Director of Narrative
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Alright, I was at my local gaming store the other day killing time before going to pick my wife up at work and I broke down and bought a starter pack of those silly plastic minis. It was something I told myself I wasn't going to do, but I just HAD to walk out of there with something. Anyways, I've never been terrible superstitious when it comes to dice (or anything else actually), but the one that comes with the minis starter pack is terrible. I brought this up to two other people I know who have bought the minis and they had the same response. This is my un-scientific poll of the Paizo community to see if ya'll have found the same thing, or is it like rares and there is one good blue d20 out of 1000?
WotC minis can bring only sadness and misery to your life. Consider it just rewards :P
Jack
who hates WotC's minis and everything they stand for :)
I don't know about minis (my group and I don't touch the things) but I know that my dice generally do the worst possible thing at any given time. If you're just fooling around rolling, you get 20's. If I'm playing, I typically get 10s or less. If I'm a DM and trying to be hard, I get the same 10s or less. If I'm trying to be soft, I get 20s. Almost everytime I roll up a character, my DM has to look over my set to see if it's good enough- I generally have to scrap about six in a row just to get a decent set for his game.
My old dice do hate me, but I just got a new set that's doing a little better.
Our group is VERY superstitious about the dice.
I am a reasonable, logical person. That said, I am the most superstitious players in my group about my dice. I keep them in a special bags and boxes. I don't mix in new dice until they have proven themselves to be up to my high standards of performance. I still have and use most of my original set of dice, and only have a small handful of dice that I play with. Trying to touch my dice will get your hand slapped. Picking one up will get it taken away from you with a presure point. Your energy is bad, don't let it rub off on my dice! If my dice are rolling bad, I will light incense and burn Dragon's blood oil in a difuser to apease the dice gods. Some of my players laugh at me, but my dice roll like thunder, bringing death and destruction raining down upon them when I DM, and make my characters superhuman, landing shots on things that can only be hit by a natural 20. *Cackling maniacally*
*Blinks, looking around seeing everyone staring at him*
Sorry, got a little caried away. anyway, yes I'm superstitious. I have the fewest number of dice of anyone in our group (Only 6D20s) while my sister and brother-in-law both have these little suitcases that are made for caring minis, full of dice (Not that their dice roll for crap!) and Tigerlilly has a drawer full of dice (though most of these are used when she's DMing). Our newest players only have about two sets each, but that's just because there isn't a working game shop in town right now. (There's a game shop, It just isn't working. They have been opened for 3 months, but haven't even got in minis, new books or a credit card machine.)
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Anyways, I've never been terrible superstitious when it comes to dice (or anything else actually), but the one that comes with the minis starter pack is terrible. I brought this up to two other people I know who have bought the minis and they had the same response. This is my un-scientific poll of the Paizo community to see if ya'll have found the same thing, or is it like rares and there is one good blue d20 out of 1000?
I think I know what you're talking about. In a recent starter pack I got a d20 with an incorrect numbering scheme. Being a mathematician I find comfort and beauty in patterns (whereas chaos and randomness are a bit more tantalizing). A 1 should be on the opposite side of the 20! Although a fluke, I now treat it as a curiosity in my collection. It's all a matter of perspective.
I think we can all agree that, no matter how much stupid "logic" tells us we're wrong, we all know that the dice are sentient beings with the power of at least a demigod, if not more.
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I actually have different dice for different games. For instance I went out and spent the $8(or whatever it is) on the officially little D&D box of dice. They are possibly the ugliest dice I have ever seen in my life(Fruit Loops colors, Bold Red, Yellow, Purple, ect) but they are to be used in every D&D game and it just works.
I'm the same way with other games too, WoD's official dice, a crystal caste set for Palladium. I even blame the fact that I have not been able to effectively get a Hero System game going in the last six months on the fact that the Hero Dice have been sitting as a preorder and I don't know when I'm actually going to get them.
I think the worst part about this is that I'm a total dice addict. Whenever I go into a hobby store(probably twice a week) I buy a pretty set of dice. I can't help it. Even if I don't get anything else I have to pick up a set of dice. I have thousands of them. But until they find a game to belong to they just get to sit there and be lonely.
