A Roll of the Die: How do you get better rolls?

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**darkdm**

I've been playing table top RPGs for over 12 years now and have been wargaming for around 2. In both RPGs and wargaming, there is a lot of dice rolling and a lot of chance. I've met lots of different people playing in both environments, and it seems to be that the overwhelming majority of people that play games with dice involved believe in "luck" of some sort, and have their own ways of getting better "luck" with their dice. I've heard of people doing nothing at (except hoping) to smashing dice or lighting them on fire just to get better results when rolling dice. I've got my own methods to make my dice roll better, but it boils down to a few factors including the cost of the dice, how often you use them, and how long you roll them.

Some of the more outlandish stories I've heard so far include:
>Ritually sacrificing a die in a new set to the (luck) god(s); method of sacrifice varies.
>Throwing your dice away (as in the garbage) as punishment and to teach your other dice a lesson.
>Elaborate rituals involving hours of repetitive motions or actions towards idols or posters of game developers and/or designers.

So good people of Dakka, I'm curious to hear your story of how you make your dice roll better for you.

**daedalus**

My D&D dice get tossed in the closet, forcefully. My Warhammer dice though don't get any special treatment. I've a profound d6 curse that manages to resist all of my superstitious attempts at blessing them. Well, short of actually having them blessed, of course.

**themrsleepy**

Well.... This is only a once tested thing. Semi s for 40k ard boys, hmm how can i put this in the dakka family setting. Umm.. Well my wife was holding my dice and I did what young married coulples do

The night before and morning of. Worked for the first game, I was rolling so incredible that he started picking my dice up to make saves, cept he was failing miserably. It really was rediculous. One example, I was throwing 15dice, hit on 3+ would hit 13 to 14, wound on 4+, wounded 9 and 10. Two turns in a row I did that with just that unit. Whatever works right

(oh the dice dont have my stamina I rolled the worst ever in my second game.)

**Gitsplitta**

Haven't done this in years, but we used to have formal executions of dice in front of their peers. All the dice would be laid out in a semicircle, then the offending die would be set in the middle. The other dice were lectured as to the consequences of repeated failure. The offending die was then burned with a lighter, then smashed with a sledge, usually resulting in tiny pieces of the executed die flying through the "witnesses" and knocking them all askew.

As I recall, it was a very effective technique.

**Rymafyr**

I don't know that I have a superstition per se. I do however admit to never rolling the same dice in the same round. So if I take say 10 bolter shots from my CSM and only 4 hit. I use different dice for those 4 hits to wound avoiding the original 10 usually.

Other than that, I do have a set of dice I used for my DE which I flat out refuse to use ever again. After having a game where literally every DL/Blaster shot failed to either hit or wound/pen I was done with that set.

**Laughing Man**

Weighted dice.

**Wi1ikers**

Gitsplitta wrote:Haven't done this in years, but we used to have formal executions of dice in front of their peers. All the dice would be laid out in a semicircle, then the offending die would be set in the middle. The other dice were lectured as to the consequences of repeated failure. The offending die was then burned with a lighter, then smashed with a sledge, usually resulting in tiny pieces of the executed die flying through the "witnesses" and knocking them all askew.

As I recall, it was a very effective technique.

Lol that made me laugh.

**Commander Endova**

Rymafyr wrote:I don't know that I have a superstition per se. I do however admit to never rolling the same dice in the same round. So if I take say 10 bolter shots from my CSM and only 4 hit. I use different dice for those 4 hits to wound avoiding the original 10 usually.

This. I generally avoid rolling the same dice twice in a row. On the rare occasion that I re roll a dice with a result of 1 with the same dice, 90% of the time it comes up as a 1 again.

**oadie**

I tend to roll rather well on d20s but rather poorly on anything with fewer sides, so I made myself a terrain piece/dice tower that I'll use when I get my own table set up. Hopefully the mechanical randomization will be enough to confuse the dice into landing through dumb luck, removing the apparent taint that d6s pick up from my hand.

No rituals for me, though. I got a pound of random dice from RPG Shop for D&D - had a lot of newer players, so I decided to help them out and be a "dice" guy (Get it? Yeah... I hate me a little bit, too.), so changing dice can be voluntary or accidental. For 40K, I have 100 cheap, tiny dice that are all identical, so it'd be hard to pick favorites, even if I were so inclined.

