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cubecrazymonkey
2007-07-09, 05:40 PM
Most players inevitably find a session where one particularly die seems hell-bent on their destruction, or perhaps the dice gods favor the player and grant them nothing lower than 15. And even though the laws of probability suggest that we're just silly in thinking so, it always seems like a specific die is "cursed" or "lucky".

What rituals does your group have to counter-act this phenomenon? Here's a few of my own:

~Original player: The dice know who they belong to. We once had a player using a miniature set of purple dice. He left, another player joined, and we gave his set to her. She never once rolled well, obviously because the dice refused to recognize her as master. Now every player must have their distinct, personal set.

~Punishment! (I've heard some really good stories on how to do this, but ours are pretty tame): When a particular dice is acting off and continually rolling off the table, we leave it under the couch or in whatever obscure corner it rolled off to until its had a chance to think about its actions and repent.

~Training: When a die is not being used, it must be left at its highest value at all times, so the dice will remember where they're supposed to go. Any die just sitting on a natural one is a terrible omen.

Inyssius Tor
2007-07-09, 05:43 PM
Dice Karma gooooooo! (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=39253)

The_Werebear
2007-07-09, 05:44 PM
If you open your dicebag, and multiple die fall out on 1, put them all back in the bag and use an online roller.

Any dice stack using a complete set (d4, 6, 8, both 10s, 12, and 20) is incredibly lucky, and will be a boon to that player until they must roll. If the builder knocks the stack over, it is bad luck. If another player knocks it over by bumping the table, the DM must proceed to smite said person.

Flying Elephant
2007-07-09, 05:55 PM
I punish bad dice by microwaving them with the 20 up.

psychoticbarber
2007-07-09, 05:56 PM
~Training: When a die is not being used, it must be left at its highest value at all times, so the dice will remember where they're supposed to go. Any die just sitting on a natural one is a terrible omen.

That's interesting, because my only dice superstition is this:

~Logical Progression: The dice have a preplanned order in which they will roll. This will turn out better for you if you do not muck with it. ALWAYS leave the die with the same number up as the last number you rolled.

RandomNPC
2007-07-09, 06:13 PM
nobody touches my dice without asking, i keep them under some sort of cover.

when they do get to sit out i keep them on highest value.

to punish a set i glare at it and mumble the words of luck from a story i read when i was a kid.



this ones kinda silly, something i thought up and don't really follow.
owning multiple full sets results in the dice being jealous. the less used set(s) gives good rolls to try to take over, but if you only use it/them for specific moments they get smart to your plan and roll bad. the more used set gets jealous each time the other set is used and rolls badly on the next roll or two.

Arbitrarity
2007-07-09, 06:28 PM
We have someone in out group who rolled initiative 5 times in one session, and never rolled less than a 16. With the same die. And is abnormally protective of that die ("Give me my die!" "But I want to roll for NPC's with it" "It's my die, give it back!").

:nale:

Black Hand
2007-07-09, 06:30 PM
:smallamused: For me there is the 'God Dice'. Two clear d10's one red one green that I've been DM'ing with for over about 15 years now. They have decided the life death and general luck of many a player. Nobody touches them.


:smallbiggrin: Given the topic at hand I feel that it is necessary to post this: http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/strips/2003-08-27.jpg

http://nodwick.humor.gamespy.com/ffn/strips/2003-09-03.jpg

Orzel
2007-07-09, 06:35 PM
I feed my dice chip and cookie crumbs so they listen to me. Full dice roll high.

Never bash dice into each other. The weaker ones get injured, become brain damaged, and roll 2's.

clockwork warrior
2007-07-09, 06:37 PM
at our games we have two superstions:

1. the orange d20 rolls like crap, dont use it!

2. for lucky rolls, let me cough on your dice for great rolls

Diggorian
2007-07-09, 06:51 PM
~ Dice Volunteerism: The first bunch of dice of a kind to tumble out of the dice bag are used for that session. They choose to take the stage.

~ Karmic Balancing (aka "Zeroing the Dice"): Before the next very important d20 roll, all D20 to be used that night must be rolled together. The lowest roller shall be rolled, for it's negativity has been purged, it has been zeroed.

I have witnessed one Execution by Microwave. I wouldnt do such a thing ... punishing the dice for their fickle nature. :smallamused:

TheOOB
2007-07-09, 06:53 PM
I am in possession of what my group calls the "die of DM power", it being the first d20 I ever bought. As a player the die rolls normally, as a DM, it routinely kills the players.

nerulean
2007-07-09, 06:59 PM
You roll your dice, or at the very least your d20, once before the game begins: no more, and no less. On a bad roll, it's saving up its luck for the game proper and is a smart die. On a good roll, it's trying its hardest and will serve you well. A mediocre roll spells trouble.

mikeejimbo
2007-07-09, 07:05 PM
We'll do things like roll different dice if some start doing poorly.

But in all, I think that player's luck is more important than the die's. Some people just seem to roll higher, even using the same dice.

Quietus
2007-07-09, 07:19 PM
I have several full sets of dice, and I feel for the right set when I'm playing. I have one set that I use almost exclusively for my IRC games that sits on my desk next to me, which are my personal PC killers. They roll awesome when I'm DMing, but poorly if I use them for a character of mine.

Generally, I end up using my translucent sparkly green set for my elven druidess, Zetris, and for my human wererat rogue, Kyle. My blue sparkly set gets used for Kyle on occasion, and for a few of my other chars. Sometimes I'll change it up, but once I pick a set for a session, I stick with that set until it's given me an absolutely ridiculous number of natural ones, at which point I punish it by putting it away and picking another set.

Dervag
2007-07-09, 07:24 PM
I keep wondering why dice would want to be shaken up, thrown, and bashed against a tabletop, and thus would feel punished by not being so shaken, thrown, and bashed.

Maybe dice are lazy, and prefer to be left alone.

Fooliodislapsis
2007-07-10, 02:56 AM
we don't try to counter-act bad dice rolls, we predict it. we cast every dice at once and determine which dice will do well or not based on the pattern they make. like if they make a line and the d20 is on top it will roll high later on.

also we find the d4's you buy at the news agent roll better character stats, we think it must have something to do with them being made with cheaper plastic.

Hadrian_Emrys
2007-07-10, 03:37 AM
The Law of Comedic Heroism: Any die I touch is cursed to roll nothing higher than five until a life or death situation. Then it's nothing lower than 15. Makes for great story that the epic hero gets monkey stomped by a goblin camp only to one shot the ancient red dragon with the three 20 house rule.

Green Leaves: My brother's lucky d20 with a leaf symbol for the 20 never fails to loyally serve it's master, but when used by any other player has had a tendency to cause death to the offending roller.

KIDS
2007-07-10, 03:38 AM
Even though I'm an agnostic, I still find praying to God works the best :)

Since I can't see anyone else linking to it so far, DM of the Rings (http://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=1223) had an episode about it recently, scoring in the process "170 comments. There are now n+1 comments, where n is a ridiculous number." And yes, of course the dice are alive, there is no doubt of it!

(Never was!)

Roog
2007-07-10, 04:23 AM
If someone is rolling badly ask to borrow their dice for a while.

If you roll badly with it - tell them how unlucky the dice is.
If you roll well with it - tell them how unlucky they are.

Krimm_Blackleaf
2007-07-10, 05:25 AM
I usually treat dice like electronics. I pick a pair that looks the coolest, then test-roll them during a session (it doesn't matter what you roll outside of a real game) and see how well they do. If they're good enough, I use them and ONLY them(no one can use them either) until they start to fail me... Then I hand them out to whoever's on my left or right ahead of me and pick a new set, and there am I back at step one.

It's weird, because this is the only time I ever use any kind of superstition...

(All those sacrificed virgins for nothing...)

mikeejimbo
2007-07-10, 07:05 AM
Even though I'm an agnostic, I still find praying to God works the best :)

I have a strange related story. I was once a cleric of Reorx and I cast something at a dragon we really needed to kill. I rolled to get past spell resistance, but first prayed to Reorx (in character, though) hoping for some DM fiat divine intervention.

I rolled a 20.

Tormsskull
2007-07-10, 07:43 AM
I bought several sets of oversized dice (they are so much easier to see). The purple set is especially deadly when I DM, and as such my players will often try to hide the purple set when we sit down to play.

Gorbad the Limb Rippa
2007-07-10, 08:21 AM
In my group there is one dice which i fear;
The dice of me slaying.
I have been killed by that dice thousands of times.
If the dice is being used by the dm,it kills me.
If it is being used by a pc,it kills me.
No matter how it's being used ,it will some how target me an utterly destroy my character

On a different note,a rolling ritual i have is putting the dice in the space behind my glasses while i am wearing them and rolling them from there,it usually works.Or shaking the dice in my hand near my feet, then rolling them.This works even better with d10's

Runolfr
2007-07-10, 08:45 AM
If "dice karma" worked, it would be cheating, anyway.

valadil
2007-07-10, 08:47 AM
I punish bad dice by microwaving them with the 20 up.

I'll one up ya on that. I know a guy who doesn't just microwave them, but he also lines up all his other d20s so they have to watch.

Argent
2007-07-10, 08:51 AM
You roll your dice, or at the very least your d20, once before the game begins: no more, and no less. On a bad roll, it's saving up its luck for the game proper and is a smart die. On a good roll, it's trying its hardest and will serve you well. A mediocre roll spells trouble.

This is exactly my group's superstition. The first roll of the evening dictates how that session's rolls are going to go.

Bad dice also get punished by getting put back in the bag for the rest of the session. That'll show 'em.

Jimbob
2007-07-10, 10:24 AM
I have 6 sets of dice. 1 set I only use for when im playing. But if im dming I get all my dice out and let them air off for a bit, get some fresh air and sun light before we start playing. And I take turns with my dice, so never use the same D20 twice in a row. My little superstition there :smallsmile:

Wolfgang
2007-07-10, 11:49 AM
I don't use any of the mystical mumbo jumbo that you hide-bound paranoids do; I use scientific principals.

When you're not using your dice, turn them all up to one of the highest numbers they can roll. If they are left in this position long enough, the matter in the dice will migrate toward the bottom due to gravity and/or science, making the bottom heavier and therefore more likely to end up on the bottom when rolled. Thus, you ensure more high numbers.


Note: Do not use this method in a system looking for low results.

Indon
2007-07-10, 11:53 AM
I punish bad dice by microwaving them with the 20 up.

I know someone who puts them in the freezer.

brian c
2007-07-10, 12:09 PM
Hm... well, my old group had a certain superstition that each die only has so many 20s in it, so if you rolled one for initiative or something not very useful that meant you were using them up. No mention of ever running out for good though.

I dont care how my dice are sitting so long as they aren't on 1 (d20s only, the rest I could care less). The only other thing I do is that when I get a good die roll, I roll the next time with the same number face up as was beore the first die roll.

If that's confusing, example:

d20 has 7 face up
I pick it up, roll a 19
for my next roll, I hold the die with 7 face up

Accersitus
2007-07-10, 12:11 PM
In my group it's all about picking the right colors for the character, and mood of the campaign. If we get it right, the dice know how the story should to play out for the characters. (It's a system a bit more complicated than only green dice for the druid/ranger)

Fualkner Asiniti
2007-07-10, 12:17 PM
We had an Orange D20 that just loved turning up a 4. Every time. If the roll was important, you got a four. Okay, not quite that much, but enough to show the die decided to roll 4's. Stangely enough, it only happened to the players, and not me, the DM. So, how do we purify it? Put it on the top of a narrow-necked pot. It stayed there for 6 whole months. SIX. WHOLE. MONTHS. It hasn't rolled 4's since.

Oh, and I just got a new green set of dice. They seem to be rolling randomly, but the only real test is in play.

Rasilak
2007-07-10, 12:20 PM
Well, we have some d3 which are red with white dots and some d6, red with golden dots. The d6 are bound to be unlucky, especially in bad lighting or when playing Shadowrun. Can't imagine why, though... :smallconfused:

The other superstitions are, that smaller dice roll better, and that those totally regular 1,6cm³ off-white plastic dice with rounded edges roll exceptionally well as long as you only roll those. But beware of mixing these with dice that look somewhat alike, but not exactly. (like, slightly smaller, or with a greenish tint).
For everyone who doesn't know which kind of d6 I mean (maybe another kind is 'standard' in the US), here a picture:
http://www.spiele-offensive.de/wuerfel/gfx/amigo/elfenbein.jpg

Another one, though only common among some players in our group (but really pissing of the rest) is, to set the die spinning on a point before rolling it.

But at least we managed to root repeated shaking out by declaring that the required DC rises by one for every shake after the first (IIRC this was originally suggested by Blackjack...).

CockroachTeaParty
2007-07-10, 12:29 PM
I have a set of dice which are the official "DM dice." The d20 is very forgiving of the players, usually rolling average or below average. However, the other dice in the set are very nasty, especially the d6. The d6 is 'hot,' in that it almost always rolls a 6, and rarely below a 4. This has the odd phenomenon of my DM set keeping my players alive, but if something does get lucky and land a hit or nasty spell, the PCs will feel the pain.

One of my personal superstitions is when a high damage spell of effect comes up that uses buckets of d6's. Most of my friends use online rollers or calculators to roll huge amounts of d6's, but I refuse. I always gather as many d6's as I can, and chuck the lot of them onto the table. It's so much more satisfying, and often times produces an above average result.

Nogard
2007-07-10, 12:38 PM
I am in possession of what my group calls the "die of DM power", it being the first d20 I ever bought. As a player the die rolls normally, as a DM, it routinely kills the players.

HOLY BOOP!! Are you firing it from a cannon?

MethodicalMeat
2007-07-10, 12:53 PM
I have two ten-siders, the first Dungeons and Dragons dice I owned, one is green, the other is blue, they're quite lucky, but get tired quickly, so I make sure to swap them out every once in a while in order to let them rest.
I never use lightly colored twenty-siders, bad luck.
I shy away from pyramid-style four-siders, and instead go for the eight sided dice with 1-4 printed twice, much luckier.
Also, I let my dice out to breath at least once a day.

Green Bean
2007-07-10, 01:00 PM
If you roll three ones in a row, the player next of you gets to bounce it off of your head. Surprisingly, my group tends to get really good rolls right afterwards.

Nakun
2007-07-10, 01:12 PM
Of course dice are evil to me, especially on initiative rolls, which absolutely sucks because I'm a rogue. Anyway, back when I was just starting, a friend of mine played a half-elf ranger who critted everything that showed up. So, when I'm in a pickle, I mutter to that die, "Lucretia notches another arrow and takes aim..." Lucretia being the name of the super critting ranger. It hasn't worked yet, but I'm not going to give up hope that easily.

Flying Elephant
2007-07-10, 01:20 PM
I'll one up ya on that. I know a guy who doesn't just microwave them, but he also lines up all his other d20s so they have to watch.

Actually, the main reason I do it is to make the air bubbles go to the 20, making me roll 20 more often.

Breaon
2007-07-10, 01:21 PM
I'll one up ya on that. I know a guy who doesn't just microwave them, but he also lines up all his other d20s so they have to watch.

I've done that to punish particularly bad dice. It worked.

Kiroho
2007-07-10, 01:59 PM
I have two ten-siders, the first Dungeons and Dragons dice I owned, one is green, the other is blue, they're quite lucky, but get tired quickly, so I make sure to swap them out every once in a while in order to let them rest.
I never use lightly colored twenty-siders, bad luck.
I shy away from pyramid-style four-siders, and instead go for the eight sided dice with 1-4 printed twice, much luckier.
Also, I let my dice out to breath at least once a day.

