Teaching people to roll dice better/dice trays

[PhoenixPhyre]

So I play with a lot of teenagers. And teenagers throw dice, they don't roll them. At least way too many of them. Lots of lateral motion, less actual rotation.

Any thoughts or ideas on how to curb this? To teach proper dice rolling techniques so it doesn't take forever to collect/read the dice since they're three counties over (exaggerating, but not by much) or so it doesn't knock minis flying?

One thing I've thought of is buying a proper dice tray and having everyone (players at least) roll in that. Anyone had experience? Do they help? Hurt? I have one player that uses a dice tower--that thing's annoying since he only rolls one at a time and it takes forever (plus he often rolls such that they come flying out of the bottom, requiring a re-roll).

[Grimmnist]

The tray would certainly help with the tower since it gives space for the dice to land. However for your tossers the lip of the tray isn't usually very high so without a "backboard" I could see a lot of throws just bouncing out of the tray. Making a rule to count only rolls in the tray might gradually cause your players to become gentler, but it also might be an exercise in frustration.

Easiest solution I've done is with cups (it was in college so red solo cups), shaking the dice in the cup and slamming it down before tilting to reveal the result is pretty fun to do so I think the teens would go for it. Plus instead of passing around the dice tray to whoever is next in initiative, each person can have their own cup.

P.S. I also had a player who threw his dice. Once he got metal dice I had to make him build a dice tray with a high enough backboard in order to save my minis.

[Mordaedil]

One thing you can do is ask everyone to roll on their character sheet to prevent the dice from flying everywhere.

Dice going off the sheet are all re-rolled regardless of the result. This will teach teenagers to roll more conservatively and develop better rolling habbits.

[Pauly]

One solution is to get some clear plastic boxes. Put the required dice/dice combinations in the boxes. Seal the boxes. When it comes time to roll get the players to shake the box then put the box on the table in one motion. “Shake-Shake-Plonk” is how I teach new players this system. It doesn’t work that well with younger kids who use the boxes as caracas, but most teenagers don’t do that.

Depending on the size/number of dice 5cm or 7.5cm cubes usually work the best.

If it becomes important you can mark one side as up.

You can set up boxes for common combinations. One box with 1d20 for the attack and a d6 for damage another with a d20 and d8, another just with a d20 and so on.

[Mastikator]

"if the dice falls off the table it automatically counts as 1"

Not only does this strongly incentivizes them to roll the dice like a normal rational human being that isn't a diceiopath. It also prevents the game from grinding to a halt when they inevitably throw it off the table. You fail your turn and you fish it out AFTER the spotlight is off you. AKA you waste YOUR time, not OUR time.

[Yora]

"if the dice falls off the table it automatically counts as 1"

Exactly my thought. :smallbiggrin:

[Nifft]

I've had good experience with using a tray.

On a sufficiently crowded table, you can use one of those pizza-rack things for holding the tray above the map & drinks (or for holding a pizza, which was a key component of owning that particular equipment).

[Honest Tiefling]

Not only does this strongly incentivizes them to roll the dice like a normal rational human being that isn't a diceiopath.

I wanted to say that I love the term diceiopath. Too many people try fancy tricks to roll dice.

As a related question, how are dice trays at preventing cats from interfering with dice rolls?

[Algeh]

I suggest finding a way to give them an incentive to keep their dice in a certain area. A punishment, like making anything that rolls off the table a 1, may work but may make them grumpy.

However, if they find a neat new magic item that gives them a +1 (or similar level/game appropriate bonus - you want something that doesn't unbalance the whole game but makes them feel like they've won an advantage of some kind) but only if their die roll to use it lands in the "magic box", they'll start practicing their dice skills in their spare time and see it as a "minigame" to master. You could probably just use a piece of paper they needed to land on rather than a dice box, even. (You could even make it like a bingo board with different minor effects depending on where the die landed when using a certain otherwise-non magical weapon - land the die in this square and that hit counts as cold damage or whatever. Martials with no other way to get special damage types would probably get very good at their dice landing in specific places quickly, but that might not fit for some characters. You'll just have to find something that works for your system and campaign.)

When I was a teenager, I was in a group where about half of the players, for whatever reason, were too lazy to bring their own dice. (We were playing GURPS, so they only needed 3d6 mostly, although some weapons needed more dice because we were playing a high TL GURPS Space game.) The GM solved the problem by giving each of us a weapon that we could use once a session. The weapon's damage was "roll all of the dice that you personally brought today and add them up". Suddenly, everyone started remembering their dice, and each brought plenty of extra dice too...(Yes, this basically meant we could each turn one target a session into a fine paste as long as we remembered to bring a big bag full of dice, which in some cases were borrowed from every board game in their house as well as their regular gaming dice. This wasn't terribly unbalancing to the campaign since I assume the GM just added a few more mooks to compensate and most of the time in GURPS things go down to only a few hits anyway, so avoiding getting hit in the first place is more of a thing. I wouldn't suggest that particular incentive in a D&D game, although I can think of some other similar "roll all the dice and do something with the result" incentives I would use if I had a D&D group that routinely forgot to bring dice.)

[Bastian Weaver]

Ask them to download a dice-rolling app on their gadgets and do it like the cool kids, yo?

[Telwar]

Ask them to download a dice-rolling app on their gadgets and do it like the cool kids, yo?


That comes with the risk of "oh, I rolled my 17th 20 in a row." Though I guess you could have it out where people could see.

OTOH, that also leads to the "wait, it's my turn?" as people are on their phones.

[Bastian Weaver]

That comes with the risk of "oh, I rolled my 17th 20 in a row." Though I guess you could have it out where people could see.

OTOH, that also leads to the "wait, it's my turn?" as people are on their phones.

Good points. Though there are upsides, as well. I push the Drama Button every time I need to pull an Elan.

[ngilop]

I wanted to say that I love the term diceiopath. Too many people try fancy tricks to roll dice.

As a related question, how are dice trays at preventing cats from interfering with dice rolls?

Nope. Cats are cats and such will happen even if said dice are not being rolled.

One could attempt to get the feline attention via another method, like an old shoe string, plastic ball toy or other such.

[Kami2awa]

Asking people to be more careful with the dice has worked wonders for me in the past.

[RazorChain]

Maybe they are practicing for playing craps in the future?

[Knaight]

That comes with the risk of "oh, I rolled my 17th 20 in a row." Though I guess you could have it out where people could see.

OTOH, that also leads to the "wait, it's my turn?" as people are on their phones.

The first of these seems unlikely enough to not really be worth worrying about. The second is a case of just tempting fate with the apps.

[Lemmy]

"if the dice falls off the table it automatically counts as 1".
My group does that and actually takes it a step further: If the die falls off the table, it counts as the worst possible roll for whoever rolled it. Dominated and attacking an ally? Congratulations! You just got a natural 20. Confirmed it too.

[Mastikator]

My group does that and actually takes it a step further: If the die falls off the table, it counts as the worst possible roll for whoever rolled it. Dominated and attacking an ally? Congratulations! You just got a natural 20. Confirmed it too.

What's the result? Does it help against players throwing the dice of the table?

[heavyfuel]

"if the dice falls off the table it automatically counts as 1"

Not only does this strongly incentivizes them to roll the dice like a normal rational human being that isn't a diceiopath. It also prevents the game from grinding to a halt when they inevitably throw it off the table. You fail your turn and you fish it out AFTER the spotlight is off you. AKA you waste YOUR time, not OUR time.

Came here to suggest precisely that. I had this rule in my games for a while and players learned very quickly to be extra careful with their rolls

[Anonymouswizard]

"if the dice falls off the table it automatically counts as 1"

Most of my groups have gone with rerolling any dice that fall off the table, as did my family from early on, mainly so that all 'invalid' rolls are treated the same and not to punish those with geniune motor control issues, but I've also played in groups where any off table roll was ignored (the die did not resist for that roll and you did not get to roll a new one). If people roll off the table a lot the former can be a big motivator, I moved away from throwing dice because I slowed games down too much (I alternate between a forward drop and a proper roll based on table size), if it's not happening every other roll then generally making it a bad roll is much more encouraging.

Note that if you can't find the die by bending over we rolled a new one and retrieved it during the next person's turn. Once spent my turn picking up three dice :smallsigh: (to be fair I was I think 10ish at the time)

I've also seen cups used at the table, but generally by player choice.

[Lemmy]

What's the result? Does it help against players throwing the dice of the table?
Oh, yeah. Definitely... And if the die rolls off the table anyway, players at least try to catch before it rolls over (and possibly gets lost).