal dice (inc d20) made of peuter or something sililar, all half cm by half cm.
they roll ok but are too small.

He also has a 3 inch by 3 inch d20 mad of the same stuff.
IT's far too heavy.
You can't roll it, and if you drop it it puts a whole in the table.


I also hate it when people borrow dice without asking.

I have almost as many dice as out gaming club, when people can't be bothered getting dice from the club i just let them use mine.

But i hate it when they take without asking (esp if the club dice are on the table)
DM: roll to over come SR.
sorceerer just reaches in to my box and grabs a d20:smallfurious:, and rolls, i snatch it back.
sorceerer: what did it roll
me: it rolled a 7.

starwoof
2009-10-07, 09:04 PM
My Warhammer dice are streaked green and gold, and once upon a time they all had gold pips. I've been using them for so long that the pips have actually worn off, and now their my dice that only I can see (but never roll well).

My DnD dice are a different story. I've got a speckled blue and white die that rolls really well. We suspect that it actually siphons the 20's out of nearby dice, because nobody else near it can roll worth a damn.:smallbiggrin: I've got a lot of dice superstitions; nobody can touch my dice, they must all be placed in front of me, nobody else's dice can be in my area. My dice roll better when I'm feeling good. I have to center myself before I can roll well. I've got a red die that rolls better when I spit it out of my mouth, so I use it when I need to hit really badly.

I've got a set of 2 orange and 2 red dice that are all the same size and shape. They only roll really well when used to roll ability scores. I also use them for greatsword damage.

My dice don't respond to bribes, but they do respond to punishment.


Yeah. I'm kind of a dice weirdo.

GallóglachMaxim
2009-10-07, 09:06 PM
I store my dice in ascending order (left to right) with the highest number at the top. I've encountered some odd habits of other people, one guy that I played with thought of leaving his dice in a hot place with the high value up to 'cook' them, and make the plastic at the bottom thicker, I'm not sure if he did it or if it would work, and one of my old 40K buddies only used red dice, traded all the white and black ones that he got with other people.

starwoof
2009-10-07, 09:15 PM
I've encountered some odd habits of other people, one guy that I played with thought of leaving his dice in a hot place with the high value up to 'cook' them, and make the plastic at the bottom thicker, I'm not sure if he did it or if it would work,

It works, my roommate has a stack of microwaved dice that roll slightly better than average.:smalltongue:

Ravens_cry
2009-10-07, 09:20 PM
I store my dice in ascending order (left to right) with the highest number at the top. I've encountered some odd habits of other people, one guy that I played with thought of leaving his dice in a hot place with the high value up to 'cook' them, and make the plastic at the bottom thicker, I'm not sure if he did it or if it would work, and one of my old 40K buddies only used red dice, traded all the white and black ones that he got with other people.
Da red ones go fasta.
As for the cooking them, if the plastic is thermoplastic, that's more then a ritual, that's down right cheating. Even if the temperature isn't high enough to have an effect, that would be attempted cheating.
I store my D20's and other dice in separate bags, but that's just convenience. I have put my dice anything-but-20 up when on the table so that if the Random Number God glances my way they do not see my dice and think I have had enough 20's for the day.:smalltongue: I also use different dice from time to time. One of them has to have a 20 still in it!

Tyndmyr
2009-10-07, 09:28 PM
Metal dice seem to dense and don't roll propperly.
the dm has a full et of metal dice (inc d20) made of peuter or something sililar, all half cm by half cm.
they roll ok but are too small.

He also has a 3 inch by 3 inch d20 mad of the same stuff.
IT's far too heavy.
You can't roll it, and if you drop it it puts a whole in the table.


I *love* metal dice. I used to have sets of silver and copper dice, and they were awesome. I haven't the faintest idea where they went, though, and Ive moved twice since then, so they're probably gone.

HenryHankovitch
2009-10-08, 07:30 PM
It ain't luck. It's unevenness caused by the standard manufacturing process. Lou Zocchi knows all (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2fxoNHIuU).



That man is a great salesman I'm sure, but his pitch is completely full of ****.

Froogleyboy
2009-10-08, 07:50 PM
but I think you have to be a very big gaming nerd to find that video interesting.

:smallfrown: I found it stimulating

Tyndmyr
2009-10-08, 08:02 PM
That man is a great salesman I'm sure, but his pitch is completely full of ****.

It's a sales pitch, no doubt, but he does have a point in that if dice are somewhat oblong, you'll get an uneven number distribution. What that distribution is depends on which sides are on which ends, but yeah, an even distribution is ideal.

How much this matters to you, I dunno, but I've noticed a huge difference between lots of D6s, and favor casino dice for them.

Random832
2009-10-08, 08:28 PM
What I don't get is, why don't they hand-sand the clip mark off (or build a machine to do it) like they recommend? Or maybe have it as an option at least, along with ink.

It would be awesome if some company would make genuine casino-type dice in all the shapes.

Claudius Maximus
2009-10-08, 08:51 PM
I'm pretty sure there are special "balanced" dice. Probably a bit more expensive than normal.

I don't have very many quirks, other than using the same (mismatched) set of dice every time. There's a player in my campaign with the worst luck ever (like rolling five natural 1's in a row bad), but that's not exactly a dice story.