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Lea Plath
2012-03-07, 05:46 PM
I've just joined a new game at my local gaming society and I decided to run a con artist/trickster type. She has marked decks, false pockets and loaded die.

Now, the game is an fantasy homebrew with a lot to do with fate, chance and destiny, and in game dice rolls are common in taverns etc. Now one of the things the GM suggested was if my character was going to be using this dice a lot to win those sort of games, maybe I should have some props.

So does anyone know how to weight a dice? I'm trying to get 2 plastic or metal D6s and weight one to have a better chance to go for a 1 and the other having a chance to get a 6.

Don't worry, the system is D10 :p I won't be able to use them in it.

DaMullet
2012-03-07, 05:49 PM
I believe the standard 'trick' is to set them in your oven for a while, making sure they don't melt outwardly, so that the material inside settles to the side you put face down. This makes that position the more stable one, and thus more likely to be landed on when rolled.

Jeff the Green
2012-03-07, 06:07 PM
The easiest way is as DaMullet said. Put them in the oven with the desired face up, and then turn it to 250 degrees so they warm up slowly. Let them bake for 10 minutes, then let them cool for 20 minutes. Repeat as necessary.

Or, microwave for 20 seconds, let them cool, and repeat as necessary.

You can also (depending an what they're made of) drill holes in the dots and fill them with something heavy, like molten lead.

TheThan
2012-03-07, 06:22 PM
you could order custom dice from a company like chessex (http://chessex.com/Dice/Dice_Home.htm). if anything they have blanks that you could use for your loaded dice. (mark one dice 5,6,5,6,5,6, and the other 1,2,1,2,1,2)the two will roll 7s most of the time, and eights the rest.

tyckspoon
2012-03-07, 06:22 PM
Depending on how subtly you do it you can also try shaving/sanding down or sharpening an edge; a softer edge is more likely to tip over and keep going, while a sharper edge halts the die more readily.. so if you sand down all four edges around a particular face, your die is much less likely to stop on that face. It may also make your die notably rounder, so there's a limit to how much you can do before somebody calls you on it.

Lea Plath
2012-03-07, 06:27 PM
Well, I am gonna be allowed to use these for IC Dice rolls so I can make them pretty obvious :P

Molten lead is a bit too much for me, I struggle with solder even :P

I'll have a go at shaving. Thanks.

QuidEst
2012-03-07, 09:11 PM
I would get a couple dice so you can try variations. She can use different ones depending on what she needs. Sometimes you want good odds on a high number- other times, you just want low odds of rolling really low. (The latter will look more natural, so she'd use it if possible.)

Just a thought- it'd be nice to have a built in mechanic for getting caught at it. I would suggest that you get caught if you roll the same number (any number) x times in a row, where x is a difficulty modifier.
5 times for people with a good reason to trust her (or who are particularly stupid).
4 times for most people (on a fair d10, this is roughly one in every thousand sets of four rolls, for one-in-five weighted odds it becomes one in every 125.)
3 times for an expert or somebody who suspects.

Encourages using that "avoid 1" die over the "roll 10" die, plus it reflects how somebody would actually start to suspect something fishy.

Jay R
2012-03-08, 12:17 AM
How much do you want to improve the odds, and how obvious are you willing to be? These are related questions - the more likely the 7, the more obviously crooked the die is. If you mark a die with three 5's and three sixes, it can be seen to be wrong from any angle.

But if you just mark one die with 2 sixes and no ones, and the other die with two ones and no sixes, there is no view that is clearly incorrect. (The two sixes or ones will be on opposite sides, and therefore never both seen together.)

The odds of rolling a seven will have gone up from 6/36 to 8/36, and the die will never roll a 2 or 12. You can make it more likely (and the dice more obvious) by doubling up the 5s and 4s on the die with the 6, and doubling up the 3s and 2s on the die with the 1s.

If one die is marked 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, and the other die is marked 4, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, and the identical numbers are on opposite sides, no single view of the die looks wrong, and they will roll a 7 12/36 (1/3) of the time, and will never roll less than 5 or more than 9.

Sith_Happens
2012-03-08, 12:37 AM
Alternatively, does the system have any frequently-usable supernatural powers that you could use to influence a die roll or other element of chance (a.k.a. "pulling a Qui-Gon")? That way your character doesn't even have to use her own dice/cards/etc., which will make people much less likely to suspect anything.

Occasional Sage
2012-03-08, 12:58 AM
Dice with pips are easiest the weight. Drill through the "six" pips (easiest with wood or opaque plastic, but manageable even with metal), and fill with sections of light wood dowels and steel rods. Obviously you put the wood and metal in in the opposite order for the two dice. A touch of epoxy (kneadatite or some such and a dab of paint conceals the doctoring.

If you have a way to access a drill press, you can set the depth stop to drill very very close to, but not, all the way through. The closer you can get, the better the weighting will work.

Tyndmyr
2012-03-08, 01:23 AM
you could order custom dice from a company like chessex (http://chessex.com/Dice/Dice_Home.htm). if anything they have blanks that you could use for your loaded dice. (mark one dice 5,6,5,6,5,6, and the other 1,2,1,2,1,2)the two will roll 7s most of the time, and eights the rest.

More correctly, these will roll 7 50% of the time, 8 25% of the time, and 6 25% of the time.

WitchSlayer
2012-03-08, 01:35 AM
The oven one is the easiest iirc, although you may need to repaint the numbers if not for stealth then just so you can actually see what you roll.

Lea Plath
2012-03-09, 04:23 PM
I now have 2 loaded dice, one which will roll 1s, one for 6s. I ended up losing another dice after I started heating it and forgot and popped out to the shops >.> The only upside was I was using some scrap metal and my oven, not a baking tray.

They are a little clumsy looking, but I like em. Thanks all!

ericgrau
2012-03-09, 04:55 PM
You can also (depending an what they're made of) drill holes in the dots and fill them with something heavy, like molten lead.
A more practical and easier to find material would be lead based solder, or any solder even. It's density isn't quite as high but it has one of the lowest melting points of any metal, not counting mercury. Ya or rods of metal would work easier if you can find the right size. If you use wood you might want balsa wood otherwise it won't be much lighter than plastic. Or don't lighten it.

You'd drill slightly less than half way through because past half-way you're weighting the opposite side. Likewise you'd only want to weight one side, plus lighten the one opposite side if any.

All this is of course getting fancier than needed.