Roleplaying Superstition

[Entsuropi]

So, anyone else have a group full of these? My groups (i currently roleplay on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and play Warhammer on Monday. Busy stuff.) all usually carefully place dice facing up the way towards the result they want. So, in gurps, there is a pile of D6's next to each player showing 1's. In 7th Sea, a pile (a big pile) of D10's showing 10's.

Another one is to roll all your dice, choosing those that roll the desired result to be your primary dice. Additional dice showing 1's or 10's or whatever are placed into a secondary dice pool.

If dice show poor results a lot, it is felt that you should change the dice to other, luckier, dice.

You should not allow dice to be contaminated with a system that prefers other results. In other words, don't use a Warhammer (6's prefered) in a game of GURPs (1's prefered) as the dice will get confused and shall give you bad luck.

For players with time on their hands, it is common to stack dice within their dice cubes all facing the desired result upwards. The interesting question is, 'which way is up?'

[42]

A friend of mine once included something like this in her senior anthropology thesis. Yes, there are a lot of superstitions around dice. Course, I don't know any gamers who blow on their dice, or rub the bald-guy-in-the-group's head for luck.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

expensive dice

My Yellow Jade set rolls amazingly. Ask 42 about all those crits I got during our Farscape session.

[fuzzyoctopus]

If dice show poor results a lot, it is felt that you should change the dice to other, luckier, dice.

I think everyone does that.  It's impossible not to, if you roll badly turn after turn.

Does it make it a superstition if it's done by everyone?

[42]

Yes, I remember the expensive dice.

A couple session ago, one of my players threw his dice accross the room as punishment for not rolling well. It started to roll better after that, or so he claims.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

oh! also tiny dice!
I used to have a ton of multicolored teeny tiny dice. They rolled really well.

[Slant]

I have a d20 that I have been using for 9 years, and it rolls 18-20 every time.  I carry it in my dice bag, but rarely use it.  I pull it out ONLY if I need to really, really make that critical hit.  It never fails (NEVER), but I don't want to jinx the magic by using it for every little roll.

[Entsuropi]

Heh. Last session i managed to get 3 10's on a D10, on the same dice, in a row. Since i got a 9 on the 4th roll, and it was a open ended dice rolling mechanic, i was well pleased.

[JP Dogberry]

Ok. Here's the deal.

A new, young, virgin, freshly bought dice will have a slight, natural tendancy to roll either high or low. Therefore, it's best to test dice before you buy. I think there's some sort of breeding/genetic thing that determines this, but I'm not sure.

Now, afterwards, you need to train your dice. You leave them faceing with the desired result up. As you do this and use them in games, they learn.

You can't teach old dice new tricks, but they are set in there ways. My most trustworthy dice are four white d6s that roll high. I also have a bunch of low grade green dice that favour low rolls.

I'm yet to train my polyhedrals, as I only have a few of each and don't play any system predominantly yet.

Since all my dice sit in a box together (actually a drawer in my computer) I don't know if that changes the way they roll.

[fuzzyoctopus]

Ok. Here's the deal.

A new, young, virgin, freshly bought dice will have a slight, natural tendancy to roll either high or low. Therefore, it's best to test dice before you buy.

Of course.  My husband does work in a game store, after all, and I can't count how many times I've watched ppl decide which dice to buy by rolling them on the counter over and over.

[42]

You always roll dice before purchasing. You wouldn't buy a car without driving it would you? Same prinicple applies.

[Fellfrosch]

I'm the opposiet with dice-switching: if dice are rolling low that means they're just getting it out of their system, and they're due for some high rolls really soon. If you switch dice you have to start over with a new set and wade through all the low rolls all over again.

[Onion of Death]

I know someone who has four diamond D6 dice. He says they never fail to get him good rolls in 40K.

[Spriggan]

They'd better be getting him good rolls cosidering their cost (if they're real diamonds that is, which I doubt.)

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

feh. If I sold dice I wouldn't let the customers TOUCH them until they pay their money. That corrupts the dice and makes them worthless for the next customer.