BlackDragon: You sound exactly like a friend of mine.
I'm not terribly superstitous about dice. All of mine roll horribly. Maybe it is because I am not terribly superstitous about my dice.
Time to get a nice velvet lined, ebony box for my dice.
I knew a guy in college that would, before a game, line up all his dice on the sidewalk, put the one that offended him the most in the last session out in fromt of them, and smash it with a hammer, as a method if intimidating the dice to roll better.
I think the worst part about this is that I'm a total dice addict. Whenever I go into a hobby store(probably twice a week) I buy a pretty set of dice. I can't help it. Even if I don't get anything else I have to pick up a set of dice. I have thousands of them. But until they find a game to belong to they just get to sit there and be lonely.
I always hit the dice section, more specifically if I haven't bought anything else. YOU CAN NEVER HAVE TOO MANY DICE. When gaming, I ensure to have at least one spare set besides my main one, if not two.
At my FLGS, we have "The Dice Game." Mismatched dice are put into candy/cookie jars and you get to try to make a matching set! Yay! I've gotten some nifty sets out of that.
Does anyone else buy "themes" of dice - a particular color, all the "sparklies", the opaque ones, marbled, etc? Or is it just me?
Time to get a nice velvet lined, ebony box for my dice.
At the smoke shop here in town, they sell empty cigar boxes, one of which was velour lined - it was awesome, I may have to go back for it.
I talk to my dice sometimes....Is that bad?
Yes.
And I also recently purchased a mini starter pack...
Also bad :P
I knew a guy in college that would, before a game, line up all his dice on the sidewalk, put the one that offended him the most in the last session out in fromt of them, and smash it with a hammer, as a method if intimidating the dice to roll better.
ROFL! That is great!
I talk to my dice sometimes....Is that bad?
Do they talk back? ;)
I know a guy once who had a d20 that just flat out sucked. He finally got fed up with it, and decided to teach his other dice a lesson. He lined up all his other dice with the best number on the die facing a certain direction. Then he placed the sucky d20 so all the other dice could "see" it. He proceeded to then smash the die with a hammer, and supposedly exclaimed to the others, "You're next if you don't shape up!"
He was also known to put poorly "behaving" dice in the freezer as punishment.
edit: and now I see Chris Manos knows the same guy I know! :D
My dice don't roll bad; it's all me! I've rolled other's dice and roll horribly; friends have rolled my dice and roll great. That's a big reason why I like point-buying ability scores and average HP/level. Although I'm not superstitious often, I do have rare days when I can 'feel' my luck. Some days I know that all I will roll will be below 10 and that's what happens, some days I know I'll roll only above 10 and that's what happens. I wish the latter type would happen more often...maybe I should start talking/intimidating/pampering my dice. Hey, if it works for others....
Does anyone else buy "themes" of dice - a particular color, all the "sparklies", the opaque ones, marbled, etc? Or is it just me?
Sort of. I buy them in "sets" when I can. I've got a set of translucent purples, a set of translucent cyan, and a set of Purple and Black Marbled ones that friends got me as a gift once. I've got a bunch of "odd" dice that I've picked up, like that marbled purple d20 that the sorcerer gave me when she couldn't roll above a nine with it and my first roll was something like a 19, but I try for sets.
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I want to start by thanking all of you for your posts ... I'm at work right now ROTFL and my co-workers believe I've lost my mind.
I was afraid I was the only one talking to dice, ignoring the recalcitrant ones that typically roll poorly and fearing the d20 from my mini pack, but now I know better.
Now I know that the evil dice gods (a group of worthless, filty gnomes) not only disfavor me, but also the lot of us! Ha! Take that gnomes of ill repute! (ok, back to work ... time for more medicine ... maybe the lithium!) Maybe I need to talk to that therapist after all, but now I have proof!
I found this online at http://www.gamegrene.com/node/231
and I believe!!!
