Die rolls

[delericho]

Players may select where the dice will land for themselves - some use the table, some use a book, and some vary on a roll-by-roll basis. However, it needs to be obvious where they're rolling before the roll is made.

Any die that lands outwith the 'rolling area', or which does not lie flat is rerolled. Any tilt, no matter how small, necessitates a reroll. Likewise, if the die lands completely flat on the floor, it gets rerolled.

We have never had a lot of rerolls. But those are the conventions we've used to determine when they're called for.

 

[sniffles]

We follow the same rule at our table -- a die roll in order to count must have the BOTTOM NUMBER flat on a substrate. If it's cocked in a groove between two adjoining tables, or on the floor, it doesn't count. We also allow some people their variations (roll in a box, roll on a book) as long as they keep consistent. Unless it's cocked, then it's accepted by all. Since we have so few instances of this, we don't think about it more than that.

We mostly follow Henry's mode - except that we generally consider it bad karma to roll on a book, binder, or notepad. There's a history of bad die rolls when rolling on anything other than a table surface or battle mat.

 

[Man in the Funny Hat]

Any die not sitting FLAT is cocked and by rights makes the roll void (at least by GAMBLING rules), but generally if it's reasonably readable, that is if it's somewhat flat and whatever it's leaning against or tilted on were removed the die would still be flat, most people I know would simply read it as such and move on. The only time it would really become an issue is if the roll were immediately and obviously disastrous. In that case it becomes an "easy out" to simply declare it a cocked die and reroll.

Of course there's also been those times when a die is well and truly "unreadable" because it's cocked at far too rakish an angle but a player wants to try and read it favorably, in which case as the DM I have needed to step in and declare it officially cocked and require it to be rerolled.

As for other rules I only really have one of convenience - keep it on the table and don't be knocking over miniatures and so forth as you roll. You don't need to hold your dice 5' above the table and drop them but the dice do need to fall a bit and ROLL. Oh, and no talking while you're rolling!

That last one is a special rule that had to be made once in a 1E game to cover a player who when his turn came up would simply rattle his dice in hand, talk on and on and on about a book he'd just read, the weather, what the odds were of his actually hitting every given opponent on the table, how much he liked his paladin character although he might be cooler if he used a Maul of the Titans because then he could use it to just whack open doors and..."MARK! JUST ROLL YOUR FRIGGIN' ATTACKS!" :\

 

[Gentlegamer]

As GM, I discipline players not to "splash" the dice by constantly rolling them off tables, and so on. The die must be laying flat for the roll to be valid. On multiple dice rolls (ex. 4d6), if one die rolls off the table or goes into a groove or crack, all the dice in the roll must be rerolled. This encourages "dice control" during rolling.

See the HACKMASTER Player's Handbook for an excellent discussion of dice rolling.

 

[IronWolf]

I like for the die to be sitting flat and not cocked on anything. If the die rolls off the table, as long as it lands flat I have no trouble allowing the roll to stand.

 

[Deadguy]

I must admit that I am generally happy for the player to re-roll if they decide themselves that the die is cocked*. Dice that fall on the floor are re-rolled. And occasionally I've used faintly credible 'cocked die!' as an excuse as a DM to get a player to re-roll a roll that came up incredibly badly for them.


* oddly, I too prefer if there is one cocked die in a multiple-dice roll, that all be re-rolled. Can't really say why. Just occurred to me.

 

[Parlan]

I can live with the die not beig perfectly flat, but it has to be pretty close.

One weird thing we do is "call" whether we're going to accept the results when a die skitters off the table and onto the floor.

this leads to excited shouts of "no no no!" when a die starts falling to indicate that the roll will not be accepted.


Almost invariably followed by "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooo!" when it lands as a natty 20.
;-)