Stuck in a Gaming Rut

[Lord Iames Osari]

Ever get into a rut where none of your characters could do anything, whether because of unlucky rolls or not being able to make it to games often enough? How do you break out of that?

[Lucky]

Seeing as unlucky rolls and missing sessions are actually completely different, thus leaving no possible single answer to your question, I will conclude by putting my finger up my nose.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Ok, just deal with the unlucky rolls, then.

[Lucky]

I'm afraid my answer to that would be even more disappointing. :smallbiggrin:

[ChimericPhase]

Seeing as unlucky rolls and missing sessions are actually completely different, thus leaving no possible single answer to your question, I will conclude by putting my finger up my nose.

Ah, but there is a single answer to both! Don't show up at all! :D


Seriously though. Swap your dice, clear your calender, and wear your lucky socks.

[Ashtar]

If you are unlucky with die, do some things that don't ask you to roll. Use take 10s to the maximum.

In fights, use traps (built with trapmaking and take 10), range touch attacks (which usually miss on a very low roll), DM rolled avoidance attacks (save or lose spells).

And remember to always use your "starwars die" on D6 rolls. (Starwars dice are D6 with 2x 6 on them and no 1)!

[Ikkitosen]

Learn to notice your successes and remember them. The odds are (ho ho) that you're just remembering your failures mroe than your successess, since there's really no such thing as being unlucky with dice. You may be experiencing a statistical fluctuation in the negative direction, but more likely you just expect success like most of us and therefore notice failure more.

Heck, only yesterday I failed to roll a single 5 or 6 on about 9 D6, leading my CoC investigator to go mad. Sometimes stats suck!

[Archonic Energy]

Ever get into a rut where none of your characters could do anything, whether because of unlucky rolls or not being able to make it to games often enough? How do you break out of that?

memo: do not take Iames to Vegas.

*blows on Dice*
papa needs a new gaming laptop...

*rolls snake-eyes*
doh.

[Ikkitosen]

Memo: take Iames to Vegas. When he bets on black, bet big on red :smallcool:

[Aramil Liadon]

Everybody knows that the way to get good rolls if to bounce the dice off/over Matt's black sock!

The gray ones are cursed though. Beware.

[Serpentine]

My ranger keeps failing survival checks to find her way.
My knight keeps getting crappy attack rolls.

:smallsigh:

[rollfrenzy]

If your dice are unlucky / non-cooperative, you must punish them. Severely.

I suggest horrific ritual sacrifice involving fire.

And make sure the other dice watch so they learn thier lesson.

Rule through fear.

[ranger89]

I laugh in the face of statistics when it comes to my dice. Getting bad rolls? Well obviously you must appease the dice spirit that lies within each dice. I'd recommend:

Wash your dice in mild detergent and hot water. It's like a nice, relaxing bath for a dice spirit and will help ease the tension that leads to bad rolls.
Get a nice soft velvet bag for your dice to rest in.
Talk to them and tell them how much you love them.
Whenever a dice rolls really, really well, be sure to give it a quick smooch.
Never, ever roll your dice just for the sake of rolling. For dice spirits, it's like going to work and then remembering that it's Saturday.
During game sessions, store your dice high # up. This will train the dice spirit.
Dice spirits like to be linked to only one character at a time. Using the same dice for multiple characters confuses the spirit and can lead to bad rolls.


I'm kidding, of course. Well, almost kidding. I can't tell you how many bad rolling streaks have been ended by washing my dice or performing some other admittedly bizarre ritual. :smallredface: To heck with statistics!

[Atreyu the Masked LLama]

I throw my bad dice in the freezer. They roll better when they come out. :smallsmile: Its been tested to be true.:smallsmile: If your character worships a particular deity, try calling upon that deity to bless your rolls, provided this does not conflict with your real life beliefs, of course.

One time I was playing a cleric of Ilmater, and kept calling on Ilmater to bless the dice, but I kept rolling terribly. Finally, (since it was combat) I called on Bane to crush my foes and the dice rolled amazingly well for the rest of the encounter. :smalleek:

More ideas to follow.

(V I rolled multiple attacks at once. Speeds up combat that way.)

[Vonriel]

Remember folks, dice is plural, die is singular. If you use dice to refer to one die the die will be offended, and will roll the worst possible roll on your next roll.

As to the topic at hand, give your character dice a touching but sad funeral, burn the character sheet dice, then roll up a buy a new set?

[Solo]

You must harness the power of statistics to do your bidding... either that or buy loaded dice.

[Penguinsushi]

Llama's dice *do* seem to roll better after they come out of the freezer.

Also remember that the dice are, at best, only 1/2 of d&d. Despite the fact that llama rolls poorly on many many occasions, his roleplaying is great and his characters are fun.

You may just want to get some different dice as well. I try very hard not to be superstitious in this respect (a nigh impossible feat for a gamer), but no dice are truly random or balanced - they tend favor certain numbers more than others.