It's not bad luck. It's not that dice are cursed either. The problem lies with how his dice perceive him. You see, dice are sentient. They have a primitive animalistic cunning, and like dogs they can sense fear and weakness. Every time the 'unlucky' player rolls them they react to his mindset. If he is timid or unsure of himself, they will roll poorly. On the flip side, if you believe you will be successful, you tend to succeed more often.
Now don't get me wrong. A positive attitude is not going to dramatically shift how well you roll. It's just the first step in the process. Dice react better to a confident owner, but they can get spoiled and lazy just like people. The longer they have had a lax owner the worse things tend to get. So the question remains, how do you break your dice of these negative habits?
It's not a simple process, and it takes a great deal of effort on your part. But, if you persevere these methods will work. You will roll well. By God, your dice will respect you.
First, you have to teach them about consequences. If they take care of you, then you will take care of them. Put all of your dice in a single pool before the next session starts. When it comes time to roll pick a random die from the pile. Tell it what minimum number it needs to give you. Let it know that if it doesn't, then it will pay the price. The first die will likely not take you seriously, and will probably roll low just to spite you. That's ok. Now you get a chance to set an example. Take the offending die, and punish it. This can be done in several ways. The most extreme is to destroy the die with a hammer or other blunt object, and will get the quickest results from the rest of your dice. When they see their companion destroyed for his impudence, then they will begin to fall into line.
If you are more merciful, then there are other ways to punish a wayward die. You can set aside a glass of soda (Mountain Dew and Pepsi seem to work best). When the die fails drop it into the glass. Not only does this humiliate the die in front of its friends, but the soda will also slowly eat away the die.
I am sure you have heard the phrase 'walk softly and carry a big stick'. Ruling your dice through fear is a good start, but by itself it is often an unsuccessful tactic. You have to remember: like people, dice also have a social structure. D20s usually get the most respect, but D10s and D6s can be the big man on campus depending on what game system you use.
You can exploit this to your advantage.
Now we already suggested before the next session you put your dice into one large pool, and that you punish failure harshly. You also need to reward success. When a die meets or exceeds the target number that you have given it set it aside in a special area. I suggest making a small box lined with some sort of soft material (like felt). Praise the die before putting it in, and explain to the other dice that only the 'elite' dice are allowed to go to the special place.
This will cause competition to erupt between your dice. Some will be jealous of the successful die, and will try harder to win your affections. Others will be spiteful, and will still roll badly. The important thing is you have shifted the focus away from you. Rather than have all of the dice looking at you now they are competing with each other.
Over time you will learn which dice respect you, and which are not worth using. I recommend putting the useless ones in some sort of glass bowl or vase, and having them present when you play. But don't use them. Let them see how much fun the other dice are having. Eventually some of them will come around.
When you buy new dice make sure to only put them with your successful dice. New dice tend to adopt the prevailing attitude whenever they enter a new environment, and they will perform better if only exposed to other obedient dice. If you happen to buy any bad apples, just add them to the Vase.
One last important thing to remember about dice. Like people, some of them have more aptitude than others. Some really try, and find that they just can't roll those crits you want. Learn the capabilities of your dice, and be realistic in the numbers that you ask them to roll. Don't always push for 20s. In doing so you are putting your dice up to an impossibly high standard, and all will eventually fail. Settle for that thirteen or fifteen, and your dice won't disappoint you.
Now I know all this is a heck of a lot of effort to go through. But you have to ask yourself this question- if I am lazy why would I expect my dice to be any different? If you want to succeed, then you have to be tough. Remember, you are in charge! Not the dice, you!
Lilith,
You always have a great link or two to some resource that helps everyone out so I figure its the least I can do to help feed your addiction for dice sets with some of the coolest I've ever seen.
Enjoy.
Mff...gurkk....GOTTA CATCH 'EM ALL!!!
I think the bone dice would be particularly apropos for a necromancer/undead NPC...
One of my players stores all of his dice in a gumball machine. :-D
My blue d20 is pure evil straight from the nine hells.
Currently we have a new player who has no dice, he gets to borrow that d20 from me.
I have found that all starter sets come with Abyssal or Infernal dice. From Heroclix to Wizards Minis. They all should be melted back into scrap.
