Dice Superstition

[SnowleopardVK]

The d20 from my newest set of dice began its life on the tabletop with five rolls of 1s in a row. I was rather spooked to say the least, not to mention the group I was GMing had a very easy time on that encounter. Since then though, it's actually produced the most frequent high numbers among my d20s.

As unlikely as that many 1s in a row is, there's still a chance of it though, just as there's a chance that this dice would go on to frequently roll better than my other ones as it did.

It's all probability, but I still consider my newest set to be my lucky set at the moment. Primarily the d20. Anybody else have dice superstitions? (And I know at least some of you do... ) Not just about specific dice, but also about things to do or not do while rolling, things that one shouldn't say lest it provoke bad luck, and various other things like that? I think it'll probably be an interesting discussion at the very least.

 

[RoryN]

I had two white 10-siders with the numbers on one painted silver and the other gold and I would never roll percentile dice with any others when I played. Also had some cheap plastic red and white 6-sided with white pips that would roll consistently good when rolling up characters but then would suck for rolling anything else in the game.

 

[Lord Captian Tobacco]

I have plenty of stories about dice.

A few even had the players scared. One was a green gem that would crit more often then it would miss. One night, one of the players decided that enough was enough and had removed the die from the bag before the game started and chucked it out onto the yard. Though I had seen this while coming back to the table, I didn't mention that I had seen anything.
But when combat began I had six pairs of eyes wide as saucers when I pulled another Green Gem from the bag and landed a crit on one of the players. The Emerald Eye Has since been feared and/or worshiped (it was referenced in another s game as a great gem with an evil reputation). It has been banned from any table except my own. And... it is now on its sixth incarnation, the others having been tossed, broken, lost, chipped, etc.
But none of my players know this.

More over looked is the rituals and traditions of the dice bag itself.

Most today have leather. Easily accessible being cheap to buy or make.
Some still remember the days when a Crown Royal bag was the height of fashion amongst gamers, especially the younger crowd who couldn't buy the alcohol and increased their status with the group by the implication that they had pulled some trick to obtaining it.
Mine is an old drab green 'personal effects' bag with a paper patch on one side where one can add such information as: Name, Rank, DOB, (Please check any appropriate) WIA, KIA, GASSED, and a few lines where you should place the inventory of the contents...
Most players sense the initial purpose of this bag and fear it greatly. I think it sets the mood wonderfully.

 

[Lord Captian Tobacco]

'course I forgot. I also have a full set of those crappy low impact die sets that came with some of the original TSR boxed sets. You know which ones I mean.
The yellow four sider.
The orange six.
The green eight.
The blue twelve.
The one red and one white twenty siders, which now are so worn that even a light roll on a stable table without cloth will more often roll off the opposite end.

Didn't matter if you painted them with a marker of just filled in the divits with a crayon, people used them because it was all they had.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

Heh, it's been about three weeks since buying that same set of dice from the topic's original post, and I've finally gotten a few opportunities to roll the D%. This one started off similarly to how the d20 began, only probability wise I'm pretty sure this one was even LESS likely than five 1s in a row from a d20.

Namely the d% began their life with four rolls of 16 in a row.

These dice are weird... >_>

 

[AeroDm]

My two dice superstition stories:

First story
A good aligned cleric decides to wield the (clearly) evil mace of a villain they felled. He argued that using the weapon of the enemy against them was in the service of Pelor. The rolls were not in succession, but they were all preceded by the phrase, "Pelor guide my mace." There were five ones rolled. He was eventually disarmed, someone picked up the weapon and struck him back, nat 20. Something like 1 in 60 million odds.

Second story
I rolled a die and it scampered off the table. It was my favorite d20 and belonged to a set. We all heard it bounce off the hard wood floor but never heard a second bounce. Then we began to search. It was gone. We figured it must have gone onto carpeting since there was no second bounce, but after literally an hour of searching we could not find it.

Years later, the player moved. In dismantling their kitchen table, they found a d20 that had somehow bounced up into a tiny gap in the wood and sat there for five or so years. The d20 was returned to me and I refrained from using it until we had a reunion game. It rolled like a champ and took no prisoners.

 

[Oryan77]

For some reason, when I'm a player, I roll terrible. When I DM though, I roll much much better.

So as a player, I "charge" my d20s. Most people will charge them on the 20, but that never helps me. What does help is when I charge all my dice on the 1. My friend once said it looked freaky, but whenever I do it, I roll pretty good.

 

[SnowleopardVK]

For some reason, when I'm a player, I roll terrible. When I DM though, I roll much much better.

So as a player, I "charge" my d20s. Most people will charge them on the 20, but that never helps me. What does help is when I charge all my dice on the 1. My friend once said it looked freaky, but whenever I do it, I roll pretty good.

I do the same sometimes, right down to charging the 1.

A good number of the people I know can actually see the charge, but I've yet to actually play a game DMed by one of them. My DMs so far don't think the charge works, and have all just assumed I'm just a very lucky roller compared to the rest of the players.

I don't bother charging dice as a DM though, because I also tend to roll much better naturally when I'm not a player.

 

[CuRoi]

I have similar player / DM issues with my dice. I usually DM and when I do, I roll extremely well. So much so I roll most dice out on the open table so my players know I'm not just fudging nearly every roll. One die in particular, an orange/black speckled d20 seems to be particularly "lucky". Players would steal it from me to save their characters or so they could use it during the game (it was pretty random in their hands, heh).

It was quickly dubbed the player killer die and it ferociously destroyed players. I think it developed some sort of a taste for PC blood.

Now, you might think that obviously the die has some sort of physical defect and it's just maybe prone to hitting say 15 or higher more than any other numbers. However, after a long stretch of DMing, I decided to play in a campaign. I did not take that die's predispositions into account.

Suddenly, the "player killer" die was rolling ones. I mean LOTS of ones. It was extremely noticeable to the group who had come to fear that die. Then, like some kind of conspiracy led by the spurned player killer die, ALL of my dice were failing miserably as well. The conspiracy quickly spread across the table, dice communicating with each other as they clattered along the table. I'd ask other people to roll for me and I'd get "1"s. I even toyed with trying to devise a character concept (3e DnD) that relied on as little dice rolling as possible.

At any rate, the luck seemed to return with that die at the strangest moment. My halfling rogue bet the party bard he could pick a fairly complicated lock with his eyes closed. So, as the player, I closed my eyes, rolled the die and sure enough, hit a 20. The very next session, the halfling rogue was hiding in a dark barn when an assassin who had come to try to kill the party stepped in and started to swig a potion. No combat had started yet and he was unaware of the halfling. I declared I was going to shatter the vial in his hand. The DM scoffed, I let a sling stone fly and sure enough, rolled a 20 (he was shocked and let me slide on the concealment roll.)

At any rate, the die seems to be acclimated now to NOT killing PCs and instead trying to help them : ) I'm dreading running a game again though...

 

[Stalker0]

My DM has a set of orange d20's that are brutal to behold. While they don't hold the same majesty as that emerald eye mentioned earlier, there are whines everytime they are brought to bear.