Consoling a bad-luck player

[Kafkonia]

Buy one of those sets with loaded dice -- the kind that has two identical d20s, one loaded, one not. Slip the loaded one, let him get the feeling his luck is turning around, then swap it out for the unloaded one. His mindset will have been broken and a couple of low rolls won't get him down.

Caveat: Make sure the loaded die is loaded to give high numbers.

 

[blargney the second]

Get him to play a spellcaster. There is no attack roll for magic missile.

 

[Brother MacLaren]

Tell him that of course there are no such thing as curses or luck. Go into a lengthy discourse on probability and standard deviations. Ask him to write down every die roll he gets, regardless of context (attack roll, initiative, saves, Diplomacy checks) and, after 1000 rolls, give you a stastistical analysis of the distribution.

Every time he brings it up his luck after that point, ask "So how's that spreadsheet coming along?"

If he really does roll abnormally low over those 1000 rolls (say 3 standard deviations or more), and could replicate that performance under laboratory conditions, he'd be eligible for James Randi's $1,000,000 prize for proof of the paranormal.

Edit: Okay, my ideas don't really fall under "consoling a bad-luck player," except for the $1,000,000 part.

 

[MadWand]

Use Excel to roll 200 d20 rolls. Use the "Average" function to verify that the average of all these rolls is, indeed, 10.5. Print out the list of rolls.

You can use this list in 2 ways:

1) Don't have the player roll d20's. Instead he just gets the next roll from the list. You keep the list taped to the front of your DM screen so the player doesn't know what he'll get.

2) Give the list to the player. To "roll a d20", he actually rolls a d6, counts down the list of unused rolls that many times, crosses off the number, and uses it for his d20 roll.

This way, your player will be guaranteed to be rolling average d20 results. The only thing that won't be guaranteed will be when he rolls low or high - that's still up to luck.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

At first my response was: Make him DM a game. Bad rolling DMs are fun because no matter what they do, they can't win.

But then you mentioned that he whines about his dice rolls like it's your fault.
So now my advice is to tell him to shut up and grow up.
Life is to short to game with people who ruin the fun.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

One player in my group had horrendus bad luck. So much so that everyone in the group noticed how badly he rolled. He didn't complain about it though.

The funny thing is that he has left the group and another player is sitting in his spot. Last session he rolled really badly, including 3 natural 1's (2 on attack rolls, 1 on a Fireball spell save).

We think that spot on the table is cursed!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Festivus]

Buy him a new d20 and destroy the old one with a hammer... or offer to trade him d20s and you use the one he's been having the bad luck with.

 

[Dragonbait]

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. :\

I hate to be a Negative Nancy, but I have to agree with sniffles. They WILL complain, they will ALWAYS complain.

 

[ByteRynn]

I used to open the door, step out onto the balcony, and see how far into the woods the dice would fly.

Of course, I would let the new dice see what I did to the old dice. Call it Sun Tzu dice-rolling. Dice behave after they are taught a leson.

 

[Nonlethal Force]

There are three really good posts up there that I have to quote: (With honorable mention to the "make him a DM" post.)

Use Excel to roll 200 d20 rolls. Use the "Average" function to verify that the average of all these rolls is, indeed, 10.5. Print out the list of rolls.

You can use this list in 2 ways:

1) Don't have the player roll d20's. Instead he just gets the next roll from the list. You keep the list taped to the front of your DM screen so the player doesn't know what he'll get.

2) Give the list to the player. To "roll a d20", he actually rolls a d6, counts down the list of unused rolls that many times, crosses off the number, and uses it for his d20 roll.

This way, your player will be guaranteed to be rolling average d20 results. The only thing that won't be guaranteed will be when he rolls low or high - that's still up to luck.

Wow, that's beautiful. And, since it plays to the law of averages, it isn't benefitting him or anyone else. Good advice!

Get him to play a spellcaster. There is no attack roll for magic missile.

Also excellent advice. Or, if not a spellcaster ... some other type of character than a front line damage dealer.

If his dice mojo improves he'll rant about something else.

While technically not advice, this is also highly likely and worth stating. Before you go all proactive and change his life by improving his dice rolling, make sure it'll cure the complaining. Don't go to the hassle if his complaining is just going to come out another way.