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Zarmina
2010-02-11, 11:33 PM
Hey all! I apologize if this is posted in the wrong forum. I've been reading this forum for ages but never really got around to posting.

I'm working on a project for my Folklore class on the dice superstitions of gamers - mostly because I've seen some strange things done to dice in my days and because the stories are entertaining. (Has anyone else ever stuck badly behaving dice in ice water or seen someone stick them in the microwave?) I'm currently in the information-gathering phase of my project, and I figured, what better place to collect information on dice than a forum of gamers?

The IRB requires me to tell you that all data will be used strictly for the project and that all names will be changed in both my notes and in the project itself.

So without further ado, here are the questions I have:

What do you do to make a die roll well?
What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

Gralamin
2010-02-12, 12:01 AM
What do you do to make a die roll well? I attack a specific player.

What do you do when a die is rolling badly? I attack a specific player.

Are there other practices that you have heard of? Tons of threads that you can google and find.

Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
Yes

Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?
Yes, but it requires a die to be incredibly Biased.

TheCountAlucard
2010-02-12, 12:04 AM
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?Friend of mine says he was gaming with a fellow who kept all of his dice in the same bag; one day, he rolled a 1 for his Fortitude save against a very nasty effect. He took the die down to his basement, stuck it in a vice, and crushed the thing down to splinters. He put the fragments into a clear Ziplock bag, so that none of the pieces would go missing, and put it back in the bag with the rest of his dice. For the rest of the campaign, he never even failed a save, let alone rolled a 1.


Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?I've never done it, but apparently, these things do happen. :smallamused:

Personally, I've always wanted to have my dice sanctified with holy water, but I have my doubts as to whether that sort of thing would be tolerated. :smalltongue:

Kallisti
2010-02-12, 12:14 AM
My gaming group, since the day I joined, have rolled threes with freakish regularity, to the point where one player is considering getting a d20 with the three up tattooed onto himself to remember the group by and another began cursing me out when she got an inconvenient three in blackjack...even though I was nowhere nearby at the time.

And then our GM, a rather pious Christian, gave us all blessed dice for Christmas.

The dice didn't roll threes. Like, ever. Just those blessed dice, though, it still worked with every other die.

I did a chi-square test on my blessed die. I used E=15, and got a chi-square of 27.333, well within normal parameters.

However, out of my 300 rolls, I got fourty-three seventeens. I'd expect to get fifteen. I also got only six threes.

Clearly, Science says Jesus will return in 2017, and the Mayans can't count.

valadil
2010-02-12, 12:20 AM
So without further ado, here are the questions I have:

What do you do to make a die roll well?
What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

1. Cup dice in hands, shake vigorously before rolling.

2. Toss it back in the bag.

3.
One player I knew soaked dice in his own blood. Or at least he told us he did. It should come as no surprise that this was for World of Darkness.
A slightly more sane player punishes bad dice. If a die fails him repeatedly he lines up all the other dice to watch the miscreant get nuked in the microwave.
A player nobody liked was rolling well and bragging about his new dice. So we handed them over to the local dumbass who chewed on the dice for a while. Annoying player never found out, but the dice never rolled well again.
My own superstition is that I have extreme luck. I'll go for a whole session without seeing double digits on my d20. But then whenever I need a nat 20 to save the party I'll hit it. My rolls would come out to average if you did the math, it's their timing that's odd. The exception to this is if I lend dice to another player (especially in GURPs) I'll somehow manage to lend them the bad rolls and keep the good ones to myself.


4. Yes. See list.

5. For me, no. I'm too cheap. For some of my friends, yeah there are plenty of circumstances.

note: I don't really do superstition. Any rituals I perform in game are to keep me entertained when it's not my turn.

LurkerInPlayground
2010-02-12, 12:26 AM
Louis Zocchi explains why dice roll weird.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2fxoNHIuU&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxmkWrDbn34

In short:

Low grade dice are egg-shaped. Usually because they're short along multiple different axises.
Some edges are more rounded than others on low grade dice. So some edges are more prone to rolling over.
Some faces also have smaller surface areas when compared to others.
You can actually eyeball your dice to see the aforementioned defects.
Louis Zocchi doesn't mention that this is usually a bigger problem on d20's than it is on dice with fewer facets.
Louis Zocchi is a salesman nonetheless. While his dice are "high precision" sometimes a mid-range quality of d20 won't hurt you too badly. You can also use random number or pseudo-random number generators on a laptop.
If you do buy Game Science dice, I find that the formula for his gem dice tend to result in more defects along the clip mark. His opaque dice, however, are very nearly flawless, minus the blemish of course. If you buy his gem dice, expect a few "duds." Although even they seem to roll more randomly than most dice.

