Author Topic: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice  (Read 7574 times)

Offline bibliophile20

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At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« on: February 02, 2011, 09:35:44 PM »
It has been observed by a friend of mine (who actually just stopped into town, thus prompting this thread) that the superstitions, rituals and beliefs gamers have about their dice practically border on an unorganized religion. ;)  "Lucky" dice, "training" your dice, sadistic dice...  the permutations are endless.  Heck, I, personally, will occasionally incinerate one of my d10s to "encourage the rest" for the nWoD game I'm in (and it works  ;D).  One of my other friends threatens low performers with time in the microwave.  Another lines up all of his d6s precisely with the table edge, with all of the dice in the same orientation (I threw in a die that had a different number arrangement into his pile once as a prank; that was entertaining).  My Dresden group, before we bought the Dresden-dice premium sets, would roll each set in five-pack we had at the beginning of each session and give the lowest rolling set to me, the GM.  And so on. 

So, share the tales of those fun, bizarre and bemusing superstitions about our favorite purveyors of randomness, our dice.  *sits back, munches on popcorn* This ought to be fun.  :D
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Offline Sanctaphrax

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #1 on: February 02, 2011, 09:40:48 PM »
My old D&D group would often say a phrase containing the word "mumbo" when they rolled dice. The exact phrase depended on their character and the situation.

It seemed to improve things for one of us, but nobody else got anything out of it.

Offline Valarian

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #2 on: February 02, 2011, 09:57:26 PM »
This is a pretty good book on the subject: http://gameplaywright.net/books/the-bones/
It even has an article from someone called Fred Hicks - whoever he is ;)
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Offline TheMouse

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #3 on: February 02, 2011, 09:58:14 PM »
Well, microwaving your dice isn't so much mumbo jumbo as it is causing the plastic to melt slightly and deform, changing the distribution of the plastic. You can do that to weight dice if you're careful, changing the probabilities of rolling certain numbers.

As for things I do, I like to have Fudge dice that have all the minuses oriented the same way relative to the plus sides. So I go right for the black or the white ones, since all of the others have variations on the orientation of the minuses.

I don't do this because I think it improves performance. I do this because I'm a bit neurotic and like symmetry.

Offline jadecourtflunky

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #4 on: February 02, 2011, 10:14:43 PM »
I am a MTG lover, and that's where I get all my d20s (fat pack!). Depending on the color and set origination of the dice, I mutter the name of a card while I roll it, usually a planeswalker... I have a Rise of the Elderazi one that loves Sarkov.

Offline admiralducksauce

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2011, 10:25:58 PM »
I think the uglier the dice, the better they roll.  I keep the hot pink dFs for myself.  :)

Offline Shecky

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2011, 10:35:35 PM »
I'm all sorts of superstitious about my dice. Mainly because they're all out to kill me, and it's a matter of finding out which ones are on union break and are therefore not actively seeking to do the job. And I will NOT touch someone else's dice, because I have a long-standing, severe case of rollio and I don't want to infect perfectly good dice.
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Offline sinker

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2011, 10:56:48 PM »
I've known minor fights to break out because someone touched someone else's dice...

Offline deathwombat

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #8 on: February 03, 2011, 01:03:54 AM »
I set mine regardless of game on the numbers desired and leave them there. Except to roll of course.
And I really do not like people touching them without permission.

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Offline sjksprocket

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2011, 05:32:06 PM »
I have a friend that will do crazy stuff if someone touches one of his dice with bare flesh. He can't touch them himself after it has been contaminated, and hen he destroys them. another player puts all of his dice with desired side face up, while I prefer face down if I decide to organize them while playing. I tend to have bad luck with dice and blame it on the fact that I tend to be the dice bank when I have all my dice around (I have over a thousand) so my luck is used by others.
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Offline devonapple

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #10 on: February 03, 2011, 05:41:45 PM »
We have a friend whose dice hate her and everyone else. We're discouraged from touching them only because of the fear that their bad luck will contaminate us.
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Offline Imp

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #11 on: February 03, 2011, 05:48:23 PM »
I think the uglier the dice, the better they roll.  I keep the hot pink dFs for myself.  :)

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Offline Shadow lion

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #12 on: February 06, 2011, 01:21:04 AM »
Always use my same 4 lucky dice

Clear ice blue
Black with blood splat numbers
Black with skulls
and one i got from a old game of clue  ;D
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Offline dger

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #13 on: June 11, 2011, 07:16:01 AM »
A few years ago a friend joined our gaming to fill in for his brother.  He was very non-gamer, even though he enjoyed the games.  He kept making fun of our dice-rituals; he was all probability and rationality.  He recently left for the service and has become the most superstitious of us all.
it was fun watching the evolution of a mundane into a gamer, complete with dice issues.

Offline 13th~Nineteen

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Re: At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice
« Reply #14 on: June 11, 2011, 07:32:29 AM »
I am known in my gaming group for being unnaturally lucky with d6s. It is of course because I coach them and punish the wicked. If my dice roll bad I send them for purgatory. After a specified period they receive a chance for redemption if they fail they are sent to "Dice Hell" (Normally the microwave). That with some rotation normally you can weed out the under-performers. 

I am working on some way to work mojo on Dice rollers but no luck so far. They still hate me.