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Old 08-05-2020, 09:21 AM   #11
woodchuck
 
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

My former gaming group was convinced that my dice were cursed against them because every time anyone else used my dice they would often roll badly in one case it was truly epic. I would often mess with them by doing a "dice curse" on them when they would roll. Personally the only thingI do that might count as a superstition is keeping all my dice but the ones I'm using that game secession in a large dice bag I think of as the "Hive Mind". Some times I roll badly or well, as long as I'm having fun I don't care. Some times those bad games were the most fun I've had.
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Old 08-05-2020, 12:35 PM   #12
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

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I have a degree in prob/stat. I have even better than average knowledge that none of this matters. But... none of us are immune.
Mine is just a degree in regular math, but I'm still with you.

I have no superstitions around using dice, and I'm perfectly well aware of what observation bias is, but... it seems like any time I start a new campaign as a player, my dice debut is always horrid. I can never make a cool first impression. An extreme example was my first online game, a Rifts campaign where skills can be fairly low-probability: it took multiple sessions before I even passed my first roll.

Ever since then, I always ensure, as much as possible, that at least one skill or other important feature is, I won't say minmaxed, but very well fed at least.
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Old 08-05-2020, 02:30 PM   #13
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

One of my best dice story was when I was using a physics-based dice roller on a tablet. It had this issue of, on occasion, one of the dice would fall off the screen and, apparently, into the void. It happened to each of the three of us using it, numerous times. It wasn't really an issue, just occasionally, you'd lose a die. Load a new die and roll again.

This came to a head one night, when playing, and one of the dice came back. It came back to provide for the worst critical failure in our GURPS history. I rolled three dice, and wound up with four sixes. I rolled a 24. It was hilarious.
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Old 08-07-2020, 04:09 PM   #14
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

I once spent time gaming with someone who flat out refused to use d4 or d6, because per him 'they didn't roll properly'. Much fiddling and pleading was employed to avoid having to use them, even for one DnD game making someone else roll his hit die for him.

Our attempts to get him to join a GURPS game were... Memorable.
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Old 08-07-2020, 11:39 PM   #15
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

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I once spent time gaming with someone who flat out refused to use d4 or d6, because per him 'they didn't roll properly'. Much fiddling and pleading was employed to avoid having to use them, even for one DnD game making someone else roll his hit die for him.

Our attempts to get him to join a GURPS game were... Memorable.
You can probably find/commission custom d12 marked 1-4 and 1-6. And unless you are going to play 40k or something you don't need that many of them.
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Old 08-08-2020, 02:54 AM   #16
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You can probably find/commission custom d12 marked 1-4 and 1-6. And unless you are going to play 40k or something you don't need that many of them.
I believe we could have, but ultimately since this was one of his less disruptive eccentricities we settled for a long GURPS campaign and him moving on elsewhere.
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Old 08-08-2020, 03:53 AM   #17
johndallman
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

I had a period of designing a lot of custom dice in 2015-16 and getting them made by the Chessex Custom Shop. I now have the quirk "Only plays GURPS with dice of his own design."
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Old 08-08-2020, 09:31 AM   #18
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

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Originally Posted by Frost View Post
I once spent time gaming with someone who flat out refused to use d4 or d6, because per him 'they didn't roll properly'. Much fiddling and pleading was employed to avoid having to use them, even for one DnD game making someone else roll his hit die for him.
The d4 I can sympathize with. Those things are obnoxious, unless you are actually using a d8. The d6 feels a little silly.

I have this weird thing were I (and my first gaming group) expect player rolls to be luckier than GM rolls, and when we really want an NPC to succeed, I hand off the roll to a player (so the other players can blame their luck instead of mine)
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Old 08-08-2020, 07:11 PM   #19
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Default Re: Dice superstitions and rituals

I've heard of people who left their dice on 20 so that they "get used to it" and roll a 20 more often. But one figured that over the life of a die it will spend about 5% of the time on any given side, and kept them on 1 to use up that time.
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Old 08-08-2020, 07:18 PM   #20
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The d4 I can sympathize with. Those things are obnoxious, unless you are actually using a d8. The d6 feels a little silly.
I knew one guy who refused to play games that used d6s because he always rolled on a book or clipboard, and could manipulate the surface to get the result he wanted with a d20.

He basically told us "if you switch to GURPS I'm leaving." Our response was basically "is that all it would take?"
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