Lycan 01
2010-02-12, 12:34 AM
I am personally not superstitious. About dice, at least. To me, they're just pieces of plastic that bounce and land depending on how the laws of physics decided to behave today. I personally find the idea of regarding dice as having a mind of their own to be a bit... silly. It also makes me a bit uncomfortable when my friends start talking about the dice being angry, and the dice gods being against them... :smalleek:

So, to answer your questions...


What do you do to make a die roll well?

Roll them around a few times, and then drop them lightly so that they only bounce a few times. It rolls a few times, and then comes to a nice stop. No wild spinning, no insane bouncing, no having to chase it across the room when it bounces off the table, like when my friends "roll" the dice..... :smallannoyed:

What do you do when a die is rolling badly?

Keep rolling... Or switch with somebody else in case that one's buggy.

Are there other practices that you have heard of?

Drop the dice in a glass of water several, several times. Write down the number it lands on each and every time. After you've done this about... 50 times... you should have a good idea of how balanced it is. If it rolled a ton of 7s, and only a few other numbers, then it is unbalanced.

This trick is highly suggested for bulk D6 sets. These tend to be unbalanced when mass produced...

Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?

There's a story around this forum that a guy rolled 36 ones during a game of Shadowrun while trying to cast a spell. His character exploded... Several math experts argued the improbability of this, but others, myself included, argued the chances of the dice being unbalanced - especially if they were bought in bulk, considering the amount rolled - and the chances of the balanced ones just landing ones.

Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

When it is unbalanced. Then it must be purged. :smalleek:

Dr.Epic
2010-02-12, 01:22 AM
Are there other practices that you have heard of?


Putting the die in a mircowave so that all the weight goes to the side opposite the highest number.

Ravens_cry
2010-02-12, 01:38 AM
Putting the die in a mircowave so that all the weight goes to the side opposite the highest number.
That's not a superstition. Or rather, it's a superstition that works a little too well. In fact, and I have said this before, it's cheating.

Foryn Gilnith
2010-02-12, 01:43 AM
What do you do to make a die roll well?
Use a microwave or similar shenanigan to weight the die.


What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Switch, if feasible; do nothing otherwise. Characters get unlucky.


Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Yes. Most of the stereotypical ones; I don't fiddle with dice discussions too much.



Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
No.


Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?
It's a piece of plastic; its destruction is usually acceptable. Unless you're talking like deep morals, but that would be overanalyzing it.

TheCountAlucard
2010-02-12, 02:43 AM
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?

There's a story around this forum that a guy rolled 36 ones during a game of Shadowrun while trying to cast a spell. His character exploded... Several math experts argued the improbability of this, but others, myself included, argued the chances of the dice being unbalanced - especially if they were bought in bulk, considering the amount rolled - and the chances of the balanced ones just landing ones.Actually, it was just twenty-three ones... on twenty-three dice... during a Halloween gaming session. :smalleek:

Superglucose
2010-02-12, 02:45 AM
What do you do to make a die roll well?
What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?
1) Train them by leaving them on the '1' side down.
2) To the bench! It sits out the rest of combat in the sack/box I'm using to carry it around.
3) Yes.
4) Of course.
5) It's just a die, so sure, why not?

Jon_Dahl
2010-02-12, 02:54 AM
Try this if you are playing d20:
Have a decent selection of d20's. Always roll the one that gave you the lowest roll the last time you rolled it.
This works really well. Even with d6's. In Risk this has been strong psychological weapon whenever I used it :)

2xMachina
2010-02-12, 08:08 AM
You know the hand wave Obi Wan used for the dice throw in the movie?

I did it last time. Was in a Risk game. Gives a surprising frequency of sixes. They made me stop doing it before long lol. :smallcool: Maybe I'm a secret Jedi :smalltongue:

I also seem to be able to kinda feel out how a dice rolls after some rolls. Kinda know when to let go to get high rolls. Doesn't work all too often though, but good enough for me. (I think the dice move pretty much the same way each time, so it's kind of a practiced roll).

