So we played last night and I'm fairly positive that my GM said something to this guy. He came in with his normal dice and then produced a completely new set of dice. He rolled the new dice most of the night although I did notice him grab his old dice when making saves...
There was a tangible tension between him and the GM when ever he did so (they're second cousins... so I will let them figure it out.)
Anyway thanks for the advice.
Could be luck. Had player with the opposite problem on the weekend. He rolled 1 on most of his attack rolls and on initiative as well. I think the entire gaming session he hit 3 times. I've never seen that many 1s rolled in single gaming session. Luckily for them I couldn't roll above 10 on D20 that night either.
The one and only time our DM let me roll for random loot I rolled 100, 100, 99 for Mirror of Mental Prowess. He wouldn't let us keep it :(
I wonder what, if any, the implications of electro-magnetivity naturally found in humans(which does vary in intensity from person to person) is on dice rolling, or if it is merely associated with how you actually roll the die with your hand, there is no way someone can roll from 20 different sets of dice and continue to roll on the low end of the die without there being an explanation...unless magic is real, and luck is a tangible force to be manipulated, or mocked by...
can't really say, back in the day we rolled ability scores 3d6 six times, I rolled an 18(*4) a 17 and a 15, those are inprobable high rolls, and particulary good in 2nd edition play since the abilities didnt really kick in till after 14. I also rolled 18(90 ish) for percentile on strength which meant I got to raise it to 18(00) for those having played 2nd edition know what I am talking about ;)
unfortunately the DM put a damper on things when he told me I had to play 1 level lower than the other players because I was too powerful... so yea luck is a fickle b!^&#
I played in a PFSOP game this last year where a teenage girl was doing something I would never allow as a DM... she had very, very sparkly dice that were hard to read... so hard to read that every time she rolled her d20, she would quickly pick it up and bring it close to her face so she could scrutinize it and announce the number "rolled". She never rolled less than a 15 that evening. After scrutinizing the die, she would promptly drop it back onto the bag where the rest of her dice where located.
I kept waiting, as a player, for the DM to say something but nothing happened. This was a group of strangers who I wouldn't likely play with again, so I just let it go.
Back in the day I was the Dm most of the time and had a friend that had a very quirky d20. It was a cheap brown one. You know the kind that the edges would round off with some use.
This die would roll a lot of 20s. This would have bothered me if it didn't roll just as many 1s. My friend loved using that die for years.
I even liked him using it because it brought an element of chaos to the table. In one game the final fight vs. the BBEG of the adventure came down to his character (an archer from dragon mag.) alone against a demon prince. Everyone else was dead or unconsious. He was down to his last few HP and so was the Prince. The AC was pretty high (or low in those days) and he needed a 17+ to hit.
It came down to this one die roll or it was all over. Yes he rolled a 20 and killed the evil prince and saved the party. That was one of the few times that everyone actually cheered when the die stopped rolling. :D
That die met it's end one day when it came up with four 1s in a row in another important battle. He took a hammer to it on the back porch stepps. Inside it had two big bubbles.
RIP 'Stinky' the die.
-Flea
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I've got a lovely D20, black steampunk one, that regularly gives me high numbers. It didn't do this at first, but I've learned to judge how the weight is in my hand to throw it right to give me high numbers. It takes quite a bit of practice, and I tend to spend free time rolling my dice to practice. It gives me 20s quite often, and rarely gives me anything below a ten.
I understand the math and psychology enough to realize that this is almost certainly more an effect of confirmation bias than real quirky behavior from my randomizers. But it sure does seem like I have weird luck.
In the SWSE game, I could barely roll above 8 on a d20. I had a rep at the table for constantly missing. And it wasn't like I was making tons of skill checks or attacks to show I was getting a really broad distribution of results. Yet, I was critting like crazy, with the same dice in my Pathfinder game, much to my players' dismay. At least it seemed that way. I was probably rolling a much more regular distribution, if all dice rolls were correctly tallied.
Back when I ran a lot of D&D in high school, my players said I had DM's Dice. They distributed all over the place and not regularly in favor of either the players or the monsters (unlike the dice of some players who used to try to find biased dice in their favor). I suppose I should take that as a compliment for my impartiality.
If I were the player I'd be annoyed at the implication that I'm cheating my rolls, whether I'm doing it or not. I'd probably pack and go if I knew other players were tracking my rolls and trying to build a case to call me a liar.
You would be offended if you in fact, were cheating on your die rolls?
really?
In our Kingmaker campaign, we all agreed to use game science dice. Even if you don't buy their rolling probability hype, it's something we all use and there's never any concern with loaded dice, etc.
I have two experiences on opposite sides of this issue. In a game I used to play early in college we had one player that rolled 6s ridiculously often on his d6 (he probably had a 3d6 weapon or something, but that was a long time ago. :) ) After one session a few of us were sitting around discussing his luck and someone noticed he had an odd way of "rolling" the dice. I don't know if he knew this was why, but we were soon able to roll 6s about 1/2 the time and basically 1s never occurred. We decided to suggest a change to rolling from a cup which seemed to dash some of his luck (and result in some of us dying).
The other experience was when my character had one of those ultra bad choices that basically ended in "You Die. No Save."(1e) I, as many of us had, complained about the arbitrariness of the situation and he suggested if I rolled 4 %-ile dice (d20s with only 0-9) and got all zeroes I would save. Low and behold it happened. When we get together, that roll still comes up, just kinda wish I wasted that luck on something more long-lasting.
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In one home game I played in, my bad luck (propensity to roll 1a) was very well known. The GM, decided to try and help out a bit, so he had me reverse my die rolls, So 1s were 20s and 20s were 1s. Of course I began to roll lots of 20s then.
If you are worried about cheating, one simple method to help discourage this, is to encourage everyone to roll on the battle map in the middle of the table so everyone can see the roll. Ideally the die roll should end up in front of another player at the table. Part of the fun of this, is it gets everyone at the table involved in what is going on, and everyone gets excited about weather the fighter hits with his 20. Or the rogue gets a 1 on his stealth.
Dice can be fudged, just as cards can. If it's a continued issue, you might look into something akin to a Dice Tower...which is a fun addition to a table. It's fun to drop the dice and watch it bumble down the "stairs" to land in the pool area.
A crafty person can make one, and even pad it with felt to soften the noise.
A benefit is it creates a common place for rolling--in the center of the table. It means everyone can see, and can result in fewer lost dice.
So, plenty of benefits to it aside from worry for a cheater. ...and it may even help this person, if there's enough suspicion/tension. For instance, say he /could/ be?
And then doesn't.
...but then future 20s become somewhat suspect, don't they?
It's the Boy Who Cried Wolf all over again.
