I'm an immensely un-superstitious person… except when it comes to dice, because, hey, dice superstitions are fun. Personally, when I'm playing, I don't like to touch my dice when I'm rolling them, putting them in a roller instead. This started when I was playing in a 3.5 campaign and always seemed to roll really badly until I started trying this. Even my DM commented on how it seemed to improve my rolls.
I don't usually bother with my dice-roller when I'm refereeing, though. I haven't "noticed" anything really being skewed when I roll the dice by hand as a referee either. That's probably because I bought some GameScience dice, but it's fun to pretend that it's because I'm not rooting for one side or another, so the dice can't skew one way or the other to disappoint me.
How about you; do you treat your dice differently depending on whether you're a player or a referee?
Exploring games that were published before I was born - and the games inspired by them.
Not as a player or referee. I do chastise my dice for rolling poorly and, if they keep it all, I have a clear "bad die penalty box" that I put them in, so they can sit on the table and see the fun all the other dice are having! ;)
ReplyDeleteI do have an almost round d20 that I've had since 1986 that is my "luck respository." I'll sometimes roll it with the dice on a crucial game roll. :)
Yes, yes, superstitious as hell, I know!
I just try not to touch other people's dice... Unless I'm messing with them on purpose.
ReplyDeleteI have some funky old bone dice from the 1800s I used to make players roll for turning undead, but I stopped using them because I think they are carved to roll low.
I have no superstitions about my dice and am always amused when my fellow gamers do.
ReplyDeleteHowever having said that, although it makes no logical sense, when I DM I consistently roll high, but as a player I roll consistently low. One of my fellow gamers in our group has the thing happen, to the point where, when he's a player, he'll roll a whole string of 1's, 2's and 3's to hit during most combat encounters. Yet when he DM's, I've never seen one person roll so many 20's. Like I said, it makes no logical, mathematical sense, but there it is.
During set-up most of my players toss dice while chit-chatting. Invariably someone will exclaim "Dude! You just wasted a 20!" as if hey have a finite number of 20's for the upcoming session.
ReplyDeleteI still pack my infamous Krystal Kill Dice. Just ask my players. These deadly 3d6, from some long forgotten board game, are showing their years but have a rep all their own.
That said I'd love to see that dude above's dice from the 1800's? Sweet.
As a player, I find physical dice fundamental to the play experience, but when DMing I find the Dicenomicon iTouch/iPhone app eminently useful. Nice blog, man!
ReplyDeleteAll I can say about dice is this: you never touch another man's dice. It's like... giving his wife a foot massage. :)
ReplyDelete@ Anthony: I like that idea of a luck repository. I need to find one of my own…
ReplyDelete@ Cyclopeatron: I'll echo Sham on that- antique bone dice sound really cool.
@ Austrodavicus: It sounds like you have the same problem I do. I'm tellin' ya, find yourself some sort of dice roller for when you're playing! -__^
@ Sham: Killer dice that your players are afraid of… I'll have to look into getting some of those as well…
@ blinkdawg: One time a player joined our Skype game stranded in his hotel room through his iPod Touch and used one of those dice apps since he didn't have his dice with him. They can come in handy.
@ iamtim and Cyclopeatron: That's the interesting thing, to me. I don't really have a problem with other people touching my dice, but I realize that's a big gamer no-no. Maybe I'm just weird for not minding.