I don't know about luckier, but they're far more forgiving when you step on one barefoot while walking down the stairs in the middle of the night. And yes, I do know this for a fact. :smalleek:

Alysar
2007-07-10, 03:57 PM
When you microwave the dice, make sure you line up all the other dice (turned to their respective highest values) around the microwave so they can watch, so they will learn better what happens to low rollers.

Edit: Ok, maybe I should have read the entire thread before posting that.

rollfrenzy
2007-07-10, 07:08 PM
There was a storm drain in our Dm's Basement. If dice fell on the floor they would inevitably bounce straight for this Pit of DOOM. After losing too many dice, we finally decided to each sacrifice a dice to the Pit to apease it's dice eating anger. Oddly, it worked and we had good luck too. So, every know and then, especially after a series of bad rolls, we would sacrifice a dice to the Pit. (of course in time of extreme bad luck, the other dice weer forced to watch, how else would they know?)

Unfortunately, they sealed it up, so now we have no way of ridding ourselves of the evil luck spirits.

I also will hold tournements for my dice to weed out the weak and determine who is the lucky die for the evening.

Fawsto
2007-07-10, 07:39 PM
Well... My group always, when in battle, throw the dice fiercely, almost breaking them. Why? We say that we must make the die know when it is globber time!

However, we mostly throw the dice a few times before an important roll to "expend the bad luck".

We always let the die with the 1 facing down, so they "get used to letting the 1 facing down"

If there is a female on the group, I always ask her to blow the dice before I roll it.

edit: oh yeah, I was missing this: we use to throw a d20 before any session to "test our luck" for the evening.

Mostly these dumb stuff :smalltongue:

Winterwind
2007-07-10, 08:09 PM
In our group it's not so much about the dice as the players - or, more precisely, one particular player.
I have no idea how or why, but this player consistently rolls so very, very bad, that it breaks all laws of statistics. Like, in a d%-based system (where one is supposed to roll low), 4 out of 5 rolls show something above 80. And it does not seem to be correlated with the dice he uses.
The physics student in me still claims it is just coincidence - there must be such a player somewhere, statistically, which means his next rolls should be completely normal again - but being disproved session after session is not really benefitial for retaining such a scientific stance.
Spooky... :smalleek:

Deme
2007-07-10, 08:20 PM
I have a few good ones:

I have 2 D6's, both speckled, though different colors. first rule with them = don't roll them at the same time. alternate the first few times. the purple and black one with gold numbering will get jealous(he has more character than the meeker teal-and-black), and start rolling high.

For a while, they were both doing poorly. so I burned the 1 side by holding it, using some wire to hold it in place, over a candle. Then I washed them with a variety of soaps, and put them in the lucky-bamboo pot. they've served me well for character rolling ever since, giving me a character yesterday with no stat below a 16. I have a feeling that if I rolled them now, they would do poorly. I think that I've asked for too much luck recently.

We had a member who was always unlucky with dice. He left the group a while go, and this sunday he came back to rejoin us. to roll his character, my boyfriend, my best friend, and I all lent him our six-siders. he proceeded to roll a character who, after racial modifiers, had nothing lower than a 15. We all agreed it was the dice welcoming him back and apologizing.

My boyfriend's D20 always does poorly for him, rarely getting above that 15 mark. However, when my best friend tried it out, she got nothing lower than a 15. we've decided that the dice is sexist, though we can't tell if it's a girl dice being all "solidarity, sister!" or a boy dice that thinks she's attractive.

psychoticbarber
2007-07-10, 08:47 PM
Having already posted my sole superstition, I've gotta say, some of these seem a little extreme. I mean, I'm not going to say which ones (though you can probably guess), and I'm not going to beleaguer the point about it, but random events happen in streaks, and typically balance themselves out (thought not necessarily all the time, otherwise it wouldn't really be random).

Gavin Sage
2007-07-10, 09:01 PM
-Use a matching dice set, with no repeats. You have to roll 2d6 or the like, roll the same dice twice. You have to favor your dice with lots of attention so rolling more while less time consuming is more beneficial.

-When force to roll more then one at a time, borrow from other players. Only bring or even use one set

-Real dice are better then all online rollers (see above)

-If something is 50% likely, it will happen significantly more often then half the time. Conversely if unlikely will happen far less often. (I believe this is goes for all chance, and decry your laws of probability from actually working out like that. It goes far beyond such simple mathematic, though I'm not smart enough to figure it out)

-If you buy any dice loose, roll them first. If all the numbers aren't on the high end don't buy them.

Delaney Gale
2007-07-10, 09:19 PM
I have a lovely little "vintage" d20, a little sharp-edged red resin number with silver numbers. It used to belong to my aunt, and I rescued it from the bureau of my insane Catholic grandmother. When I brought it to my game at college, whenever I roll it, I routinely roll well- 14+, which is really helpful when using a rapier with Improved Critical ^_-. However, when anyone else rolls with it? Natural ones left and right. That die only rolls for me!

Yo_Landa
2007-07-10, 11:12 PM
I have a set of pink die that are absolutely awesome. I recently bought a single white d20 because we were running short and it is CURSED. It hardly ever rolls well.

Moral: Always buy dice in sets.

dragonwings
2007-07-11, 12:14 AM
Hoo boy. I've got quite a few.