Along the other topics of this thread:
You can never have to many dice so long as you can transport them where needed.
Lilith,
You always have a great link or two to some resource that helps everyone out so I figure its the least I can do to help feed your addiction for dice sets with some of the coolest I've ever seen.
Enjoy.
* drools on the thread *
I have found that all starter sets come with Abyssal or Infernal dice. From Heroclix to Wizards Minis. They all should be melted back into scrap.
I have a set of pink dice. Nasty icky bile-inducing Pepto Bismol pink. I hate them and coincidentally enough, they hate me. I roll terrible with every dice in the set. I'm afraid if I try to get rid of them, they'll come back to haunt me in my dreams...maybe with the pseudonatural or farspawned templates...
You can never have to many dice so long as you can transport them where needed.
Agreed!
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I adopted 2 new sets lately, the Runic (brown and white)and the Elven (clear and blue) from the new dice here at Paizo. They are nice but I need to whip them into shape after a somewhat lack-luster performance last week. I will give em one more week then, if they don't shape up, I will start the fonging. Perhaps if they watch my evil blue and white D20s (from D&D mini starter packs) sacrificed to the Luck god on my consecrated cast-iron skillet, then maybe they will start rolling on the high side of average.
YOUR GONNA BURN BLUE DIE. DIE,DIE,DIE,YOUR GONNA DIE!!!HOPE YOU CAST PROTECTION FROM SKILLET B*$@H!!!YOUR MOTHER WAS A D12 F!*%#R!!!OH IT'S GONNA BE LOW HEAT TOO BABY, SO YOUR FELLOW DICE CAN HEAR THE TORTURED SCREAMS THAT I RIP FROM YOUR MEASLY LITTLE HIDE!!! YOU'LL BE MY NEW MINI FOR A F#*@ED-UP GIBBERING MOUTHER DI*%WAD!!!MUUWWWAAAHHAHHHHHAAAAAHEEEEEEEOOOOHHOOOOHHHHOOHHAAAA!!!!!! DIE, DIE, DIE!
FH
...sacrificed to the Luck god on my consecrated cast-iron skillet...
We used to sacrifice dead character sheets to the Holy Flame of Almighty Zippo...;-)
Oddly I am now thinking of that Zogonia comic strip with Kev yelling at the dice . . .
Not only do I have a ton of dice, but I had to buy a purple and gold set when I started playing a Faleen in Star Wars, in honor of Xizor. (My friend told me if my Faleen ever turned red while we were sharing quarters on a ship in the game that he would murder my faleen in my sleep, but that's another story)
When I kids to start playing, I asked them what color dice they wanted, and my daughter just had to have a set of frosted pink dice.
I haven't had a problem with any of my starter set dice. I have a blue one that I dubbed Blue Meanie, and Orange from Star Wars IIRC that I call Orange Crush.
I also have a black D20 with white numbering that I call "The Death Die" which is a term i stole from a fellow DM. This dice is used primarily when I DM but have been known to use in demanding player situations.
And then i have a few others that are just your standard d20's. I used to have a great set of dice that were an emerald green color with white numbers. they were beautiful and a guy I knew in college flunked out and took them back home with him, never to be seen again. Those were my first dice and I wish I had them back. Also, i left a pretty awesome D20 that I reserved for Magic the Gathering games, tracking damage points, which I left in a study lounge at college and in a matter of 15 minutes it dissappeared. I returned to the study lounge to get it and it was gone.
I don't talk to my dice but i prefer people don't touch them. ;)
Oh, god, Lilith and Fake Healer, you have no idea how much joy you've brought me today!
I think it also has to do with the personality of the dice, beyond hate or love for the owner. Some dice are cruel and only role high when they know that they will be hurting a real person- these are DM dice, which only perform well when crushing players.
Then you've got player dice, which are either too nice to want to hurtreal people, or too afraid of retribution. They only roll well when not facing NPCs, although it goes into further complexities depending on their relationship with the roller.
That's true. I have my "DMing dice" and I have my "player dice" - never the two shall meet!
