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Timmah wrote:Using small dice for leadership tests (proven to roll lower I believe) and big dice for everything else (proven to roll higher) you are most definitely cheating and at any larger even you will probably be called out on it.

Small dice actually land on 1 an average of 29% of the time, much higher than the 16.6% they should be.

Now please try and tell me using certain dice for certain rolls isn't cheating

Well I use the big lizardmen dice I got when they did the new army book for leadership for my lizzies but thats more a theme thing than anything else, heh and I fail a few leadership tests with them, but not overly many.

For all my other rolls I just use the standard GW dice that came with the many starter sets I've bought over the years, they don't seem to me to go either way statistically, although I havn't studied it (can't be botherd), well unless my mates rolling them he can't help rolling low to hit, wound or save, then high for leadership.

Though I agree if you have dice that you know always roll a certain way, even if they are "normal", and you use them to your advantage it's not really a random roll is it? as you kinda know what's going to happen.

I think Chessex are some of the cheapest. I am fine with people using them as long as its for everything. Just the same as I am with people using any type of dice.

Think about this, you spend $500+ on a 2k point army, and a huge number of hours painting said army.

Yet $50 for quality dice is too much?

@ Frazzled

When I looked into it you could get relatively cheap dice (by relatively cheap I'm talking $1.25/die USD). They didn't really sell in bulk though. From what I recall, square cornered dice are going to be closer to the ideal 16.6 than rounded dice like those provided by chessex and GW.

IIRC Gamescience http://www.gamescience.com/ are pretty good. Watch the video for a laugh

I have a bag full of dice. All kinds, but I tend to use plain white dice the most. Although I do have a lucky pink die that was originally part of a pair bought for my birthday by my mom as a joke. I lost one, but the other is now my lucky die.

I use Chessex dice for everything. They're small, come in a plethora of colors, have rounded corners so they roll easier over the rough game boards and not get stuck after bouncing off one corner, and there's not pesky symbols representing a number. Honestly, if I see one more gigantic "GW" or a huge Mechanicum skull on a die, I'm gonna start bringing a hammer with me to the shop... But in order to honor the dice gods, I use Chessex's recon because it matches my Cadians. I also use an all black with white dots to represent wounds and damage markers.

For the record, rounded = bad, at least if you're trying to get a random result.

I have some purple Chessex dice with red divot that I bought before ard boyz since I had forgotten mine. They roll nearly average for me every game, with only the slightest bit of difference. Even my opponent's remark on how average they roll. I love them I sometimes use my old set of dice to show different weapons firing (which for me constitutes meltas and that's really it), but often only need to roll the meltas against my target.

I've got a box of Chessex jade scarab, a box of chessex crimson scarab, and a gw blue dice cube with white pips that I got for the scatter die. I use the blue ones as markers/counters, but I like to use the red ones for Khornate units in my army and the jades for the Nurgle units. It doesn't help me much (my armor saves are perpetually abysmal) but I like the themed dice matching the themed army. Nobody at the store I frequent minds, because I am one of at least four weekly gamers who have dice to match their armies. For the reasons mentioned above, though, I made sure they're all the same size. I don't want someone calling me a cheat for using dice of varied size, however false such an observation would be.

Frazzled wrote:Dakka dice for TFG, otherwise dice I can read (seriously, thats an issue).

That's a big reason why I still use the casino dice. I can read those damn things 3 tables away.

Darkreaver55 wrote:I've got a box of Chessex jade scarab, a box of chessex crimson scarab, and a gw blue dice cube with white pips that I got for the scatter die. I use the blue ones as markers/counters, but I like to use the red ones for Khornate units in my army and the jades for the Nurgle units. It doesn't help me much (my armor saves are perpetually abysmal) but I like the themed dice matching the themed army. Nobody at the store I frequent minds, because I am one of at least four weekly gamers who have dice to match their armies. For the reasons mentioned above, though, I made sure they're all the same size. I don't want someone calling me a cheat for using dice of varied size, however false such an observation would be.

Jade scarab? Really? Those sound really cool ,got any pics?

I use big square-sided dice with numbers, not pips. I hate dice with pips. Don't know why. Saw some dice on FRP Games with roman numerals on them. Playing one game of 40K with them would probably give me a migraine.

Okay, I see what you are saying and where the confusion is coming in. I was unclear in my original post.

When i said that some dice I have roll higher or lower in certain situations, I was referring to things that cant possibly have anything to do with reality, ie, its all in my head.

I have three translucent dice that someone sent me that had been dug out of a house that was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. I have noticed that they roll lower when it rains. It's not reality, its just superstition.

And as a further aside, if anyone ever felt that my dice switching was making them uncomfortable, I would be happy to use the same set for everything. In your last example Niceas, if you said something about it, I would happily agree. But I dont believe that my 'superstition' here has anything to do with the real world, I think it is just something that is in my own mind.