First off, always buy dice in sets. The only exception is if there's a dice that matches an existing set. For example, I have two d6s in my Speckled Ninja set. Yes, I'm so dice-crazy that I know the color name for that one. It was my first set.

Second, let the dice inspire the characters and, if financially possible, new dice for new characters. If not possible, let the dice pick the class. I have a green and gold set that is smitten with Druids, Clerics, and good characters. They're friendly and don't mind being used by others, but they will roll crap if you use them for anything that isn't either forest related or good. Evil beware, those dice hate you.

Third, keep sets together who like each other. My Speckled Ninja set goes beautifully with another set that looks similar, except it's in red. I keep those two together for my Mephistopheles-worshiping warlock. I've also got another pair of sets (also red and black) for an evil cleric of Wee Jas I made. I bought the dice and the idea for the character (as well as two more) just came to me while I was fiddling with them.

Fourth, novelty dice are fine, so long as they don't become main rollers. Sure, my massive D20 looks cool, but I'm not going to use it in game play.

Fifth, don't punish the dice. They could just be having a ****ty day. The d4 from another set could have called them nasty things or they just don't like the character. Get out a supporting set if all rolls are icky and give the low roller a break.

So yeah. I guess I just treat my dice more like people than anything. Oh well. I adore them. I think they also enjoy the satisfying THUNK they make on counters that displays what a dice freak I am. :smallbiggrin:

Dean Fellithor
2007-07-11, 01:09 AM
a Few of my group bought some dice from the Newsagent, they are now their "Uber Dice" of which (when they roll up a new character) have stats abouve 13. =D

Koga
2007-07-11, 02:36 AM
The Koga would do the occult thing and pour salt on his dice if he were rolling poorly to banish any negative energies.

If that didn't work he'd blame it on the fact that he doesn't have a girlfriend. You can't argue with that logic!:smallwink:

Irreverent Fool
2007-07-11, 04:07 AM
I have a few good ones:

I have 2 D6's, both speckled, though different colors. first rule with them = don't roll them at the same time. alternate the first few times. the purple and black one with gold numbering will get jealous(he has more character than the meeker teal-and-black), and start rolling high.

For a while, they were both doing poorly. so I burned the 1 side by holding it, using some wire to hold it in place, over a candle. Then I washed them with a variety of soaps, and put them in the lucky-bamboo pot. they've served me well for character rolling ever since, giving me a character yesterday with no stat below a 16. I have a feeling that if I rolled them now, they would do poorly. I think that I've asked for too much luck recently.

We had a member who was always unlucky with dice. He left the group a while go, and this sunday he came back to rejoin us. to roll his character, my boyfriend, my best friend, and I all lent him our six-siders. he proceeded to roll a character who, after racial modifiers, had nothing lower than a 15. We all agreed it was the dice welcoming him back and apologizing.

My boyfriend's D20 always does poorly for him, rarely getting above that 15 mark. However, when my best friend tried it out, she got nothing lower than a 15. we've decided that the dice is sexist, though we can't tell if it's a girl dice being all "solidarity, sister!" or a boy dice that thinks she's attractive.

You don't think that slightly burning/melting the plastic your dice are made out of might be what's altering the results? At that point, you may as well get actual WEIGHTED DICE.

Gefangnis
2007-07-11, 04:17 AM
A great man once posted this on now-dead forums.

Warning: There's a lot. It's great stuff though.


Welcome to Dice 101, I am Andrew, and I will be your Dicing professor. For those of you who don't know me, I am a professional dicer: I collect, train, maintain, and roll dice. I am also a practicing dice luck counselor for those of you whose dice always seem to roll the worst roll at the worst moment. In the following lessons, I will teach you:
(1) Introduction to Dice
(2) Dice etiquette
(3) Choosing your dice
(4) Training your dice
(5) Maintaining your dice
(6) Rolling your dice
(7) Advanced dicing: Luck management
(8) Advanced dicing: Punishment and Reward


Dice are finicky, fickle creatures: they can make your dreams come true, or bring about your worst nightmares. One minute they have you on top of the world, the next they crush your soul beneath the heel of a steel-toed boot – all for no more reason than spite.

Mathematicians would have you believe that dice are pseudo-random number generators, no more capable of displaying anthropomorphic traits than your average pet rock. Any experienced dicer will tell you otherwise: dice literally have minds of their own. While they do not display any signs of over intelligence, they are capable of experiencing the same range of emotions as your average manic-depressive, hormonally imbalanced teenager (with corresponding mood swings). They key to proper dicing is to detect these moods, and play off of them: use dice in a manic mood when you need high rolls; depressed dice are good for low rolls; angry, spiteful dice are good for spectacular failures (which can be the desired result in some cases – just don’t let the dice know). Detection and exploitation of these moods is half the game when dealing with dice.

The other half comes from the well known ability of dice to absorb, store, and use luck. From time immemorial, dicers have qualified (and very recently, quantified) the luckiness of their dice, and the tradition continues to this day, passed down from casual dicers to professional gamblers to your kitchen table. With recent advances in dice tychology (the study of luck), we now know more about the behavior of luck than we ever have before. Luck can be selectively collected by, stored in, used by, and even transferred between dice. Learning the proper management of the luck of your dice will put your skill on par with the masters of dicing.


