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

[el-remmen]

I also do "it's a miss if it rolls off the table" - though I usually start with a warning. I've had too much "hyper-die-rolling" that our group has actually coined a term for it. People getting up, searching for lost dice, disrupting the game, making people get off their seats, searching under furniture and bookcases, taking three times as long to make a die roll because they can't hit the table. It's rude, and if you can't control yourself, you miss and we move on.

If it take longer than a couple of seconds to find a die that has fallen off the table, the person just uses a different die until a break or end of session and looks for the lost die then.

 

[Scott Christian]

No. The only rule I have is when I DM - I roll in the open where at least one player can see.

 

[Lanefan]

I don't think I've ever seen anyone accidentally drop a die while rolling. It always happens when someone throws a die across the whole table and really should have known it happens.
And really, it's just a missed roll. The penalty is just a gesture of mild annoyance.

Sometimes a die will - quite literally - get on a roll and just keep going until it hits an obstacle or sails off the side of the table. d10s can do this if they get up on their "edge", rounded-corner d6s can roll away on you as well, but worst of all for some reaosn are d12s. Put any lateral force in the throw of a d12 and it might not stop rolling till it gets to Iowa.

 

[overgeeked]

It doesn't really slow things down IME, at least not enough I would notice it, since most of the time the players wait for me to confirm the hit (unless they obviously know its a hit...). I had a player who did this (rolling d20 and damage dice) and it just annoyed me, so I asked him to stop. He's since left the group and no one else ever got the habit from him.

Our entire group picked up the “roll attack and damage together” habit during 4E. We still do it. Whenever anyone doesn’t roll both at once there’s an audible groan around the table. We timed it. Rolling separately does add time to an action. With a group that’s normally 7-8 players and a DM every little scrap of time adds up.

 

[Maxperson]

Sometimes a die will - quite literally - get on a roll and just keep going until it hits an obstacle or sails off the side of the table. d10s can do this if they get up on their "edge", rounded-corner d6s can roll away on you as well, but worst of all for some reaosn are d12s. Put any lateral force in the throw of a d12 and it might not stop rolling till it gets to Iowa.

d30's were the worst. On the plus side you can spin those suckers forever.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Our entire group picked up the “roll attack and damage together” habit during 4E. We still do it. Whenever anyone doesn’t roll both at once there’s an audible groan around the table. We timed it. Rolling separately does add time to an action. With a group that’s normally 7-8 players and a DM every little scrap of time adds up.

In a larger group the time might become appreciable, but like I said, it isn't enough for me to be concerned. Also, unlike many tables who only play for 3-5 hours, our sessions tend to be 10 hours or longer, so keeping up a quick pace isn't really needed.

It is like when people have two attacks and roll both d20s. That is not a good idea IMO since if the first attack kills a foe and you move to a second, you don't know if the second d20 hits or not. If it already hits, you feel great, but if it already missed, you feel cheated. I know it isn't logical, but that was the feeling it created around the table.

Anyway, like I wrote earlier, rolling multiple dice for different things annoys me and when I DM, you play by my rules. I've played for decades with rolling dice separately and I've never felt the loss of time. This rolling both together seems a more "recent" thing.

 

[MNblockhead]

This and Yora's table rule seem really harsh! I mean, if you had someone who was regularly throwing the dice around the room, I'd get wanting to curb their behavior, but everyone is occasionally clumsy or some other factor (like a weird ricochet) can mess with a clean roll. Not sure penalizing someone for that without that potential context is in the spirit of sportsmanship (while someone who throws their dice around is also not being very sporting).

In my experience, overly harsh rules are part of the fun. Some groups just like to give each other s**t. I've gone on fishing trips with my dad and his friends and I feel half of their fun is finding punishments for each other over petty infractions. Over the decades they have developed an almost arcane level of group etiquette. It is almost a form of betting. I think for some groups it is the same thing at the gaming table. Not a great environment if you are a more sensitive type, but I think it comes across worse when writing or talking about it than it does to people actually playing in those groups.

 

[MNblockhead]

In my experience, if a completely hypothetical person says "the rest of the house is clean, I don't need to clean those dust bunnies under the couch for company, no one's going to see it," there is a 100% chance that somehow a rolled die will end up precisely there.

That's why I encourage aggressive rolling. Best way to clean out those nooks and crannies!

 

[loverdrive]

• Everything is rolled in the open
• Dice that fell off the table count as 1 (yes, I'm a Warhammer player, why do you ask?)

 

[Ringtail]

Only two:

Floor dice are always re-rolled.
Cocked dice are always re-rolled. (Roller's judgement)

I only have these rules because I always would get the question when playing with different groups. Everybody had their own opinion on floor dice (especially if the roll was good). This way I get all the discussion out of the way. Also I hate the sound of dice skittering across hardwood or tile floor so this sort of incentives not yeeting your dice off the table during play. My players are all pretty honorable so I don't worry about cheating, rolling in the open, etc.