How often do you practice?

[Driddle]

How often do you practice your dice-rolling skills? An estimate would be fine -- a few minutes a day, three hours a week, etc.

Every elite athlete knows that he or she can only count on reflexes that he (or she) has refined through focused repetition and training over a long period of time. That's true of gross actins or the smallest, most subtle of physical movements. ... I've noticed that my d20-rolling results are slowly improving as long as I make sure I take time to hold the die in my hand the same way and toss it with exacting precision each and every instance. And I've only been practing 30 minutes a day three days a week for about a month now. By spring I'll be unstoppable!

How about you? And have you discovered any training tricks that can improve my efficiency?

 

[Ambrus]

Whether you're kidding or not, you should check out this article.

 

[EricNoah]

Tsk tsk. The more you roll, the more natural 20s you waste.

 

[Breakdaddy]

Tsk tsk. The more you roll, the more natural 20s you waste.

Amen.

 

[Driddle]

Tsk tsk. The more you roll, the more natural 20s you waste.

Ah! So you've heard that, too, eh? When I was a youngster, my mother used to warn me with the same euphamism. (That, and going blind.) ... But it's not true in any case.

 

[EricNoah]

I think modern practice is to make sure you alternate d20 rolling with other kinds of rolling. d12 rolling, while currently out of fashion, kept the grognard of yore in top wrist condition. Rolling d4s (aka "hand caltrops"), likewise, helps train the hand to avoid sharp, pointy objects.

 

[Driddle]

I think modern practice is to make sure you alternate d20 rolling with ...

Excellent suggestion! It also brings to mind another aspect I had forgotten for my training: the warm-up and warm-down phases of practice sessions.

You've been very helpful already. Thanks!

 

[Numion]

Tsk tsk. The more you roll, the more natural 20s you waste.

Still, only a fool would get into the game with "cold" dice. You have to warm them up.

My warm-up routine is to roll until you get a couple of good rolls (16-20), or a series of really bad (1-4) (because then the next one will surely be good). Rolling a '20' in warm-up is a risk, and might signal that the dice is too hot, in which case you might want to keep rolling until you hit a patch of low numbers.

Physically warming up the dice is also doable, but your possibly sweaty hands might alter the rolling characteristics of the dice, and make them perform erratically and inconsistently. Needless to say, you don't want that from your dice in the heat of battle.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I keep my dice in my pocket. Whenever I need to practice I just put my hand in my pocket and roll them a few times in there. Since the die rolls are unobserved, they both are and are not 20s and therefore simultaneously warm them up with a bunch of 20s, while not wasting any since they are not 20s.

One thing about this; I've always wondered at the strange looks I get walking down the street with my hand in my pocket rolling my dice in there. I guess people can just tell I'm a gamer and make the assumption that I'm a strange, anti-social freak. I hate it when people stereotype.

 

[kenobi65]

Since the die rolls are unobserved, they both are and are not 20s

Schroedinger's dice. Nice.