At The Table: Gamers And Their Dice

[bibliophile20]

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  ).  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. 

[Sanctaphrax]

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.

[Valarian]

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

[TheMouse]

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.

[jadecourtflunky]

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.

[admiralducksauce]

I think the uglier the dice, the better they roll.  I keep the hot pink dFs for myself. 

[Shecky]

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.

[sinker]

I've known minor fights to break out because someone touched someone else's dice...

[deathwombat]

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.

A GURPS game last year I was forced to beat someone in to a vegatative state for repeatedly using my dice even after I explained the rules.
 No not really. Yes. No Yes. No Maybe

[sjksprocket]

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.

[devonapple]

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.

[Imp]

I think the uglier the dice, the better they roll.  I keep the hot pink dFs for myself. 

Day Glow Orange wins

[Shadow lion]

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 

[dger]

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.

[13th~Nineteen]

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.