Author Topic: Dice superstitions  (Read 3188 times)

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Offline Colin-ICE

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Dice superstitions
« on: August 22, 2016, 02:11:14 AM »
This article by Geek and Sundry got me thinking about people's superstitions when it comes to dice: http://geekandsundry.com/15-of-the-craziest-superstitions-about-dice/

My personal superstition is that I try to keep contact to a minimum. I only touch the dice if I'm going to roll them and when I roll, I roll quick.

What are your superstitions?

Offline Peter R

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2016, 03:06:14 AM »
I like to leave my dice on 00 when I am not using them to 'teach them' what they should be doing when I do need them.
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Offline Arioch

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2016, 04:44:27 AM »
I like to leave my dice on 00 when I am not using them to 'teach them' what they should be doing when I do need them.

Ahah, I do the same! ;D
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Offline Peter R

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2016, 05:18:50 AM »
If we had any sense we would leave them on 99 not 00.

If just the 10s dice behaves itself we are guaranteed at least a 90-99 with 4 out of 10 being open ended up.
With an 00 if the tens behaves itself but the units doesn't then we have a 4/10 chance of a open ended down or a fumble and only a 1/10 chance of an 00.

I've been teaching my dice since about 1979 so it is too late to change their training now.
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Offline arakish

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2016, 02:52:21 PM »
That article was funny.

However, I have never had any dice superstitions.  I just roll 'em and take what they give me.

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Offline egdcltd

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2016, 03:13:49 PM »
"If you shave one of the corners of a six-sided die, you get a six more often." Wait, that might be cheating, not a superstition.
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Offline bpowell

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2016, 06:51:05 PM »
I leave my dice with the desired number up.  And I line then up from left to right in ascending number of sides.

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Offline Zilverscale

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2016, 07:26:06 PM »
My DM thinks I am cursed (positive for me...negative for him :P ).
No matter who's dice (even an electronic "random"dice app and a highly praised "accurate lasercut dice set") I roll I seem to come up with 80+ in 75% of the rolls....

Though a bit more random now that we've decided to change the decimals and singles dice with eachother (usuall roll 2d20 of dif colour to get the d100 results). Now I am down to 50-55% 80+ results and 25% 15-50 results...still rare for me to roll anything under 10 though...

Besides that I always roll my dice 6x before gaming starts.

Offline Bruce

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2016, 07:48:32 PM »
I tend to roll until I get a bad roll then stop, that way I can get the next bad roll out of the way. Consequently I am the GM....lol.
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Offline Peter R

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #9 on: August 24, 2016, 02:27:13 AM »
I am often percieved as being very 'lucky' with dice but it comes from my last character. He used daggers as his weapon (fumble chance of 01), two weapon combo with another dagger in the other hand and adrenal move speed. So I was making up to 4 attacks a round, normally with 4 criticals (I ended up at fairly high level) and I used skills like tumble attack. I could easily make 10 rolls a round so consequently I appeared to get far more open ended rolls than most other people with them happening every three or four rounds on average and very rarely fumbling. I had a very high OB of about 146 so even a middling roll I was calling out high numbers and often maxing out the attack tables.

Statistically I was actually pretty average.
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Offline Pazuzu

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #10 on: August 24, 2016, 07:50:30 AM »
I leave all my dice with the 1 facing up. The superstition being that they get the "ones" out of their system before I roll them.

Offline Zilverscale

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #11 on: August 24, 2016, 07:55:22 AM »
I leave all my dice with the 1 facing up. The superstition being that they get the "ones" out of their system before I roll them.

Nice 1
One of my 40k opponents does that before round 1 :)

Offline gog

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #12 on: August 24, 2016, 08:29:25 AM »
I use the same dice for Rolemaster and Call of Cuthulu. Thus getting all the rolls in the right direction in the right game.

Offline Bruce

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #13 on: August 24, 2016, 09:26:49 AM »
I am often percieved as being very 'lucky' with dice but it comes from my last character. He used daggers as his weapon (fumble chance of 01), two weapon combo with another dagger in the other hand and adrenal move speed. So I was making up to 4 attacks a round, normally with 4 criticals (I ended up at fairly high level) and I used skills like tumble attack. I could easily make 10 rolls a round so consequently I appeared to get far more open ended rolls than most other people with them happening every three or four rounds on average and very rarely fumbling. I had a very high OB of about 146 so even a middling roll I was calling out high numbers and often maxing out the attack tables.

