Where Can I Buy a Dicebag +5?

[Alzrius]

Cross-posted from my blog.

In my Pathfinder group, there’s a guy who recently bought a used set of crystal dice (that is, transparent dice) from a former member. And I have to tell you…these dice are magical.

Ever since he got them, this player has rolled spectacularly well. It’s not unusual for his d20, for example, to see around eight natural 20′s in a single session, and most of his other rolls are in the high teens. This d8 tends to roll 7′s and 8′s more often than other numbers. Even his four-siders turn up a disproportionate number of 4′s.

Now, we’ve all made jokes about how lucky his dice are, and even kidded that they must be loaded, but I’m honestly beginning to wonder if they are improperly weighted. Unfortunately, there’s no way that I know of to conclusively check, and asking/telling/demanding that he not use them seems petty, since without definitive proof it just makes me look jealous of his presumed luck.

It also seems, to me anyway, that he’s begun to overshadow the rest of the group thanks to his unbelievable rolling. When everyone else is undergoing a tense battle to bring down their own foes, this guy’s erudite (a variant psion, from WotC’s Complete Psionic) will invariably blast the enemies around him to cinders in one or two shots. There’s still dramatic tension, of course, but a significant amount of it is being undercut thanks to the Superman in our midst.

Given that this seems like an unsolvable problem – how do you nerf a set of miracle dice? – I’m asking for suggestions. Is there any definitive way to tell if dice are loaded? I really want to check his, if only to put this issue to rest once and for all. If not, what should I do about the fact that this player is simply doing too well?

 

[IronWolf]

How did they roll for the previous member he bought them from? How many sessions has this been going on?

If you subscribe to Colonel Louis Zocchi's beliefs then it is possible that a set of dice is actually more egg shaped than precision edged as they should be for true randomness. If they are a bit more egged then it is possible they favor certain numbers over others due to the way they roll. There is a fair amount of debate as to just how much of a factor this is though.

As for how to handle it... I'd probably give it at least another few sessions and see if the streaks continue. Or pay close attention to exactly what he rolls and make sure it isn't just that people in the group are actively noticing the high rolls and calling it to attention when really they roll low as well, just no one is mentioning it.

 

[Nightson]

So generally, most dice will alternate high and low numbers on adjacent faces, this means that if the dice is weighted poorly, there will still be a good mix of high and low.

But to test if dice are wighted is pretty simple, take them and roll them a hundred times. Now, see if there are numbers that come up more often, check for the position of these numbers on the dice. If they are spread about then it's likely random noise, if they are clustered it provides evidence of a misweighted die.

Further, before taking this step, you should be wary of confirmation bias. Actually record his die rolls during the session. Confirmation bias is ridiculously easy to slip into, like my player who almost always misses spectacularly but is always rolling maximum damage. Except her rolls are computer generated and guaranteed random, and when actually written down the pattern is not evident.

 

[fba827]

is there any story-related way to keep his PC busy with some other activity during fights.
I.e. the item needs to be retrieved from the ledge and for some logically reason (such as a power he posses) he is best suited for the task. that way, he is doing one thing while the rest of the party is trying to hold back the enemies (thus his obscenely high rolls won't overshadow the other PCs)


(all this as a way of buying you time while stealing his dice the next time he takes a bathroom break and rolling them repeatedly yourself )

 

[Penthau]

There is a pretty good way to tell if they are improperly weighted. Drop them in a glass or bowl of water and watch how they behave. I have seen dice that end up on the same number or numbers next to it (on a d20) every time once they are in the water. You can also get some idea as they float to the bottom.

 

[IronWolf]

There is a pretty good way to tell if they are improperly weighted. Drop them in a glass or bowl of water and watch how they behave.

Yeah, once everyone shows up, tell them it is bath night for the dice!

 

[ValhallaGH]

Given that this seems like an unsolvable problem – how do you nerf a set of miracle dice? – I’m asking for suggestions.

First off, see if anyone else is bothered by his dice luck. Be discrete, as it would be rude to cause the problems if they don't yet exist.

If no one else sees anything then you have a very simple, classic, DM option to use: cheat. Only you know all the modifiers applied at any given moment, so only you ultimately know if something succeeds or fails. If you need something to go differently than his dice decree then do so; you're the Dungeon Master, which makes you the Master. Keep that in mind (but don't abuse it or the game will vanish).

If anyone else takes issue with his dice (or you're unwilling to cheat) then pull the player aside and talk about it. Explain that his miracle dice are causing his character to outshine the rest of the party and that it's starting to hinder the fun of several people. So, you're coming to him like an adult and asking him to retire the dice to "emergency status" instead of being constant use.
In my experience, most players will take a mature request to enhance everyone's fun and go with it. Of course, I may simply be refusing to play with folks that wouldn't respond maturely, but that's my issue.

Regardless, good luck.

 

[Vegepygmy]

Given that this seems like an unsolvable problem – how do you nerf a set of miracle dice?

It's easy if you're the DM. Just borrow his dice to make all your rolls.

 

[Stalker0]

Actually record his die rolls during the session. Confirmation bias is ridiculously easy to slip into...

Completely agree with this. We often tend to notice rolls at key moments. Its easy to remember that crit on the first attack roll of a combat and forget the 3 and 4 rolled on a few random perception checks.

The first step is to ensure the good luck is nothing more than that...good luck.

 

[Alzrius]

Hey guys, thanks for the responses so far. Here's some clarification on the situation.

I'm not the GM for this game, I'm one of the players. From what I can tell, I'm the only person who really seems to care about this other player's extraordinary luck to the point of suspicion. If anyone else feels even slightly upset about it, they're not saying so at all.

Based on what I can remember, the player who originally had the crystal dice (before selling them to their current owner) wasn't using them. However, they did have some kind of reputation, but I can't confirm if they were known as "the dice that always rolled really well," or just "those awesome-looking crystal dice."

He's been using them for almost half-a-dozen sessions now, and I swear that they never fail to regularly turn out high roll after high roll.

Having said all that, I'm tentatively going to agree with the people who suggested that I should at least gather some more data to try and dispel any possibility of confirmation bias on my part. I don't think that's affecting my judgment...but then, that's sort of the definition of bias to begin with. I also agree with Nightson's point about how, since the range of numbers are widely distributed across a die's surface, there should still be a mix of high and low numbers...something that also makes me doubt myself somewhat.

A further reason to be suspicious of my own judgment here is that, currently, this other player and I are the only players in our Pathfinder game. We had four, but the original owner of the crystal dice left the group due to mounting real-life problems, and our third player has missed several sessions lately due to an erratic work schedule. As such, my feelings of being overshadowed by this guy's uber-rolls might be magnified since I'm the only one being outshone.

Maybe after the game next time, he'll let me borrow his dice and perform some dunk-tests on them.