Three Natural 20's in a Row

[Fallenibilis]

I rolled 5 1's in a row before 3 on the first die then out of superstition i switched to my friends D20 and got another 2 1's...

Our DM however while he doesn't roll consecutive 20's gets about 5-7 crits per encounter, and before anybody says anything he rolls in the open. He's just really lucky, where as i can't seem to roll above a 4 half the time....

Fallenibilis

 

[Beginning of the End]

In the Depths of Khunbaral

Not quite the same thing. But epic.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The priestess of Tyr did much the same to a campaign's equivalent to the Lord of the Nazgûl...the others decided to run.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

Yes, about once in every series of 8000 rolls. It's simple random chance.

This is true, but it ignores the significance of the rolls. In this case, they were attacks (and even more significant, they were criticals in a system that doesn't require confirmation).

I'm sure that I've seen three 20s in a row dozens of times and didn't even make special note of it. But in eight years of playing 3E-era D&D, I've only seen it twice during attacks.

Significance matters as much as the math.

 

[Jeff Wilder]

The pick-up and drop/roll motion becomes pretty habitual after a while and, as a result, certain numbers are more likely than others depending on your particular rolling motion and how the die was sitting when you picked it up.

Not really, no. The uncontrollable factors -- what Ian Malcolm simplistically calls Chaos Theory in Jurassic Park -- will create more than enough random "noise" to override a non-cheater's rolling method "signal," no matter how habitual and similar from roll to roll.

That's why they make you throw the dice so they bounce off the side wall at the craps table in a casino.

They do this because people actually try to cheat at craps, and this is the best way to discourage even the attempt (which takes time and is annoying), despite the fact that controlling dice like this is impossible (outside of a Fritz Leiber short story (look it up)).

At a game table, a cheater -- someone actually trying to roll non-randomly -- could probably affect his or her rolls noticeably enough for a chi-square test, because there aren't quite as many "noise" factors to the roll at a game table (e.g., the distance from roll to result is much shorter, and the surface isn't as bouncey). But it would be barely noticeable, barring a world's class cheater.

And, BTW, it's the end wall of the table at a casino, at least in Vegas.

 

[Drowbane]

Last night, while DM'ing combat, I rolled 3 natural 20's in a row. The game was 4E, so they all did maximum damage. Two were on one character and immediately bloodied him.

I rolled in the open, on three different dice, in front of six players.

Why can't I have this sort of luck when I am playing?

Have you ever seen anything like this?

I was one of the six players. After his 3 20s he rolled a 2, a 3, and I think another 2... which is just as interesting to me (especially considering one of those 2s was against my PC).

 

[bastrak]

I've seen it before.

I've also seen four natural 20's rolled in a row once too.

 

[delericho]

I don't recall three 20's in a row, but I did once roll two 20's at just the right time:

(This was in 3e...)

The party were fighting some demons, and one of the characters went down. The party fighter decided to move over, taking the most direct route. When I pointed out he'd take an AoO from one of the demons, he casually said they had no chance of hitting, so he'd go for it.

He was right - IIRC, they needed 19+ to hit his character.

So, I picked up the dice, rolled in the open (as is my wont), critted, and downed his character.

Good times.

 

[3d6]

A few sessions back, I rolled a series of natural 20s against a party of 1st level characters. Three critical hits turned a fairly difficult encounter into a TPK. This was followed up by a string of 5s and 6s when the newly rolled up party ran into the same encounter, and they won in a cakewalk.

 

[Sir Robilar]

Yes, it occured to me once, although I was at home alone and no one else saw it. Also heard the sound of the single clapping hand that day.