You let someone else use them. If they roll well for them, snatch your dice back before the luck evaporates.
I'm a "toss 'em back in the bag" guy.
Also I only use my metal dice for when I'm GMing, and the many many more plastic dice for when I'm a player (except when I need excess D6s).
I go back to GMing. When running the game, it's not uncommon for my NPCs to crit with 50% or more of their attack sequence. Of course this trend reverses itself immediately if the NPC is attempting to help the party. My dice roll high so consistently, that I have staunchly refused to use a GM screen, for fear of my players falsely believing that I was cheating. I have had several instances where my dice have been so hot that players have stolen them for weeks at a time, just in case it was the dice that were loaded. Needless to say, this never helped them much.
In the rare occasions where someone else is running the game, my dice tend to punish me for slacking off in my GMing fervor. I've debated recording my rolls for actual analysis, but I tend to average something akin to 7 on a d20, regardless of the dice used.
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I go back to GMing. When running the game, it's not uncommon for my NPCs to crit with 50% or more of their attack sequence. Of course this trend reverses itself immediately if the NPC is attempting to help the party. My dice roll high so consistently, that I have staunchly refused to use a GM screen, for fear of my players falsely believing that I was cheating. I have had several instances where my dice have been so hot that players have stolen them for weeks at a time, just in case it was the dice that were loaded. Needless to say, this never helped them much.
In the rare occasions where someone else is running the game, my dice tend to punish me for slacking off in my GMing fervor. I've debated recording my rolls for actual analysis, but I tend to average something akin to 7 on a d20, regardless of the dice used.
Are they, by chance, the ancient rounded edge D20's that roll forever? I still have mine and use them routinely. It is fun to watch them roll and roll and roll and roll and roll until they finally come to a stop, and then roll once more! LOL
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Uncooperative dice suffer two penalties:
Initially, a picture is taken of the die, along with a short summary of the die's transgression, and it is posted on social media for public humiliation. If the die in question continues to misbehave, then it spends time in the freezer for an indeterminate period.
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I am a believer who has an analytical mind. So I test like crazy.
Methods I have tested:
- Blowing on my dice while they rest in the palm of my hand (Vegas style): This doesn't work. Extensive testing has determined that either I am not sufficiently "hot" to make this work, not sufficiently drunk to make this work, or perhaps I should have a man hold them in his palm while I blow.
- Washing them with a harsh soap (naughty child style): This has results. They aren't the results I was hoping for, instead of making them more lucky they instead tend to make them more random... Perhaps I should roll my dice on cleaner surfaces, rather than ones stained with Dorito dust and spilled soda.
- Kissing my dice (kissing up to them style): This had excellent results... and promptly got banned by others I game with. Further testing revealed that if I kissed a certain side it would roll better than if I kissed a different side. Upon later reflection and testing this huge advantage vanishes if I don't wear lipstick. I guess they were right to ban it... it was cheating.
- Large or Heavy Dice vs Small or Light Dice (Mass Effect style): This didn't effect randomness BUT it did make it easier to cheat on a die toss as certain dice didn't roll as well and made it easier to "flip" the dice onto the table onto the desired result. Larger sides and lighter dice tended to be less fair than smaller sides or heavier dice. Although I haven't tested super heavy dice yet and perhaps dice made of solid lead might also test poorly.
- Specific colors being luckier (fashionista style): This didn't affect randomness at all... But it did improve my mood while testing.
- Finding the imperfect method (the perfect cheater style): No dice are perfectly random. If you test enough then the natural biases of dice with internal air pockets or rounded edges become apparent. Using these dice is a form of cheating just like other less honorable methods. This of course includes deliberately biasing your dice with a file or a microwave.
- The time out method (alternative naughty child style): This didn't affect randomness at all. Apparently dice don't have feelings and so they generally don't care if you use them or not.
- Praying to heathen gods (heretic style): I wasn't going to test this method. I am too afraid of Gods wrath should I try. Although some of my friends got me drunk once and claim they were able to get me to try it. But since I can't seem to remember that night it makes for a poor testing method.
- good touch/bad touch method (luck rubs off style): Letting others handle my dice seems to have no effect on randomness, regardless of their own personal luck.
- soaking them in blood (Vampire style): Oddly I haven't been able to find any volunteers to test this with.
There are methods that sound promising on this thread like social shaming method or testing while actively a player or a GM. Time to test some more! Or maybe I just like rolling dice...
I keep a big hammer on the table that I'm not afraid to use on "misbehaving" dice in full view of the others.
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The two dice I use the most are my d20 (big surprise) and my d4(known to my poor GMs/players) as the Reynaldo die.
My d20 dislikes optimising, but rewards with awesome story results. Two instances, first one, my low Will Save monster of an archer ranger is in a Mexican standoff with a mind controlling boss. In the three attempts to hit him, I barely succeeded with 2 fours and a 5, prompting one of the players to offer me to borrow one of hers, which I declined.
The next turn, it rolls a 20 on the will save for domination. Then a 3 to hit(miss). Next turn. 19 on the save. 2 on the attack. Then another 20 on the save and another one on the attack on the boss, who decided to try to coup de grace our unconscious dwarven player. Right between the eyes.
Second example, two players in the game I'm running capture two low-level smugglers. One of the players is playing the superhero swashbuckler archetype and the other one is a guardsman. After the fight the two players go in a Batman/Gordon scene and after the first turn the captives try to escape from manacles. Nat 20. Then they roll for a stealthy getaway. Nat 20. All rolls were confirmed by the players. 2 level 2 brawlers ran away from Batman and Dirty Harry :D.
The d4 is simply always rolling 4s in my hands and 1-2 in other peoples' One notable performance by it was when it rolled a total of 31 in Savage Worlds to swim away from a sinking ship. It's known as the Reynaldo die because Heavy Horses use it for damage, and in a low level 3-4 campaign, the combat trained heavy horse I bought has more confirmed kills than the barbarian and the rogue put together, including 1v1ing a necromancer and 3v1ing orc barbarians.
Essentially, I believe in the fact that when they roll low, it's because they are setting up something awesome in the future.