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Director of Narrative
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I found this online at http://www.gamegrene.com/node/231
and I believe!!!It's not bad luck. It's not that dice are cursed either. The problem lies with how his dice perceive him. You see, dice are sentient. They have a primitive animalistic cunning, and like dogs they can sense fear and weakness. Every time the 'unlucky' player rolls them they react to his mindset. If he is timid or unsure of himself, they will roll poorly. On the flip side, if you believe you will be successful, you tend to succeed more often.
Now don't get me wrong. A positive attitude is not going to dramatically shift how well you roll. It's just the first step in the process. Dice react better to a confident owner, but they can get spoiled and lazy just like people. The longer they have had a lax owner the worse things tend to get. So the question remains, how do you break your dice of these negative habits?
It's not a simple process, and it takes a great deal of effort on your part. But, if you persevere these methods will work. You will roll well. By God, your dice will respect you............
Sith Knight...the Die Whisperer.
I used to have lots of pretty dice. They never rolled well for me, then they got stolen out of my car. So I replaced them. Again with pretty dice. Again they rolled badly, and believe it or not, again they got stolen. Since then I have given up. I only purchase dice that are ugly, and that no one else wants. Sure, people make fun of my ugly dice, but only until I roll three criticals in a row for that greataxe wielding minotaur I am DMing. I theorize that my dice love me only because no one else will ever want them besides me. Thank Boccob that no one has let them know about codependance therapy...
i used to have a pair of percentile dice used for palladium in the middle of a session they turned on me no matter what i rollled it came out the most horrible result possible for my character, so i decreed that they be destroyed but alas no matter what i did to destroy them they still remained i smashed them with a sledge and they ust richotched around the room i lit themm on fire yet they held their shape finally i attempted both of these punishments at the same time only to my dismay they were launched out an open door into an apartment parking lot never to be seen again, i warn you if you see a pair of dice lying in a parking lot somwhere avoid them at all costs for they spell doom for any character that they are rolled for.
The only real problem with my dice is they keep vanishing. I have a couple of dice that I can depend on to roll 20 a heck of a lot especially if I have an Orc Barbarian about about to wail on the PCs with a great axe - Ive more then once been in a situation where if I am to kill one of the players my only chance is to roll a 20 to hit and then another 20 to confirm the critical, everything else will miss the players high ACs and yet these babies come through. I really like these dice they just cause havoc and terror among my Players and have killed more then a few of their characters.
The only problem is that I'll leave to use the washroom or grab a drink during a session and they will suddenly vanish. They seem to turn up in nearby shrubbery or hidden behind pictures on a the mantle etc. but its very annoying 'cause I rarely find them again until after the session.
I have an place for my honored 'old' dice from the 1.edition of a game. So if there is the need for something special I use the D20 from the red D&D box, which is orange and where the numbers had to been put on with a crayon. All the edges are round. Somehow dice are like wine, the older they get the better they are.
well i probably the most supersticious about dice out of all of you. i go nowhere without my set, i cant leave them anywhere, i have them in a silk lined, black leather drawstring bag, anything lesser and my dice roll for crap. And about once monthly i have to give the d20 a drop of my own blood, which im about to do again... I also own the most vile set of dice for when i DM, they have a knack for killing at least one PC every week,the players have hidden these dice soo many times, but they have came back to me every time.
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oh god, my ribs hurt. I haven't laughed that hard since i took my first look at the ecology of the adventurer.
"I hope you cast Protection from Skillet"
Instant Classic
I too go for theme dice. I had a Thri-kreen once who named his weapon Fire and Ice, and then had it enchanted accordingly. I bought two complete sets of red and blue dice so I could roll everything at once and let god sort them out later.
The blue die didn't make his save. He rolled poorly for the 4th week in a row (well below average) despite a thorough talking to. I had to punish him to make an example of him for the rest of my dice.
450 degrees in the oven for 15 minutes and he now looks like a gibbering mouther with numbers. I left the 20 facing up and now when he is flopped onto the table he always lands on 20. If I had a page or something I would post pics on it and link to them.My other dice hate that I put him back in the dice bag as an example of the price of failure.
Lets hope that the senseless maiming doesn't need to continue.
FH the punisher