So, now that you are into dicing, how do you do it without making an ass of yourself? There is nothing more embarrassing than rolling your dice into the painfully constructed dice fort your neighbor has built, or knocking over the figurines on the battlemat – except, perhaps, being branded a dice squirrel. There are a few simple guidelines that make the rolling of dice easy and (physically) painless:

1. Establish a Dice Rolling Zone (DRZ)
A Dice Rolling Zone is an area where you can roll your dice (typically 18”x12” – customize to your preferences), but where NO ONE ELSE is allowed to encroach. They cannot touch the surface of your DRZ; stray dice that intrude into your DRZ are considered prisoners of war and may be detained until such time as hostilities have concluded (ie. you are done rolling – multiple incursions can result in longer term imprisonment); any player that continuously or gratuitously violates your DRZ may be subject to numerical penalties to dice rolls (Your Dungeon Master May Vary). The one exception to this rule is the DM, who may violate any players DRZ at any time, but only for rolls where success or failure has a dramatic impact on the player in question. At no time may the DM use one player’s DRZ for rolls against a different player. I suggest you customize the interior of your DRZ to suit your own preferences. Beginners are advised to use a DRZ clear of obstructions until such time as you can determine what artifacts aid your dice rolling.

2. Hands off!
Most experienced dicers are extremely protective of their dice and will inflict curses on your family and/or bodily harm if you touch their dice. Other players dice are sacrosanct and should *NEVER* be touched without permission, and even when permission is given, you should be extremely careful in handling them, lest you change the balance of their luck. One of the most despised types of dicer is the dice squirrel: someone who not only touches another players dice, but takes them and rolls them. Dice squirrels will quickly find themselves ostracized from gaming groups, and, in extreme cases, lynched.

3. Respectful pause
It is courteous to pause for a moment of silence when someone rolls their dice. Cheering, jeering, cursing, and hexing the roller are fine before the act, but once the dice are in free fall, give a respectful pause. As the dicer’s fingers glide open and the dice spring free, the table should hush and watch and listen. There is nothing like the drama of an important roll rat-a-tat-tatting across the table and tumbling to a stop. Ruining the moment by speaking is rude and should be avoided. Furthermore, if the die roll is poor, the dicer has a valid complaint that you distracted his or her concentration, and may request a re-roll and/or ask that you be punished by penalizing your rolls (YDMMV).

4. Color conventions
If you happen to be in possession of an old set of dice (1970-80), your d20 likely has the numbers 1-10 printed on it twice, rather than the standard 1-20. Convention dictates that you color one set of the numbers 1-10 in a uniform color. It is acceptable to color both sets, as long as only two colors are used, and these colors are different enough to be easily distinguished. When rolling these dice, you must declare the “high” color, which will have +10 added to the die roll to generate the numbers 11-20. The “high” color should be recorded and remain consistent throughout the game session. It is, however, acceptable to change the “high” color if and only if your character is in mortal peril and you have been getting consistently screwed by the die.
The color convention also extends to the use of percentile dice (two d10’s used to generate the numbers 1-100). You must declare before the roll is made which die is to represent the 10’s digit. If one of your d10’s is marked as a 10’s digit die (ie. It has the numbers 00, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 on it), that *must* be used as the 10’s digit. Using two 10’s digit dice to make percentile rolls is forbidden unless you lack a single digit d10, and can be punished by penalties to die rolls (YDMMV).

5. Clean rolling
All players must roll out in the open where other players can see the roll and the results. Hiding your rolls can be considered cheating, and the results may be declared invalid, and you may be punished by penalties to your rolls (YDMMV). Only the DM is permitted to hide his or her rolls from the players, but may chose to roll in the open if he or she so desires. This is typically used to intimidate players, and is most particularly effective when a natural 20 lands in the DRZ of the target player.

6. Let the dice fall where they may
Dice rolls are sacred and should be treated as such. Once the dice come to a stop, the results are permanent. The exception to this rule is when the dice show no clear result, because they landed edge down in a crack, fell off the table, or were disrupted by someone speaking, touching or blowing on your dice during the roll. Feline intervention (when the cat gets involved with your roll) always invalidates any result (though dice subject to feline intervention should be closely examined for any potential luck increase as a result of coming into contact with the cat). Rolls may also be aborted: if the dice haven’t finished rolling, you may quickly collect them for a re-roll (this may be desirable if you accidentally drop them before you intend to roll them, or if they fall off the edge of the table), but be warned, this tends to anger the dice, and may cause the re-roll to botch. Aborted rolls must be re-rolled using the same dice – changing them out is cheating, and may be subject to punishment by penalties to your rolls (YDMMV).




The Dungeon Master wrote:
Howdy Subius!

I've got a d20 that's down in the dumps. It's rolled low consistently for several sessions. How do I make it feel better, Mr. Dice Professor? I'd like to have it be a blazing d20 of glory, instead of the laughingstock of dice that it is now.


Am I correct in assuming that this is the d20 which you have been using to try to decimate our party? If so, I have a few suggestions for therapy that we can try.

First, you need to give that die some alone time. It is constantly surrounded by its peers, and it never gets to do anything by itself. Think of it as the eldest child in a family of 7, and lets call him Joe (Joe is 20 years old, followed by a 12 year old sister, twin brothers at 10, and one at 8 and 6, and a sister at 4). Now imagine that Joe wasn't allowed to do anything by himself - he was constantly surrounded by his brothers and sisters, and had to play at their level (after all, you can't expect a 4 year old to rise up to his level). No wonder he's doing poorly! He has the constant aggravation of his siblings around him all the time, and he can't out perform them or they run to mommy and daddy crying. Its ok for him to sleep at home, but he needs to play with kids his own age. Give him some time alone, and he'll start to shine.

