Do you believe in Luck?

[mzsylver]

got vorpal?

one time i was DMing and the enemy had a vorpal weapon. i decided to roll out in front so it wouldnt be my fault if something *unfortunate* happened.

i rolled 6 natural 20s in a row. 5 were chopping off heads & the other one was a saving throw.

that group has feared me ever since.

and the vorpaling was even a dream sequence!!! (which they didnt know at the time) so noone died!!!

 

[Crow]

I think on adverage, most gamers beleive in luck, just comes with spending this much time around random number generators.

Exactly.

 

[EOL]

Anybody see that KoDT where one of the guys (I forget which) has been rolling horribly all night, so Brian decides it's time to have a good ol' fashioned "Die Cleansing". I believe that every body at the table had to roll each die until it came up with the max then they would rub it over the signature of Gary Jackson.

Every person I play with except one is a College Graduate and I am amazed at the level of superstition that exists when it comes to rolling dice. I'm even more amazed at the my own superstition.

 

[SableWyvern]

IMHO, luck occurs over short periods. Over the long haul, things balance out.

As a big wargamer, I _NEED_ to believe this so I can't have my victories or defeats blamed on luck.

Only one game of Bloodbowl served to truly shake this belief, when I failed to roll a single straight defender down result all game.

An important factor of any good wargame (and, to a somewhat lesser extent, for an RPG) is to minimise the effects of critical luck - that is, where the result of a single roll has an undue effect upon the game overall.

 

[Don21584]

"Once, my half-elf paladin rolled 20-20-19... with the same dice (in a different campaign), my wizard rolled something like 16 straight rolls below 10. "

Well, I've noticed that if you roll really well with certain dice with a certain character, that you do NOT use those dice with another character, because they will suck for you. I learned that the hard way since I'm thickheaded and really wanted to use my good looking red/orangish/gold dice for other characters that I use, and I never seem to hit anything really...

 

[Left-handed Hummingbird]

Do I believe that some people are consitently more lucky than others? No, absolutely not.

 

[Dark Psion]

Wed. Jan 30: Ice storm hits Oklahoma; 250,000 without power, Trees down everywhere.
Thur. Jan 31: Emergency supply truck #1 at work while opperating at half power.
Fri. Feb 1: Emergency supply truck #2 at work, but get power back.
Sat. Feb 2: Emergency supply truck #3 at work. Kill Groudhog!!!!
Sun. Feb 3: Catch sinus cold, didn't know viruses could take levels as assassins.
Tues. Feb 5: Afternoon, fever breaks wonder what happened to Monday.
Wed. Feb 6: Wake up to 4 inches of snow, assume it is a halucination and go back to bed.

Ask me if I belive in BAD LUCK!!!

 

[Black Omega]

I'm a firm believer in the powers of Selective Observation. But my players think I should adjust CR's in my game because of the way I roll.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Sorry, much too steeped in probablity to believe in luck... despite playing with a guy who never played a character with less than a total +17 ability modifier... 4d6 drop lowest.

 

[EOL]

Sorry, much too steeped in probablity to believe in luck... despite playing with a guy who never played a character with less than a total +17 ability modifier... 4d6 drop lowest.

So if not luck how DO you explain this guy? Cheating? Selective Observation? An unremarkable run? Irregular Dice? I'd be curious to know.