Also, don't like destroying things.

Gnaritas
2010-02-12, 08:16 AM
Doesn't work all too often though, but good enough for me. (I think the dice move pretty much the same way each time, so it's kind of a practiced roll).

Do you really believe you have the precision to throw a die, in a way that you are affecting the result?

2xMachina
2010-02-12, 08:44 AM
Hmm, I'm not really sure. Only guessing/suspecting. But I tend to get the same d6 roll if I roll it in 1 certain way. (Shake in 1 hand, then roll it across, so it isn't really a fake roll).

frogspawner
2010-02-12, 09:23 AM
Round our way, we think the dice have a tendency to roll the number the roller just said. But normally only in a bad way. E.g: "C'mon, I really need this one... Aagh, ...a ONE!"

Don't borrow dice off the GM. They're on his side!

I daren't repaint my "Twenty-roller", even though it's barely readable.

Zom B
2010-02-12, 09:23 AM
I've heard a story of a player that had dice set aside for spells based on their damage type. He had a set of red dice for fire, blue for cold, I think green for electricity, etc. He would subject the dice to the proper element to 'temper' them. The cold dice, IIRC, he turned a can of canned air upside down and inundated the dice with liquid air until frost formed on the dice.

SpikeFightwicky
2010-02-12, 09:27 AM
What do you do to make a die roll well?

Play as the DM... I always roll super high when I'm DMing, but whenever I'm a PC, I roll VERY low.


What do you do when a die is rolling badly?

Switch to a new die, put the old die back in the dice bag.


Are there other practices that you have heard of?

Someone in my roleplaying group would roll EVERY dice she owned before a game, and keep the ones that rolled the highest, and put the rest in the bag.

Also, whenever another player forgets their dice and I lend them some of mine, my dice always seem to roll better when they use them.


Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?

In response to one that rolls ALL of her dice before begining, the player never rolled well anyways, so it was always a wasted effort, and we'd always point this out. She still does it to this day, though.

Also, when I lend my dice out, they stop rolling well when I get them back.



Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

Not in my opinion, but I've seen many a die thrown about the room after a streak of poor rolling. I also had a friend who burned a die (d20) after he was pissed off at it. Of course, being plasticky, it deformed, melted a bit, and REALLY smelt bad. That was only time anyone I know damaged a die on purpose.

Gnaritas
2010-02-12, 09:27 AM
I've heard a story of a player that had dice set aside for spells based on their damage type. He had a set of red dice for fire, blue for cold, I think green for electricity, etc. He would subject the dice to the proper element to 'temper' them. The cold dice, IIRC, he turned a can of canned air upside down and inundated the dice with liquid air until frost formed on the dice.

He did this on the spot?
Cause the frost would melt in a minute....

However dice with a pattern painted on them (flames, ice, ...) seems like a nice touch for the elemental damage.

Zom B
2010-02-12, 10:21 AM
He did this on the spot?
Cause the frost would melt in a minute....

It wasn't so much something he did before each roll as much as a one-time anointing with ice.

Dimers
2010-02-12, 10:24 AM
What do you do to make a die roll well?
What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

1) Personally, I've given up on such a project, and I instead make patterns on the table. Nothing I've ever done has seemed to work. I recognize that my dice have personalities of their own, but being a naturally low-Charisma character, I can't do anything to influence them. On the plus side, nothing I do seems to have negative impact either. My dice are a stoic bunch.

I admit that I do lots of rolling before some sessions in the vain hope that this time I'll get the bad rolls out or 'train' the dice to roll right. I just don't put any faith in it.

2) Roll it a lot more during other people's turns (on something soft to muffle the potentially annoying sound), and/or switch it out for another die of the same type.

3 and 4) I once played in a group that had a full set of foam dice, each a few inches across. Being the scurrilous and wholly politically-incorrect scoundrels we were, we called them "the retard dice". To make them roll well, all that was necessary was to throw them while acting like a stereotyped presentation of a person with severe mental disabilities ... y'know, arms tight against the torso, neck tilted to one side, "erhn" grunting noises, that kind of thing. One time the main user screwed up his hair in preparation for an important roll. The foam dice would rarely go below about 80% of maximum value and (to my recollection) never caused a fumble when thrown that way. I haven't heard about other groups who have huge foam dice (much less groups who have foam dice and get their kicks from laughing at the unfortunate), so I have no idea how universal this trend might be.

