Dice superstitions

[Xath]

I have a friend with a brownish red die - instead of a 20, it has the expansion symbol for the Arabian Nights Magic: the Gathering expansion - a scimitar. That die always rolls ridiculously well -- once he rolled 20, 20, 20, 19 when attacking a zombie. So our group believes that any die from a non role-playing game will give good luck.

Also, it is well known that in our group, any roll of a die which does not affect the game in any way will always roll extremely high.

"Balance check to walk across the flat ground... 18!"
"Heal check to put bandage on shaving cut... 20!"
"Reflex save to avoid getting hit by the drop of regular water... 17!"

You know most of those Magic dice aren't "dice" in the traditional sense, right? They're counters, so all of the high numbers are next to each other, and all of the low numbers are next to each other. You can assure rolling better than average if you just throw your die so it lands on the correct half. Most D20s are randomized, or have equally balanced the proportion of high to low numbers throughout the die. One of my DMs used to refer to Magic dice as "cheaters' dice."

 

[Committed Hero]

Before a tense situation I "prime" my d20 by rolling until it gets an 18, then not touching it until it's time to roll.

 

[Greylock]

My blue d8...

Right at the beginning of the session tonight I picked up my D8 to roll HP for a level-up at the end of the last game. I needed a good roll, as my next level is a Bloodline substitution, but I've had crappy luck at HP rolls. Put all my mojo in the roll and rolled....8! Woo7!

Feeling good about this particular d8 I put my others aside. My longbow using Cleric might need the luck. And on my next two rolls, I rolled 1's. Then, next roll...

I said outloud "And now, I roll an eight." And it rolled 8.

Next time, I said "And now, I roll an eight." And it came up 8.

Over and over, with a couple more ones, but the ratio was frighteningly lopsided for 8's. Then I rolled a four. Everyone looked at me, and said that I'd forgotten to say "And now I roll an 8." So, next time, I said it and rolled a seven. The dice was giving me a little reminder. From there on out, and this was a combat heavy night, I rolled nothing but eights.

And every time, I said the phrase...

I think it came to something like 3 or 4 ones, twelve or more eights, and a seven and the four. Wierd.

 

[lonesoldier]

I do not let anyone touch my "DMd20". It's the d20 I use for my NPCs, players phear it because I roll 18-20 often.

Oh, and lets not get into the weird-as-Baator dice rolling man-u-vars. My players dice end up between books, on the floor, on the dog/cat, across the room...

 

[innis]

i don't have any serious superstitions regarding die in this way, i do seem to, however, place them good face up; they just seem more pleasing to look at this way...wonder if there is something in that? i do wonder, however, is there any definitive way to tell if a die is flawed? i was fuming recently to learn that my poor girlfriend's d20 was seriously flawed, after she consistently rolled poorly for some time. we examined the dice closely by eye and saw that the thing was seriously irregular. no wonder! but now my players (and i, i must admit), are totally paranoid. after rolling poorly on my favourite dice (which has had a suspicious history of poor rolls) to test it out last session, i rolled 1,1,1,7,1,7...hmmm. i can see no flaw in it (well, i can't be 100% sure-it's a d20 after all). it makes me wonder...what percentage of dice purchased are crap, and is there any way to defeat a faulty dice? (ie slaming the dice on to the table?)

 

[D-rock]

I once rolled a d20 a couple thousand times to perform statistical analysis on it. I think it ended up rolling a little low so I quite using it.

Also, if it is transparent and has bubbles that you can see you want the bubbles close to where you want your dice to roll. Its not much but the center of gravity will shift to make it roll just ever so slightly more often on the number you want.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

Hmmm, for RPGs I just assume that all dice hate me equally, and use what comes out of the bag, though I will try to separate out a matching set from my bag. It makes it more likely that I will be able to find my dice again afterwards.

For wargames involving D6 I use sets that match the uniform of my army, but that is just so I can be sure of getting all my dice back after the game.

So no real superstition, just a tendency to worry about losing dice.

I have seen other folks who will not let anybody else touch their dice, and others who hand their dice to someone else to make important rolls.

My only belief is that my dice will roll well in minor encounters, and blow the big ones.

The Auld Grump

 

[arscott]

I own the really crappy StarCraft Alternity Boxed set. It came with a set of black dice (d4, d6, d8, d12, and d20. Alternity didn't use d10). When I bought d20 future last month, I dragged out the boxed set to see if there was anything I could poach from it (there wasn't). Before I put the box back into limbo, I swiped the dice from it.

They stink. They're absolutely terrible. When I brought them to a recent game day, The d20 rolled 3 almost exclusively.

My theory is that the dice absorbed the crappyness from the boxed set. So my new task is to find a really good box set that comes with dice. Anybody have suggestions?

 

[Clueless]

I've got a five to ten foot range on mine. Which means I sit beside the DM a lot and project 'bad luck' at him. Oddly enough this seems to work. We've certianly not measured it statisticly though there was one point with a computer generated character in Marvel Classic - where I ended up with a weakling (we're talking scores of 1 - 3 all around) mundane human by the time the computer was done rolling. Five times in a row... the group sent me out of the room to get a character made.

 

[Clueless]

They stink. They're absolutely terrible. When I brought them to a recent game day, The d20 rolled 3 almost exclusively.
My theory is that the dice absorbed the crappyness from the boxed set. So my new task is to find a really good box set that comes with dice. Anybody have suggestions?

DUDE! Save that die if you ever actually play Alternity! That thing would be a player killer in that game! Heck - I've been looking for a low roller for about a year now, I have some PCs to kill in another of my Aliens-esque one shots.