Statistically I was actually pretty average.

You might be average for your group but mine is just on the opposite end of the spectrum. They all tend to roll fumbles more often than anything so it really does not matter what their skill bonuses are.
But, staying on topic,  what is your dice superstition. Otherwise what do you believe helps you get those awesome rolls in your games?
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Offline Alwyn

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #14 on: August 24, 2016, 11:18:51 AM »
I tend to roll until I get a bad roll then stop, that way I can get the next bad roll out of the way. Consequently I am the GM....lol.

I tend to follow along the same lines as Bruce.  As a player, I get the bad rolls out of the way early, so they roll good for me when I need them.  As a GM, I don't play with them, I just roll them for real, unless I want to scare my players.  ;D
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Offline Peter R

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #15 on: August 24, 2016, 11:21:23 AM »
My players roll worse when I can see their dice. Does that count?
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Offline Bruce

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #16 on: August 24, 2016, 12:11:52 PM »

I tend to follow along the same lines as Bruce.  As a player, I get the bad rolls out of the way early, so they roll good for me when I need them.  As a GM, I don't play with them, I just roll them for real, unless I want to scare my players.  ;D

Yeah I tend to not set my dice to roll high against my players. But it does not matter, when I roll the tension goes up....lol.
My players roll worse when I can see their dice. Does that count?
Yeah it does. Unfortunately that is not the same for my group.... They roll really well sometimes except for when it really counts, then they do not do so good.
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Offline Cory Magel

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #17 on: August 27, 2016, 11:02:23 AM »
If I repeatedly roll crappy I switch dice.  If I repeatedly roll well I keep using those dice.

Now, that's mostly left to random chance in reality, but I have had a very old D20 that would very, very rarely roll over 11 for some reason (and this wasn't a specific stretch of time - it happened for years).  A one point we used an initiative system that use a D20, with low being good, and the GM banned me from using that die.  Sadly it was lost due to a dice bag theft at some point.  But it does point out that repeated results might not be all that lucky in some cases (no, I haven't done the glass of water test on any of my dice... yet).
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Offline Alwyn

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #18 on: August 30, 2016, 02:38:58 PM »
If I repeatedly roll crappy I switch dice.  If I repeatedly roll well I keep using those dice.

Now, that's mostly left to random chance in reality, but I have had a very old D20 that would very, very rarely roll over 11 for some reason (and this wasn't a specific stretch of time - it happened for years).  A one point we used an initiative system that use a D20, with low being good, and the GM banned me from using that die.  Sadly it was lost due to a dice bag theft at some point.  But it does point out that repeated results might not be all that lucky in some cases (no, I haven't done the glass of water test on any of my dice... yet).

I forgot about the floating your dice in a glass of water test......may have to try that with some of my older ones!
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Offline Spectre771

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Re: Dice superstitions
« Reply #19 on: September 16, 2016, 01:01:25 PM »
I have one hard, fast rule for all of the games I play and for all of the dice;  don't make practice rolls!

For RM, I use the first pair of die I ever bought solely for RM.  Since RM was the first game I ever started playing, those dice stay with that game and I've had fantastic luck with them.  They are charcoal and peach.  Charcoal is always the 10's.  (They're grey and sort of orange-ish/pink-ish, but charcoal and peach sounds more worldly.)

After that first pair of die, I went on a die-collecting-spree and I have a good sized collection.  I needed a bunch of 10's for the World of Darkness and Vampire games  but those dice never cross over to RM.  Sacrilege!

I have a handful of dice sets for D&D, one set which is absolutely cursed, but I try them anyway, every session, and the GM just laughs at me until I switch and then he just shakes his head because I prove yet again that the dice are cursed.  The D&D dice sets NEVER see RM gaming time.   In fact, they aren't even stored in the same gaming bags.  I have a duffle bag for D&D since I don't GM that system ever and one large duffle bag my entire RM collection.  No cross-contamination.  I can't have the cursed dice infecting the good dice.

And it's not superstition if you can prove it.  ;D
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