5) Of course. Until someone tells me that a given die seems to have a soul*, I have no qualms about treating it however it deserves, including responding to negativity with negativity.

*Which I could, in a way, believe. I'm sorta-kinda animist. I used to own a car that had tons of personality and which I believe communicated with me. But I don't believe that most inanimate objects have spirits, just a rare few (heck, a lot of higher animals are lacking in that regard), and so far, nobody in my life has told me they believe a particular die has a spirit or soul. I've certainly never gotten any sense of spirit from any die I've owned.

alisbin
2010-02-12, 10:42 AM
What do you do to make a die roll well?
i tend to toss my d20 up in the air, catch it and roll, not so much to make it roll well, but to really randomize things. i'm a firm believer that the player has a big (but unconscious) effect on the result, my dice tend to have a really dramatic flair, on rolls i'm not really worried about they roll low, but when it counts they come through for me with near max rolls.

What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
i usually tend to examine how i've been rolling the die, how i was holding it, how hard i rolled it, etc.

Are there other practices that you have heard of?
i knew of a guy that would put a die in his mouth before an important roll, don't remember it working all that well.

Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
one of my fellow players bought a new set of dice after a horrid set of rolls and suddenly they started hitting things again. i bought that unlucky set though and its ok for me.

Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?
uh, i got nuthin, if i wasn't going to use a die anymore i'd just add it to the die graveyard on my desser.

Zen Master
2010-02-12, 10:57 AM
Pre-rolling dice is my favourite. Basically, before any important roll, I grab a bunch of d20's, roll them, then chose the one that rolled lowest for the real roll. Because you know ... the chances it will roll low twice in a row is lower.

This, naturally, is complete bollocks. Still, it produces likeable results.

An alternative is to pre-roll all dice at the start of the game session - and keep rolling until you get a 1. Then you put it aside. Likely, it wont roll another 1 next time you roll it.

This approach however, produces less likeable results.

All this, of course, without even a glance at the scientific facts involved. It's all just superstition for fun and games.

flabort
2010-02-12, 11:07 AM
It's all rather simple, actually. while rattling the die in your hand, you're really feeling to find which side's heaviest, which one has the most suface area, and judging the overall wheight of the die.
When you roll it, you face the side you want to get downwards, like, say, the 20, point the heaviest side forward, and hold it at a hieght proportional to the angle between the heaviest and largest face. you release it quickly so no-one sees.
Note: with a d20, if the largest face is near the heaviest, horizontally, roll low to the table. if it's far, horizontally, roll far from the table. if it's near verticly, roll it without much spin. if it's far, vertically, spin it with a forward or backwards spin, depending on the direction.

Now, this won't help when the die is perfectly unbiased, but no die ever is. there is always a heaviest, and a largest side. especially when there are indents, grooves, or similar, so you can clearly feel which number's which in your hand. which they should....

Also, I've got a special d20, which is clear and hollow. there is a second d20 inside of it. can't use the above strategy, but breathing heavilly on a outside face beforehand will often result in me rolling that on the inside.

Beelzebub1111
2010-02-12, 11:10 AM
Any die that's been rolled by our resident dice witch for some time consistently rolls high. Eerily so.

Sinfire Titan
2010-02-12, 11:15 AM
There's a ritual guaranteed to work: Find a hard-copy of FATAL (don't print it out, it needs to be one of the actual print runs), and burn it. From that day forward, your dice will do your bidding.


That, or you'll be removing the worst book in existence from circulation.




For me, I have a set of dice that's rolled fairly decent. It's a blue and gold set. Just last session I rolled nothing below a 5 on the d10 alone, and this was during a WW game (so it was rolled a fair number of times).

JeenLeen
2010-02-12, 11:16 AM
What do you do to make a die roll well?
What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

1. This has changed over the years. I use to try to focus my will to manipulate luck or fate to make the die roll well. When we had a gaming mat we drew combat maps on, I stopped rolling such that dice would touch the mat, for such always seemed to roll poorly.

