Superstitious: About Dice
We all started the same way. “I don’t care what dice I use. What do you mean you have a tactic? Why are you rolling on a Bible?” No one starts off superstitious about die rolling, but eventually it catches up with everyone. At first its small, maybe losing faith in one’s die, or deciding it might be best to borrow a friends set. Before long, just about every player is “charging” their dice on the highest number, spinning them to the right, or finding the ideal surface for optimal roll. Does anyone have their own special way of rolling, or know someone who does? For instance, I know someone who puts the D20 in his mouth and spits it out, getting a 20 nearly every time. He doesn’t abuse that power, for fear of losing it, but every so often, when it’s called for, the D20 goes into the mouth. Anyone else?
Swordgleam says:
A while back, I got a set of d10s with ankhs instead of the 1. They always roll well on defensive rolls, and poorly on offensive rolls. It figures.
The rest of my dice behave. Usually. My d4s tend to roll very well for HP, to the point where my Man-at-Arms has more HP than the Berserker.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:12 am
Psynister says:
I can’t say that I have anything as good/bad as the guy rolling 20s from his mouth, but I’ve seen some wacky stuff in my day.
My brother-in-law refuses to accept any roll that does not land on his character sheet, requiring every one that even goes slightly off to the side to be rerolled. He doesn’t care if it was a 20, he’s going to reroll it.
My wife refuses to use any dice that are not shiny and sparkly or otherwise interesting to look at. Any visible blemish at all and she’s not going to roll it.
Me, I really just don’t care. I’ve been rolling dice for 15 years and no longer bother with superstition relating to my dice. As long as it has the number of sides that I need, then I’m good.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:32 am
deadlytoque says:
I’m not dice-superstitious in the least, but there is a noted pattern in my dice murdering player characters. It doesn’t matter -which- dice I am rolling, but if I am wearing the GM hat, my dice will carve through PCs like a hot knife through butter. My level 1 Goblin Skirmishers will slice and dice a level 3 party; my angry ghouls (in Vampire) will roll 7 success on 3 dice (after several rounds of getting bonus rolls from 10s). My players cringe in fear if anything bigger than a mouse threatens them.
My friend Aaron, on the other hand, is intensely superstitious about his d20s. If he rolls more than a few 1s in a game, he will throw, mutilate, microwave, or otherwise destroy his dice. My friend Thomas collects his cast-offs (the ones that haven’t been crushed by pliers or melted, anyway) and finds that they roll… randomly. Just like dice do. Always.
January 13th, 2009 at 12:14 pm
FemJesse says:
I knew a guy who ricocheted his dice off a wall to roll them. I am guilty of charging, which is rolling my dice until they land on max and not touching them until I need them again.
I also have two d20s that look exactly the same, and I pit them against each other to see which one I’ll use that day. If it fails me then I put it in “time out” and bring the other one in to make it jealous.
Is that superstitious or insane?
January 14th, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Sarah says:
No superstitions yet, though I am still fairly new to this whole dice-rolling thing. I do have several mildly insane, borderline-OCD things I do on a daily basis, so I hope if I do develop some D&D superstitions, they’re at least interesting and not annoying.
January 15th, 2009 at 3:32 pm
Reis says:
That’s called “charging”? I do that! I thought I was the only person that did that. Cool.
And as a matter of fact, I actually do have a d20 tatoo on my right forearm, and no, it has not helped my rolls. Nor my luck with women.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:18 pm
loltim says:
I tend to roll my dice with very little movement. No big tosses up or across the table. Something in my mind has convinced me that the less energy my die expends on traveling the more it can dedicate on big numbers.
Also I compulsively stack them. But I see lots of people do that…
February 3rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm