Consoling a bad-luck player

[Falchieyan]

I'm currently DMing a Savage Tide game and have an odd problem with one of the players: he has TERRIBLE luck with the dice. He went nearly the entirety of a session without rolling over an 8 on attack rolls, and he's the vocal enough type that the whole group had to hear a big rant each time. I've come to dread his turns in combat as a result. It at times comes to the point that even his successes end with complaints. "Oh, NOW I roll the 18," or, "jeez, I finally get a hit in. This is BS."
Even worse, he consistently puts his character in the most danger(always plays a tank, even though he never plays a tanking class), then accuses me of trying to kill him all of the time(he's a proponent of the DM vs. players school of thought).

He cycles dice, he tries to min-max(though he's bad with numbers and tends to end up with sub-par combatants), and does all kinds of luck tricks. To no avail.

Is there anything that I as a DM can do to help this situation? Maybe introduce "luck" feats from Complete Scoundrel to give him a way of possibly re-shaping some of his poor fate?

Any help would be appreciated...

 

[Stalker0]

Time to apply a little science to the superstition. Have someone write down the numbers he rolls everytime. I've found that when you actually keep track, bad luck streaks don't seem as bad as you initially think.

 

[Mark Hope]

There's nothing scientific about it - some players are cursed with bad dice luck. If crazy_cat pops by this thread, he will doubtless confirm this fact - he knows from bitter experience . What's worse, it is contagious. He passed his bad mojo over to me once. It took me three sessions to recover.

The player in your game should simply be told the harsh truth - that he has bad dice mojo. And to protect the rest of you, he should be forced to play inside a hermetically sealed cocoon of some kind (you could feed him through a tube or something like that). At the very least he should sit a few feet away from the rest of the group. This may seem harsh, but it's a serious matter.

 

[Black_Swan]

I'm currently DMing a Savage Tide game and have an odd problem with one of the players: he has TERRIBLE luck with the dice. He went nearly the entirety of a session without rolling over an 8 on attack rolls...

One option is to add Action Dice to the game..atleast this way when he really needs to make a roll or wants to he can boost his chances.

Honestly, I have the same luck as he does. I suck at rolling dice. So, I do my best to get as many bonuses to my rolls as possible. Every bonus I grab or magic item that boosts my attack is one step closer to taking more control over the situation.

He just needs to chill out and maybe play a different type of character for a bit. Cleric might be a great choice. That way he can wade into battle if he wants to but he can still cast spells and buffs which don't require a die roll to hit.

 

[bento]

Laughing in his face and calling him a loser always works for me.

 

[pogre]

Even worse, he consistently puts his character in the most danger(always plays a tank, even though he never plays a tanking class), then accuses me of trying to kill him all of the time(he's a proponent of the DM vs. players school of thought).

If he is a proponent of that school - kill him. Sounds like it will be easy.

If you introduce a bennies mechanic - make sure everyone gets the benefit. There are a ton of rules for introducing action points to your game.

 

[Agamon]

I had a player like that when I ran RttToEE. He went through 11 (yes, eleven) PCs. That was a record (by about 8). I didn't pick on him, he was a bit gung-ho with a lot of bad luck. The diference is, he laughed it off. My bro is something of an artist and drew him a picture of all his PCs together with little halos over their heads, we all got a good laugh out of that.

 

[Falchieyan]

These are some...amusing solutions. Put him in a bubble? Kill him?

And this is an Eberron game, so there are action dice already in place. They just seem a bit irrelevant with some of the rolls that he makes.

 

[Agamon]

These are some...amusing solutions. Put him in a bubble? Kill him?

And this is an Eberron game, so there are action dice already in place. They just seem a bit irrelevant with some of the rolls that he makes.

Honestly, I'd just sit it out. His luck has to turn sooner or later. If you introduce something now to make failures into successes, you can't get rid of it later when the law of averages kicks in.

 

[sniffles]

Sounds to me like he's one of those players who have to find something to complain about. If his dice mojo improves he'll rant about something else. :\