It could also just be tired. You can't have your star pitcher go nine innings and start every game for you and still expect him to be a star, so why expect that from your dice? Give it a rest and rotate in some other dice to relieve it.

If neither of those methods works, you could have a case of bad luck. This is not necessarily a bad thing (you will see in my advanced section of the course that everyone needs a little bad luck), as long as you properly harness it. I don't have time now to get into harnessing the bad luck, so lets try an elementary treatment: the fame rub. Find the name of a gamer who is well known (at least to you - and it can't be yourself) for rolling particular results (eg. always low, always high, always with spectacular results) and rub the die across the name (left to right for high numbers, right to left for low numbers), with the number you wish to roll most often on top (make sure there is a synergy here - don't rub the name of a low roller with the 20 face up or you'll charge the die with bad luck). If you can't find the name of a famous gamer, you can try the names of game developers or game logos (these are not as effective, but some results have been noticed, especially with the original TSR personel). More luck is generated by longer rubbing, but at diminishing returns, and you run the risk of offending the dice if you rub too much. This method is good to recharge empty dice, or eliminate small amounts of bad luck, but does almost nothing for very lucky dice, and can have a deleteroius effect on your whole dice collection if the die in question is very unlucky.


Picking the right dice for your collection is a highly personal choice, and should be made with the utmost care. Choosing dice that match your tastes in color, shape, size, and weight will improve your dicing experience greatly. In addition, dice that match your personality are more likely to accept training than dice of contradictory personality; this is not an absolute, however, and many dicers have had the opposite experience. Still, it is a good starting point for novice dicers, and it is where we shall begin.

1. Color
The first thing that attracts the eye to a die is its color. Today they come in just about every color of the spectrum, including beyond visible light for those of us with infrared or ultraviolet (don’t forget your glasses and sun block!) lamps on our gaming tables. They may be solid, speckled, swirled, or striped. Typically, the numbers on the dice are colored differently than the rest of the surface, and are contrasting (for clarity) or complimentary (for fudging…erm, keeping results to yourself – I do not endorse the fudging of rolls in any way, unless you are the DM and circumstances require it).
Color will play a significant part when it comes time to train your dice: aggressive colors (reds, for melee, and oranges, for ranged) are good for attack rolls, neutral blues are good for rolls in calm situations (skill checks), whites are good for healing, blacks are good for making kill shots, yellows work for saving throws, and greens and purples make solid dice for all situations, but are not specifically good for any one task. Multi colored dice can take on the characteristics of the secondary and tertiary colors, but at the expense of the primary color – this trade off is usually to the benefit of the die, especially if the colors are complementary (i.e. a primary black, secondary red speckled die will be great for killing stuff in melee combat). Multi colored dice can also be trained for environmental conditions (I have a set of Chessex Desert Cammo dice that I could have trained for use in deserts), but this is generally less useful (unless you have a quasi-infinite supply of dice).

2. Opaque or clear?
This is one decision you can make that is virtually worry free. The differences between clear and opaque dice are so small in terms of performance that only obsessive dicers go so far as to purchase one over the other for performance reasons. The only major concern here is that often times on of your other choices will make this one for you by default (i.e. if you want speckled dice, they are almost always opaque, or if you want sharp edged dice, they are almost always clear).

3. Edge
There are two types of edges: sharp and soft (or rounded). This choice should be based on your rolling style and how comfortable you are with the dice. I suggest playing around with some of each type to get a feel for them. Sharp edged dice tend to clatter more satisfactorily than rounded edged dice, but are less comfortable in hand. Rounded edged dice tend to spend more time mid roll than sharp edged dice, and are hand-friendly. Sharp edged dice also tend to have a reduced longevity as their edges are susceptible to wear and tear whereas rounded edged dice are not. This tends to make sharp edged dice a favorite of DM’s, as they can wear down the edges to the point where they can cheat with the dice (much in the same way dice shaving works) and deliberately roll natural 20’s to kill off cocky player characters.

4. Size
The dice should be of a size that feels comfortable in your hand, but keep in mind that just as many people have size complexes, so do dice. A small die at a table of big dice could lose its confidence and perform poorly, while another would give its all in an attempt to show that its not the size that matters, it’s the numbers you roll. Conversely, a large die could act over-confident at a table of smaller dice and get stomped on when it fails to perform at a critical moment.

5. Weight
Again, the weight of the dice should be comfortable to your hands. Most dice of equivalent size are of roughly the same weight, or close enough as makes no difference, but if you buy into dice of exotic material, you can significantly jack up the weight. Heavy dice are intimidating to other dice, and can scare them into rolling poorly, and as such they make excellent dice for DM’s who wish to quash uppity characters. Take care though, those Uranium dice look cool, and their damn heavy, but you don’t want to give yourself carpal tunnel from dicing (not to mention the radiation hazard).