From a more scientific view, I tried to deliver flicks of the wrist that result in a better throw. More particularly, trying to figure out all the aspects of a dice throw (starting position, wrist movements, dice shape/weight, and what it is hitting) to be able to predict how to make it land on a desired number. My ability to do this has not proven high.

2. Sometimes I switch die if it rolls badly persistently.

3. One of my friends breathed on my dice to impart luck to them.

4. Our mat did really seem to make dice roll poorly. Our DM had one die that seemed to always roll well; he'd often use it for the enemies until things got bad, then switch to 'safer' dice.

5. It seems a waste to destroy a die, even one 'unlucky'. I might stop using it or ask a friend to trade.

Duos Greanleef
2010-02-12, 01:08 PM
What do you do to make a die roll well?
What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

1)You never EVER touch my Dark Blue dice or my Clear dice... I will kill you.
2)I continue to roll it... That's what dice are for.
3)I've heard of the nuking method while lining up the other dice to watch. I :smallamused: every time.
4)Not really. I just think it's a mental thing really.
5)There are absolutely circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die: When you touch my Dark Blues or my Clears, I. Will. DESTROY. Yours.

Never. Touch. MY. dice!
(is my adamant-ness coming across well here? Don't touch my dice man.)

The really weird part of this for me is that I'm not superstitious about ANYTHING else, and I never have been.

PlzBreakMyCmpAn
2010-02-12, 07:12 PM
You people roll dice? They can be weighted... I force all players to use Psuedo-Random tools (http://www.penpaperpixel.org/tools/d20dicebag.htm)


Friend of mine says he was gaming with a fellow who kept all of his dice in the same bag; one day, he rolled a 1 for his Fortitude save against a very nasty effect. He took the die down to his basement, stuck it in a vice, and crushed the thing down to splinters. He put the fragments into a clear Ziplock bag, so that none of the pieces would go missing, and put it back in the bag with the rest of his dice. For the rest of the campaign, he never even failed a save, let alone rolled a 1.Wow. Never piss off that player IRL... :smalleek:

Zarmina
2010-02-12, 07:26 PM
1)
3 and 4) I once played in a group that had a full set of foam dice, each a few inches across. Being the scurrilous and wholly politically-incorrect scoundrels we were, we called them "the retard dice". To make them roll well, all that was necessary was to throw them while acting like a stereotyped presentation of a person with severe mental disabilities ... y'know, arms tight against the torso, neck tilted to one side, "erhn" grunting noises, that kind of thing. One time the main user screwed up his hair in preparation for an important roll. The foam dice would rarely go below about 80% of maximum value and (to my recollection) never caused a fumble when thrown that way. I haven't heard about other groups who have huge foam dice (much less groups who have foam dice and get their kicks from laughing at the unfortunate), so I have no idea how universal this trend might be.

...I really want a set of foam dice now. For scientific experimentation, of course.

BreathingMeat
2010-02-12, 07:35 PM
If you haven't seen it already, you might be interested in this thread over here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=141532) in which I'm testing some of the superstitions out.

Zarmina
2010-02-12, 07:58 PM
BreathingMeat, I saw your thread just as I was about to make this one. I actually did a double take when I saw it, because I was convinced for half a second that the friends that I had talked to about the project had gone ahead and started the thread without me.

In the words of Dr. Horrible, "What a crazy random happenstance."

randomhero00
2010-02-12, 08:15 PM
I don't really have superstitions about my dice, more like, I know that they aren't perfect (i.e. materials unbalanced) and do have tendency's that aren't in my head to roll one way or another.

What do you do to make a die roll well?
Nothing, I've bought a lot of dice, I don't use/give away the ones that roll badly.

What do you do when a die is rolling badly?
Retire it

Are there other practices that you have heard of?
Nuking it and verbally berating it are most common, though the verbal defamation is more for laughs...and nuking it may actually change its balance

Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?
See above microwave "ritual"

Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?
If it pisses you off enough, then why not? Its healthy to vent your rage. So far I've never come close though, nor seen anyone come close.

Katana_Geldar
2010-02-12, 09:15 PM
The new white set I got around Christmas frequently gets "hot" and rolls a string of "1s" and "20s", which was amusing at the first session I used them at and had 27 points of damage on a little kid. :smallamused:

I have three sets of spare dice for new players and player who don't bring theirs, they rarely roll well as they roll about in my bag. :smalltongue:

taltamir
2010-02-13, 01:49 AM
I don't care for any dice superstition. But I recognize that many dice are unbalanced.
I use gamescience dice for greater accuracy, and I do nothing to them no matter how they behave.

