Dice etiquette, rules, and superstitions

[GreatestHonor]

1. You have to reroll on the table, GM included.

2. If readable, cat roll is kept. If not, reroll. Either way, the feline is taken off the table, and put away if persistent

3. Dogs are not allowed in the room during the session.

4. Dice trays preferred as well as dice cups, which is why i bring them to the session.

5. Physical dice preferred, haven’t had to make a real ruling about it.

6. Dice must be easily readable to both the GM and the player.

7. Allowed

8. Give an extra shake or two before rolling

9. Dont use them, but they are allowed

10. Behind the screen, but open and honest about DCs and results

11. Please dont

12. Put it to the side for the session and borrow one of my spare sets for the session.

13. Go ahead. Often necessary/easier to do so with certain spells and abilities at the table.

 

[ColinChapman]

1) Rolls must be on the table to count. Dice trays eliminate this issue (and protect the table).
2) Cats are untrustworthy players; choose better sorts to game with. Such as retrievers. And folks who like dice trays.
3) Train your golden to retrieve (it's in the name!), not eat the dice; a win for the doggo and the weirdos who don't use trays. Whether for litter or rolling.
4) Only weirdos don't use dice trays (they are probably cats in disguise; see point 2).
5) Only weirdos use digital dice when real ones are available (also see point 4's point about point 2 again).
6) Legible dice are a must, and don't forget to consider the needs of your colour-blind players (cats and dogs alike; equal opportunity play, folks).
7) If your dice begin to metal or rock, the only answer is to give the horns (not from your bovine player; that's just rude).
8) Give the precision dice a good ol' roll in a dice cup first (not the cat's milk cup though; be considerate).
9) Dice towers are a sign of player boredom, balancing them one on the other like that. What?
10) Roll in the open. The only reason to roll behind a screen is if you're ashamed of your ugly, ugly dice. Get some taste, GM-dude!
11) Rolling against a screen sounds like cheating. It's not like it can roll back. Also, use a dice tray, weirdo.
12) Punish dice by giving them to the (untrained) retriever.
13) Using another player's dice without first licking and claiming them is a dick move.

 

[aco175]

I laughed at this not because it's stupid but just funny. I almost choked on my beer. Did it ever work?

After a summer of trying, it did not work. I know- everyone is shocked. Maybe I just needed another 1,000 years

 

[Joshua Randall]

1. Die falls on the floor

Reroll.

2. Cat swats the die but it still stops rolling where you can see the value.

We don’t have pets at our games (several people including me are allergic) but hypothetically: keep the roll. If it was a good roll, cat becomes good luck charm and must be enticed to bat at dice every time. If it was a bad roll, cat must be shunned like the demon’s familiar it is.

3. Golden Retrieve with Pica quickly eats (as in swallows) the die.

Rush dog to vet.

4. Dice trays. Require, ban, don't care either way.

Don’t care as long as they don’t take up too much room.

5. Digital dice rolling for in-person games.

No. Super lame.

6. Legibility of dice.

Rolling player (especially) and DM must be able to read them from a reasonable distance. Else we yell at you to stop being a jerk.

7. Large, heavy, loud dice (metal, rock, etc.)

Use a dice tray so you don’t dent my table. And don’t be obnoxious about it.

8. Precision dice that don't roll much.

Provide a chi-square test result that was audited by a CPA to prove that these non tumbling dice are sufficiently random.

9. Dice towers?

Don’t care as long as they don’t take up too much room.

10. DM roll in the open or behind the screen?

Behind screen.

11. Roll against the DM screen like back wall at a casino craps game

Never thought about it. Seems like it would be noisy and lead to too many bounces back off the table.

12. How to punish bad dice?

Do not touch them with bare hands! Carefully scoop them into the clear plastic dice box. Do not allow the bad dice to touch any uncontaminated dice.

Next week, the imprisoned dice are released.

However, if the dice continue to misbehave, they are eventually publicly murdered on the driveway with a hammer, in front of the other dice, to serve as a terrible warning.

13. Using another player's dice.

ABSOLUTELY NOT.

You do not touch another player’s dice, ever, for any reason.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Also - I’ve heard and witnessed the “orient dice so that gravity will affect how they roll”. We all know it’s silly and superstitious but the veneer of SCIENCE keeps people at it.

 

[ColinChapman]

You do not touch another players dice, ever, for any reason.

Psst. It's spelt with a k, not an e.

Spelling error aside, you are correct; that sort of interaction must be agreed to first.

 

[R_J_K75]

After a summer of trying, it did not work. I know- everyone is shocked. Maybe I just needed another 1,000 years

I tried this once. I had some of those clear green crystal dice I got from the Silver Snail in Toronto in the 80s. Used them for years until they went on a losing streak. I replaced them in the mid 90s with these and they were cursed too. You can't unfunk dice.

 

[aco175]

At the convention tomorrow I get to buy new, shiny, untouched by others dice. We will see how long they take to turn against me. It seems they all end up in the grab-bag that others can use at some point.

 

[Joshua Randall]

Ah yes, a good point: when at a convention, one must ALWAYS buy a set of dice. If you fail to do that you bring a year of bad luck upon yourself because of your failure to appease the dice gods with propitiation.

Do you attend 20 conventions a year? Then you’d better budget for 20 sets of dice a year.

You do not cheap out the dice gods!

 

[R_J_K75]

View attachment 397327

A pic is worth a thousand rolls

I like big legible dice in a tray, also books at the table, this is me just sitting on the couch. I think like with off table, pet interference, I let the player decide if they want to take the result or not. A friend has a nice wooden dice tower another friend made him, we use that when we are there. I don't really punish dice, though if they feel unlucky, I'll grab another pair, even though I know it isn't logical.

I didn't know non-mechanical pencils still existed