D&D General Do you have any table rules regarding die rolls?

[billd91]

Things have gotten a bit looser with us playing on Roll20 for the last couple of years but we typically rule that any die that falls off the table needs to be rerolled. That's about it. I don't get fussy about rolling in the open, though we generally do so and don't usually scrutinize each other's rolls.

Other than that, I take a deliberately trusting attitude when DMing on the virtual tabletop. I let players roll their own dice or use the ones on Roll20 as they see fit. I roll my own with my wee little dice tower and dice trays on the TV table set up next to my desk.

I may use a few other conventions to make things easier. I try to roll damage dice with the attack to speed my results a little and I use varying colors to generate multiple results - usually reading lighter to darker to establish an order (got that one from casualty reduction rolls from ASL). I've got sparkly dice I try to keep on hand to use for advantage/disadvantage so they're easy to spot and add/remove as necessary. I also do have an initiative macro I use to roll most initiative checks because it's usually quicker for me to do it - but now that a couple of PCs are regularly rolling initiative with advantage, that's starting to go by the wayside.

 

[Stormonu]

Off the table is an automatic reroll. For crazy dice-flingers (had a couple who thought their dice were shurikens or flails), it's an automatic failure.

If the dice is cocked where the result is in question, the dice is rerolled.

No dropping straight down on the table. It must roll.

Don't roll before the DM says so, I won't count rolling ahead (had players that would roll numerous times ahead of a called roll to magically announce they made it), though that's a problem I haven't had in around 15-20 years.

For a while, digital electronic dice rollers were banned at the table. As a programmer, I was familiar with the issues with them with their random seeds and number rounding. 3D electronic dice (like on Beyond and Roll20) are allowed, though I find I generally roll poorly with them, or they have wierd runs of similar rolls (we recently had an instance with six 20's in a row from various players, followed by a string of 3-4 1's for me. It was bizarre).

 

[iserith]

If you roll a die off the table, you have to go to the kitchen and make everyone a round of drinks.

 

[HammerMan]

yeah they have varried alot over the years, but in 2019 we moved to online gaming and are useing roll20 so we just roll in chat useing roll20

 

[DND_Reborn]

Wait, I had a group I left for not letting me roll both dice at once. . .

Was it someplace in upstate NY...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Honestly, my rules for rolling dice electronically are pretty much "you have to use one." Whether it's Avrae, D&D Beyond, or Roll20. And rolls in the wrong Discord channel (I have multiple channels on my server for different groups), don't count.

One of the joys of a campaign I was a player in (even though it fell apart) was watching the one guy that I am 99% sure was a pathological cheater when we were rolling dice in person (and had stopped gaming with for that very reason) fume as he had to take what the dice actually rolled. He kept whinging about wanting to roll real dice because he "rolled better" with them. No one was buying that.

Oh, and before a bunch of people come to this thread to say they don't use dice anymore because they play remotely, good for you, that's not what this thread is about (though if there is some custom around electronic rolling I'd be interested to hear it).

My rules for in-person gaming were generally fairly trusting. We're all adults, and if you want to cheat at playing pretend, that's on you; I'm not going to actively police people's dice rolls. Now, if I catch you doing it, that's another thing.

Also for my at-home game, ROLL ON THE NICE DICE TRAY I BOUGHT, NOT THE BRAND NEW TABLE!

 

[Charlaquin]

For example, in my games cocked dice are always rerolled regardless of what is "mostly" showing.

I feel like cocked dice is only an actual thing that happens when you’re rolling on uneven surfaces like carpet. The die wants to land flat, that’s what designed to do. If dunno, I’m just always leery of re-rolls due to “cocked” dice when we’re playing on a wood table and everyone has these fancy dice trays.

On the other hand, if a die rolls off the table on to the floor, it is up to the player to apply a consistent approach to the results. Some people take whatever comes up no matter where it lies when it stops rolling. Others only accept rolls on the table, so even if a nat '20' pops up as the die bumps into a dust bunny under the table, it still needs to be re-rolled. As long they are consistent, the player can adopt whichever approach they want. Other players have instituted their own personal "If it is not on my rolling tray (or whatever) it does not count" rules.

Yeah, I say if the die can’t be easily read - which includes when it rolls off the table, re-roll it. If that means players occasionally re-roll a bad roll, claiming it was “cocked,” I’m not too worried about it.

Something I am thinking about instituting is a cup for players to roll their "secret rolls" in that they are not allowed to see the results of yet (rather than me as DM rolling for them behind the screen) which I can then look at, see the result, and then pop the die out and pass it back.

That’s a neat idea. I prefer to avoid secret rolls when possible, but that’s a cool way to have players still get to make the roll when the result does need to be secret.

 

[Mezuka]

Cut your hand or burn you dice tower. The die is not responsible.

 

[billd91]

I feel like cocked dice is only an actual thing that happens when you’re rolling on uneven surfaces like carpet. The die wants to land flat, that’s what designed to do. If dunno, I’m just always leery of re-rolls due to “cocked” dice when we’re playing on a wood table and everyone has these fancy dice trays.

Cocked dice, in my experience, are WAY more common in dice trays than the open table, particularly when there are multiple dice. They really can jam each other up against the sides. This is more common with d20s than probably any other die because of the relative smallness of the sides. I very rarely had issues, personally, in my GMing space at the table before I started using a dice tray. It's still not common, but it is considerably more frequent.

They also come up in situations with crowded gaming tables. Books, sodas, notebooks, etc. Again, not hugely common, but I see enough of it in those circumstances that I have no reason to question it when the problem comes up.

 

[Lanefan]

All player-side rolls must be observed (or observable) by someone else, be it the DM or one or more other players.

Dice that go off the table are re-rolled, or a different one is rolled if the first one can't be quickly found (this happens more often than you might expect!).

If a die is just mildly cocked we take what the result would clearly have been were it flat. If it's really cocked it's re-rolled.

The first roll is the roll that counts (this comes up more often in roll20 where system lag makes you think the first roll didn't take, you roll again, and then they both appear in sequence a moment later).

If you roll a die off the table, you have to go to the kitchen and make everyone a round of drinks.

If we enforced that we'd all be completely smashed within the first hour of play!

And it's self-sustaining as well - the more drinks you have the more likely your dice are going over the side, which means more drinks...he-ey, I'm starting to like this idea!