As for not making it to sessions - yeah, life gets in the way. Perhaps there's a way to switch some things up with your sessions so that you can make a more committed appearance?

~PS

[Brickwall]

You may just want to get some different dice as well. I try very hard not to be superstitious in this respect (a nigh impossible feat for a gamer), but no dice are truly random or balanced - they tend favor certain numbers more than others.

It could also just be you. You wanna know what numbers I almost never, ever, ever roll?

1, 10, and 20.

I'm absolutely serious. I don't remember EVER rolling a one, barely any tens, and only one or two twenties. Of course, the "no ones" is awesome, but I could use 10s and 20s more than I could 3s and 4s (if I roll low, it's usually one of those two).

And it's with any dice. So like I said, maybe you have an evil die gremlin. :smalltongue:

[ranger89]

Remember folks, dice is plural, die is singular

Oh, sheesh. Thanks for pointing that out. Consider me embarrassed which is good because I will always remember die vs. dice now. Now if you can help me with "affect" vs. "effect"...

To the OP: I completely forgot to address your lack of game time. My group has been going through the same thing for the last year or so and it can be incredibly frustrating. We make it through the dry spells by actively posting in-game stuff on our boards and the like. It's not the same but it helps keep the game alive.

[Brickwall]

Oh, sheesh. Thanks for pointing that out. Consider me embarrassed which is good because I will always remember die vs. dice now.

Here's something that will help even more.

"Even if you get diced into many pieces, you will still die alone."

Hm. That actually works nicely. I'm using that one on anybody who uses "dice" for the singular. :smallamused:

[ranger89]

Here's something that will help even more.

"Even if you get diced into many pieces, you will still die alone."

Hm. That actually works nicely. I'm using that one on anybody who uses "dice" for the singular. :smallamused:

LOL. Thanks. That just made my day. :smallbiggrin:

[Wraithy]

Dice are items of extraordinary power. they choose their owner, not the other way around. though you may win dice off of another person in a duel. perhaps this is why your blackthorn dice do not work?

I'm very sorry, and hate myself for admitting that I read that horrible book, I made up for it by laughing whenever a character died in it. if you don't get the reference ignore it or throw a pie at me, understanding this reference is not worth reading harry potter

[RAGE KING!]

I laugh in the face of statistics when it comes to my dice. Getting bad rolls? Well obviously you must appease the dice spirit that lies within each dice. I'd recommend:

Wash your dice in mild detergent and hot water. It's like a nice, relaxing bath for a dice spirit and will help ease the tension that leads to bad rolls.
Get a nice soft velvet bag for your dice to rest in.
Talk to them and tell them how much you love them.
Whenever a dice rolls really, really well, be sure to give it a quick smooch.
Never, ever roll your dice just for the sake of rolling. For dice spirits, it's like going to work and then remembering that it's Saturday.
During game sessions, store your dice high # up. This will train the dice spirit.
Dice spirits like to be linked to only one character at a time. Using the same dice for multiple characters confuses the spirit and can lead to bad rolls.


I'm kidding, of course. Well, almost kidding. I can't tell you how many bad rolling streaks have been ended by washing my dice or performing some other admittedly bizarre ritual. :smallredface: To heck with statistics!

WHOAH! THATS AWESOME!

You should write a book about caring for dice.

[tannish2]

try rolling with a different limb, or even your mouth... that tends to get messy, and if your really inventive, im sure you could figure out how to use some other organs for rolling as well(rolling with feet has saved at least one character, rolling with mouth has won at least one combat with 3 crits in a row after a day of misses ect. oh and dice high side up, if you do low side down your basically grinding it down (albeit very slowly) so either let it stay however it lands or high side down... beleive me its physicsyness...ism... and cheating... kinda.

[Archonic Energy]

You must harness the power of statistics to do your bidding... either that or buy loaded dice.

can you get loaded D20s?

(we need an Evil smilie)

[Castaras]

can you get loaded D20s?

(we need an Evil smilie)

http://amen.myfastforum.org/images/smiles/icon_twisted.gif

Like this one? :smallbiggrin:

[Lucky]

He's not evil! He's just misunderstood!

[Charity]

You can get loaded polyhedrals though they only sway the odds slightly.
You can get D20's with the 1 replaced with another 20... most folk don't even notice those ones

but nobody likes a cheat (http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Weighted-Gaming-Dice-D-D-Vampire-War-Hammer-etc_W0QQitemZ220143024498QQihZ012QQcategoryZ1181QQ ssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) so, get the blowtorch out, vent your frustrations on your current dice set and then go here (http://www.chessex.com/Dice/SignatureEtcHomehtm.htm)

Oh, Ikkies right btw perception is the key to luck.

[Totally Guy]

I have a loaded d20, it rolls lots of 2s. It's meant to be fair but for some reason I can call a 2 result all the time.