6. Shape
Dice come in three shape categories: classic, crystal, and exotic. Classic dice are what you will most commonly find in gaming stores: a set of five normal polyhedrons (d4, d6, d8, d12, d20) plus two crystal-style dice (d10’s). Crystal dice take the form of the d10’s in a classic set and extend that to the set as a whole, so that the dice look to be shaped like crystals (many dicers, myself included, do not consider these to be proper dice, as they were developed as a novelty item and only spread to gaming because they look “cool” – they also often have more faces than the they have numbers, and so do not fit under the standard definition of dice). Exotic dice include everything else, from the mundane (the d100), to the merely strange (the d30), to the outright bizarre (the d7 – a seven sided figure, with no two sides alike, but which, according to its developers, rolls each side approximately 1/7th of the time, to some unwholesome number of significant figures), and beyond.

7. Material
Your dice should be made of high impact plastic at the least. All reputable dice companies sell dice of this caliber, but the no-names sometimes cheat, so it is best to buy from a trusted brand. In addition, there are exotic materials available for dice, including: stainless steel, copper, brass, bronze, silver, gold, platinum, lead, diamond, ruby, emerald, topaz, hematite, amethyst, jade, opal, quartz, etc. Most of these materials are just for collectors: some of these materials are soft (lead or gold), others brittle (hematite and amethyst), and others are very valuable (need I point these out?). The last thing you want to do is damage your diamond dice by rolling them – although there would likely be a severe intimidation factor in a DM using them to knock off an arrogant character. The steel and copper dice make excellent utilitarian dice and are (comparatively) not too expensive (~$40 for a 7 piece set, versus $100 for sterling silver). The brass and bronze cost about the same as steel and copper, but are more susceptible to impurities in the metal that could bias the die.

I recommend Advancing Hordes for all of your dice needs, and to see samples of the above options.


Now we get to the meat of dice management: training. Brand new, virgin dice (those that have yet to impact a gaming table) from reputable manufacturers should be (and usually are) completely neutral dice. They are neither lucky, unlucky, nor trained for any specific purpose. Dice from companies of ill repute could be predisposed towards one type of activity or preloaded with luck (potentially good luck, but much more likely bad). Second hand dice *will* have a bias of come sort, usually one that was to the detriment of their previous owner (after all, who would get rid of good dice?). Purchasing and training second hand dice is a risky proposition, and is best left to those who have mastered dice management and would like a challenge.

Not all dice take to training the same way, some are difficult and others easy. In order of easiest to hardest to train: d6, d8, d12, d20, d10, d4. In general, the closer the die approximates a sphere, the harder it is to train (so, theoretically, a zoccihedron – the d100 – would be very hard to train). The exceptions for the d4 and d10 appear to stem from the fact that the former is resistant to rolling – it tends to just “plop” down on a number – and the latter’s departure from the realm of normal polyhedrons. Despite being easier to train, most dicers ignore the d6, d8, and d12 and focus all of their energies into the d20, which is where most life-or-death rolls will be made.

Regardless of what type of die you are training, the methods are universal, and simple in concept. Virgin dice need to be gradually introduced into the roll they will play in your dice arsenal. Start the training in an environment that would be appropriate for gaming (your kitchen table for instance). Create an appropriate atmosphere of gaming by placing character sheets, and perhaps a DM screen on the table and bring out your dice. Try to place yourself in a frame of mind similar to what you experience in a gaming session, and announce the action which you intend the die in question to be used for. The more authentic you can make the experience for the dice, the better. After announcing the action, roll the die, projecting in your mind the desired result. Hard Eight Enterprises’ Dice Lab recommends at least 25 rolls before proceeding with a live test, which should be sufficient for both you to get a feel for the die, and for the die to get a feel for what it will be facing. Hard Eight also recommends performing a min/max test at this stage (during your rolls, count the number of times the maximum result comes up, minus the number of times the minimum result comes up) – if, after three training sessions, the die has a negative min/max count (for dice that are supposed to roll high) or a positive min/max count (for dice that are supposed to roll low), you should throw the die away and get another one. I disagree with this system, as this training phase is conducted in a simulated environment, you cannot expect the die to get things right the first time, and the die may simply not be suited to the chosen task.

Once the die has been classroom trained, it is time to field test. Bring the die to a gaming session, separate from your other dice. When a situation for which the die has been trained comes up in game, bring it out and let it have a shot. It is not advisable to bring a rookie die out in a pressure situation (you wouldn’t bring a minor leaguer up to close game 7 of the World Series when the game is tied), so you’re best off giving it a crack at something less stressful. Succeed or fail, keep trying the die until it feels comfortable to use. After several battle tests, you should get a feeling for how well the die is performing in its given task. You may need to go back to basic training to give the die a shot at a different career if its performance is less than average. Keep trying until you find a niche for the die.

Once the die’s niche is defined, you should introduce your rookie to the other dice in your arsenal. Let them mingle a bit so your experienced dice can impart their wisdom to the new guy. If your new die is compatible personality-wise with your other dice, it should start forming bonds that will boost its morale, encourage its growth, and help it out when it’s feeling down.

The basic training regimen should be repeated for dice that are long out of practice or if you wish to retrain a die for a new task, although this will take considerably longer than training a virgin die.

Subotei
2007-07-11, 04:35 AM
Not so much the dice as the player - we have one of our group who is just plain unlucky with his rolling. It's not his dice - if he borrows some they'll let him down as well, and from then on those dice don't do so well for the owner. We don't let him even touch our dice now.