Raptor2213
2010-02-13, 07:44 AM
It wasn't so much something he did before each roll as much as a one-time anointing with ice.

Dice rituals, I have no problems with, but we have one guy who will roll and re-roll without saying a word, and if the first one happens to be a low number, it was his "testing" roll, or he was just rolling for fun, and he'll keep his second roll, still without saying anything to call his actions before the roll is made.

BreathingMeat
2010-02-13, 04:46 PM
Dice rituals, I have no problems with, but we have one guy who will roll and re-roll without saying a word, and if the first one happens to be a low number, it was his "testing" roll, or he was just rolling for fun, and he'll keep his second roll, still without saying anything to call his actions before the roll is made.

That sucks. Your group needs to start telling him "no, you missed" and moving on. He's spoiling the fun for everyone else that way.

arguskos
2010-02-14, 07:00 PM
Two notes.

1. I actually know a friend of yours, Zarmina. Gnomexp has instructed me to say hello. So, without further ado, "hello". :smallamused:

2. On my personal dice superstitions, I have a set of d20s that are the Player Killers. Whenever I want PCs to die, I reach for them, and they don't disappoint. Even when I DON'T want to kill PCs, they do anyways. :smallsigh: Further, through some fairly rigorous testing, I've determined that in the hands of other folks, they roll TERRIBLY (average was 3.4 or something like that).

taltamir
2010-02-14, 07:02 PM
2. On my personal dice superstitions, I have a set of d20s that are the Player Killers. Whenever I want PCs to die, I reach for them, and they don't disappoint. Even when I DON'T want to kill PCs, they do anyways. :smallsigh: Further, through some fairly rigorous testing, I've determined that in the hands of other folks, they roll TERRIBLY (average was 3.4 or something like that).

you also forgot to mention, that when you ask "do you want a high roll to be good for you, or a low roll to be good for you" they STILL end up killing players :P

Asbestos
2010-02-14, 10:23 PM
2. On my personal dice superstitions, I have a set of d20s that are the Player Killers. Whenever I want PCs to die, I reach for them, and they don't disappoint. Even when I DON'T want to kill PCs, they do anyways. :smallsigh: Further, through some fairly rigorous testing, I've determined that in the hands of other folks, they roll TERRIBLY (average was 3.4 or something like that).

Try a dice tower with them and see how they work out.



In the last group I played with everyone had several D20s. Everyone (and me in the end, because of well... group pressure to get in on the superstition) would roll a few d20s, pick the one that rolled lowest, and then roll that one for real. They only annoying thing was that they did this for EVERY d20 roll. On the plus side, they rolled damage and attack at the same time.

Tyndmyr
2010-02-14, 10:54 PM
What do you do to make a die roll well?

I don't know. I just don't know. *sob*


What do you do when a die is rolling badly?

I believe we call this "playing D&D".


Are there other practices that you have heard of?

Yes. Cannibalism. You must eat the other person to gain his power. Yknow that lucky guy in your group?


Have you heard stories of the success (or failure) of luck rituals?

Well, I hear cannibalism is frowned upon in some places. Plus, when you roll to figure out who gets what bits, the unluckiest person is always going to roll...poorly. So the luckiest person ends up getting all the luck, and then you have to eat them. It's a bit problematic, really.


Are there any circumstances where it is acceptable to destroy a die?

Oh no, that's just not civilized, sir.

arguskos
2010-02-14, 11:05 PM
Try a dice tower with them and see how they work out.
Already have. The luck stands. Seriously, they're CRUEL in my hands, and pansies in everyone else's. I mean, I don't use them anymore, they crit too much.

taltamir
2010-02-14, 11:20 PM
Already have. The luck stands. Seriously, they're CRUEL in my hands, and pansies in everyone else's. I mean, I don't use them anymore, they crit too much.

i think you are just very lucky... even when we made you use our gamescience dice you critted all day long :P

Zarmina
2010-02-17, 12:19 AM
I believe we call this "playing D&D".

Touche, salesman. Touche.