And since I haven't won a game since 2006, I dont think any of my opponents are going to complain either.


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Also, I did not know that any study had been shown to prove that the size of the die had affected how the die rolled. (Interesting to note that the dice I mentioned that I use for leadership tests are the largest dice I have.) Where did you see that at? I'd like to research that a little more.

For wargaming, I've got to use 12mm dice with pips - don't know why. Colour-wise they seem to roll better when they're in theme with my army.

However, for roleplaying, I have to have dice with numerals on them, pips just feel wrong! However I have a set for DM'ing, a set for playing, a couple of 'sub-in' sets for when my main dice are misbehaving, and a big box of 'general use' for lending or when I need a dozen or more of a specific type. I also have two sets of 'retired' dice which I only bring out on special occasions. Starting a new campaign is always a reason to buy new dice too.

Sometimes I think I have a problem

Personally the type of dice doesn't bother me with one exception:

Those huge dice that came out with apocolypse

I hate them

I was in a tournament one and our opponents were using them (doubles tourny btw) so it took them fething ages to roll for anything as they only had 12 dice and the bigger the dice is the easier it is to "drop".

Other than that I don't mind, thought I do have a weakness for dice that don't have the corners rounded off for some reason...

I have this strange way of rolling dice.

If a die rolls a 6 and I need another 6, I have to use a fresh die, same goes for 1. The numbers in-between don't matter but they do. Also I almost have to use black die for invul. saves.


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Actually I used to play with a guy who always through out dice that rolled a one. Needless to say he lost a lot of dice, but there were some that actually lasted the year and he is very lucky.

If the die (word for one dice) has six sides, numbers and has been made with approximate weight on all sides then I am fine with it. I sound picky don't I?
It only really matters if your openent uses different dice to you. He could be using loaded dice.......

I don't care what kind of dice I use, they're going to roll for crap if I roll them. So I try to match my army theme somehow. I got some of the bigger dice GW sells at their birthday celebrations with the chaos symbol fragment on the '6'. I've got dice in colours to match my armies. I've got some casino dice, but they're so big that they pose a risk to models.

I made a dice tower that I bring to tournaments lately, and offer to let my opponent use it as well, to avoid dice scattering onto models, but also to avoid any rolling shenanigans. I'm more concerned about an opponent pulling a fast one with how they roll than what they roll.

Yes, it matters to me because I don't like big dice and I don't like ugly dice. As far as the method of how they're made vs. their randomness, I believe it 100%, but I don't care enough to purchase precision made dice.

Jimsolo wrote:Also, I did not know that any study had been shown to prove that the size of the die had affected how the die rolled. (Interesting to note that the dice I mentioned that I use for leadership tests are the largest dice I have.) Where did you see that at? I'd like to research that a little more.

I haven't been able to quickly find the original study that I came across, however, Dakka delivers!

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/That%27s_How_I_Roll_-_A_Scientific_Analysis_of_Dice

Whether the dice really are biased or not, you just don't set aside a special 2d6 for leadership and scatter rolls. Even if you aren't trying to cheat that behavior is indistinguishable from an obvious dice cheat.

My dice are Knoppix word dice, 20 each of red, white, and blue. They have the numbers one through six written on the faces. Aside from that they're fairly ordinary as dice go. 15mm, rounded but not as rounded as Chessex dice. I also have some ordinary Chessex and GW dice around the place, but they're terribly generic. If you're really a stickler over dice you can get a limited selection of Gamescience six-siders for seventy-five cents each.

I only have one rule about dice. I will only throw "regular sized" dice, none of those mini-dice.

(percicion dice eehhhhhhh, it seems like a ploy to me, I don't trust it, but then again I'm paranoid )

Dice matter, but since we all have different dice, the practice of rolling matters just as much.

In a perfect world, (a) my opponent and I would make all our rolls from a shared pot of casino dice. Since this isn't feasible, the next best option is to (b) we share dice, so that our game shares the same rolling odds. If that can't be worked, then each person should (c) roll from their own pot of similarly manufactured dice. If not, then (d) a person's rolls should all be make from a pot of dice, randomly selected.

In practice, if I am rolling my own dice, they all end up in the same pot after each roll, and I select randomly from the pot. If I see you choosing specific dice out of your collection for specific rolls, I'd kindly ask that you cut it out.

My set of Dakka dice get used for my Tau, and usually for my Circle army as well. I've never had a set that rolls so well for most of the game, and then rolls terribly at the pivotal moment.

I use Chessex for everything else, since I try to match the set with the army.

I also have a collection of dice I've found on the floor of various game stores. I'm up to nearly 100 now.

Pseudo-random number generation. Beats hauling dice around.