Lucky Streaks / Making Your Own Luck

[mmu1]

Did you ever feel like you actually had some sort of strange influence on how the dice roll?

Generally speaking, I'm too much of a sceptic to credit anything like it, but at the same time, lucky rolls happen to me with amazing regularity just when I need them most... and even more often, they seem to be fueled by my anger. (embracing the Dark Side, I guess? )

Take last night as an example - we're playing a wrap-up session, one of the very last of the campaign, and our party gets royally screwed. We get nailed by a Forcecage trap with Acid Fog inside it - and it's actually safer in there than out, since outside, there's a Minotaur Barbarian with 4 attacks that do 20-30 points of damage per hit. My character - a 13th level Barbarian/Fighter - gets out using a potion of Gaseous Form, and, being the only one with even a fighting chance, fatalistically goes toe-to-toe with the Minotaur, since he's not about to run and let everyone else get slaughtered.

Now, we'd actually beaten the BBEGs of the campaign the previous session, and I'm really unhappy about being about to die in an encounter we figured was an afterthought (and we didn't bring the whole party to - doh...) when the DM, seeing me scowl (what can I say, I get attached to my characters) jokingly says something about how I shouldn't worry, since my character hits just as hard as the Minotaur.

This sets me off on a mini-rant about how, in fact, the Minotaur does far more damage per hit, has more attacks, and a better chance to hit, life is so damn unfair - here, let me show you...

I then furiously roll the dice, hit with all three attacks, get confirmed criticals (with a Dwarven Waraxe wielded two-handed) on two of them, and hit the bad guy for a total of 150 points of damage. The whole table erupts with laughter, as I sit there, torn between feeling sheepish and really pleased with myself.

 

[ranger89]

When it comes to D&D, I'm a big believer in "dice karma" and have a slew of superstitions including keeping all my dice high number up during games and what has become known as my "dice purification ritual" (washing my dice in hot water & soap) mid-combat if things are going really, really poorly. That all sounds more OCD than it actually is. Anyway, I enjoy taking a mystical approach to the game and often jokingly say, "I don't believe in statistics when it comes to D&D..."

 

[Agent Oracle]

I have a set of perfectly ordinary dice that all my players are convinced are EVIL.

They are deep, "fresh wound" red with black "tainted flesh" pips.

Every time I bring them out, it is with great cerimony. A perfect matched set of 4 EVIL d6's.

PC's who don't have enough dice at chargen have to roll up their characters wit hthe EVIL d6's. and every single PC rolled up with the EVIL d6's is cursed. They die in the most horribly awful unfortunate ways...

The rogue walking across the fallen log. Balance check: DC 5. Player has +3 dex, and somehow, no ranks in balance. He rolls a 1. Reflex save, DC 10, player has +8, rolls ANOTHER 1. one 100 foot drop later... dead as a doornail.

Of course, the EVIL d6's are only evil because i gave them a good backstory. i told the players how I got them out of an old box in my home that had a collection of miscelaneous wooden puzzle pieces, pawns for different board games, and broken checkers. I tell them about the first time I ever used them, in a d6 based game system, where straight 1's is a critical failure. How i rolled four 1's together. twice in a row.

 

[genshou]

I then furiously roll the dice, hit with all three attacks, get confirmed criticals (with a Dwarven Waraxe wielded two-handed) on two of them, and hit the bad guy for a total of 150 points of damage. The whole table erupts with laughter, as I sit there, torn between feeling sheepish and really pleased with myself.

Awesome!

 

[genshou]

When it comes to D&D, I'm a big believer in "dice karma" and have a slew of superstitions including keeping all my dice high number up during games and what has become known as my "dice purification ritual" (washing my dice in hot water & soap) mid-combat if things are going really, really poorly. That all sounds more OCD than it actually is. Anyway, I enjoy taking a mystical approach to the game and often jokingly say, "I don't believe in statistics when it comes to D&D..."

When playing D&D, being a little superstitious is fine even if you don't live the rest of your life that way.

I give my dice the purification ritual as well.

 

[Tinker Gnome]

Every one in my group actually keeps all our dice on 1.

 

[genshou]

Every one in my group actually keeps all our dice on 1.

You're letting the weight slowly distribute to favour the highest number being on the bottom!

 

[The_lurkeR]

We had a funny dice superstitions thread a year or two ago, maybe someone can dig up or link for us. There were some good ones in there that made me laugh out loud. Like a few people who "made examples" of dice that rolled poorly to show the other dice what would happen.

Myself I also leave the dice with the highest numbers up to "train" them.

 

[The_lurkeR]

Ok found one of them with a little help from my friend Google.

http://www.enworld.org/archive/index.php/t-126878.html

DiamondB
04-03-05, 12:32 PM
I put misbehaving dice in a timeout box, and I make sure that all my other dice can see that it is being punished. I also try to make sure that all my dice are sitting with their highest roll face up (expect for the d4's of course).

One of the guys I used to game with broke a misbehaving d20 with a hammer and would keep it in his dice bag as an example to all the other dice.