For DMs: Ticked off players and funky d20's

[Old One]

I have the exact same name for that rule at my table ... "The Scott Rule"

Have you ever GM'ed in Columbus Ga, if so we may both have dealt with the same player.

Hah! Never have...been through Columbus a couple of times...jumped out of airplanes at Ft. Benning about 22 years ago...but no D & D !

~ OO

 

[SweeneyTodd]

It has all pretty much run it's course..

My group has either gotten tired of the tirade or has sided with him. Either way, one member said it wasn't right for a DM to dictate what dice a player is to use and another just wants to forget the whole thing happened and continue on as before. I'm tempted to keep that e-mail so that when that particular player runs a game I can bring some obviously weighted d6's I have to the game for character creation but then again that would be just rude. :\

Because some people might have missed it the first time. That's the resolution.

 

[FreeTheSlaves]

It is already too late for your campaign I feel, this guy has revealed his juvenile persona & it is not a good looking one. Your authority has been near fatally undermined, the group trust is threadbare & there is simmering ill-will. Will you be able to enjoy running a campaign that includes this turkey? I think not.

Take the pick of the litter and leave the flakes of the flint.

 

[James Heard]

Whenever I start suspecting dice problems I always bring out my "Bowl O'Dice" - extra-large size polys that I bought specifically for that purpose. I also tend to bring out the die box that I made for rolling those dice in, and insist that all die rolls are going to be happening with those dice and that box. To be fair, I roll out in the open in the same box too. Sometimes people bitch a little bit about it, but I'm usually able to persuade them that the sound of those huge dice slamming into the walls of the box in the middle of the table is worth a little aggravation. I also welcome people to buy me more huge dice for the die box. The only stupidity I ever got was from a couple of whiners who claimed that the dice were off - at which point I just explained to them that even if they only rolled 6's and 20's the real point wasn't absolute statistical randomness but making sure that everyone's errors were in the same vein.

Any die that a player won't let me roll for hits and damages against them is automatically banned from my tables.

 

[Li Shenron]

He wants me to take away everyone else's favorite d20s if I'm going to take away his.

Meh, I can't help but thinking that having a favourite dice that you cannot otherwise play "effectively" without is already immature enough...

But for the sake of everyone having fun with your game, can you try to focus this player's attention to the fact that you just can't see well the result on his dice? Does it help to ask him to roll the dice in the open and not pick it up until you have seen it clearly?

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

You need to emphasize that your decision has nothing to do with his "favourtie die" (it would be my favourite too if I could cheat with it) and everything to do with the fact you can't clearly and easily read the numbers on it.

Don't engage him in an email argument. Simply state your decision and the reasons behind it. If he refuses to change dice (which, by the sounds of him, he might), everytime he uses that die tell him he misses/fails. Sooner or later he'll either break or quit (either option sounds fine to me). If you don't rein him in now, it'll be much harder to do so later.

 

[Whimsical]

So, if he is going to use his dice after all, set up the rule of "If I didn't see the number rolled when I called for it, then it wasn't rolled."

It's pretty sad when one person can successfully hold the group's enjoyment of the game hostage like that. Him getting his way like that is the sound of evil winning and good losing.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

It's pretty sad when one person can successfully hold the group's enjoyment of the game hostage like that. Him getting his way like that is the sound of evil winning and good losing.

I am a Champion of Evil and have an announcement: We want nothing to do with that guy. People like him give us a bad name!

 

[Waldorf]

We have a guy whose d20 is impossible to read, even from a close distance as the numbers are lost in a swirly pattern that covers the die. He peers at it up close and then tells us what it says. :\ He too never rolls low when it matters the most, and our DM is more than annoyed by this.

If I were you, I would tell him 'favorite or not, you HAVE to have a d20 whose numbers are visible to those around you, especially me, the DM!'
Favorite dice are one thing, but when it s with the enjoyment of others, that's it, it's gone, no matter what. If you are the DM, then it's your game. End of story.

 

[TheAuldGrump]

At this point I would either boot him or leave the game.
1. He is cheating.
2. You tried to stop his cheating.
3. He is a whiner.
4. He is shifting blame.

Boot!

The Auld Grump, who has left games because of cheaters.