To go completely OT for a second: Rymafyr, I'm loving the "Order of the 'Grail Shaped Beacon'."

**darkdm**

themrsleepy wrote:Umm.. Well my wife was holding my dice and I did what young married coulples do The night before and morning of.

That is up there with some of the more odd things I've heard done! And thank you for sharing it in a "family friendly" way.

Also, glad to hear it works!

Gitsplitta wrote:Haven't done this in years, but we used to have formal executions of dice in front of their peers. All the dice would be laid out in a semicircle, then the offending die would be set in the middle. The other dice were lectured as to the consequences of repeated failure. The offending die was then burned with a lighter, then smashed with a sledge, usually resulting in tiny pieces of the executed die flying through the "witnesses" and knocking them all askew.

Not the first time I've heard abot someone doing this, but as always still enjoyable to hear about it!

Rymafyr wrote:I do however admit to never rolling the same dice in the same round. So if I take say 10 bolter shots from my CSM and only 4 hit. I use different dice for those 4 hits to wound avoiding the original 10 usually.

I do this all the time! Not in the same round, but never during the same set of shooting or attacks.

**themrsleepy**

No problem, but don't forget the disclaimer, only works for one game. haha, Im thinking my dice just need to watch sum pron.... might help too... maybe this weekend when the house is empty I ll leave them on the computer desk with a bottle of lotion and some tissues.... theres an idea, happy dice are productive dice

**Ktulhut**

I have black dice with white pips that I use for high rolling, and red dice with white pips I use for low rolling. Just superstition, but my black dice don't seem to fail me very often. The white dice with black pips... they're for my opponent!

**Twalks**

I never want to roll lucky... Whenever I do the dice gods decide next game that I'm gonna fail miserably at rolling.
Average rolling every game is fine with me.

**Vindicator#9**

Actually i have found th dice that come in sets of 12 from chessex typically roll more random then the set that comes in 36. I hve had lots of very hilarious games because my dice fail me at the worst possible times. I do have one very good scatter die that works well for my Vindicators though that i always use.

**JDM**

Somebody had his dice Blessed by a Priest.

**Mr Mystery**

Belief.

And risk.

Combine the two, and the dice go well. Waste time number crunching, and they will betray you.

Dice like to be thrown as often as possible. The more you deny their thrill, the more they deny you the result you want.

There's no evidence for it, but it is scientific fact.

**JSK-Fox**

I paint the offending dice that roll 1-3s average with orange on their 3, 2, and 1, since they are blue, so they stand out like sore thumbs when they fail me again. The good dice (6s very often), are painted with gold on their 6. They are the ones that are blessed.

**Tzeentchling9**

This one kid constantly drops important dice rolls in his favor, no matter how many times I call him out on it. I tend to try to avoid playing him anyway since he is like the whiniest person in the store.

**Luthon1234**

Each time I buy new dice I have my LGS owner bless them, it generally works but speaking cursed words like "Boogity" will have negative effects. Sometimes so severe that even having the owner bless them won't help them.

**Doctadeth**

I personally do 2 things to my ordinary dice. First of all is the heat purification. I heat a copper frypan to nuke point (max heat) and rapidly panfry the dice. The concept is that the new dice has industrial glues and resin on it, and is unevenly coated, so the heat strips the glue and resin off, or evenly coats it.

Second ritual is a salt water bath, then clean water, then another salt water. Again, to balance the glues and resins.

The better dice I actually get one of my church ministers to bless. (he's a 40K fan as well).

**Shas'O Dorian**

Instructing my dice before a tournament:

"Listen up, if you fail to roll at least average in this tournament I will kill myself. Then I will awaken in hell where I shall begin to gather an army. This army will grow my power into a hideous & twisted form. When the time is right & my army strong I shall tear a portal into reality & my teeming masses will spew forth.

After 6 days and nights of carnage I shall descend through the portal, open one of my 9 mouths, and sing the song that ends the world. . ."

Credit to Penny Arcade for the inspiration.

**DarkAngelHopeful**

After rolling to hit, I usually use different dice to roll to wound.

But, I also bought some Gamescience dice, which are precision dice. They're comparable to casino dice, but cheaper and more durable. I'm hoping they provide true randomization, or as close to it as possible. That way, it's all about math.

I also had a custom Dark Angels dice tower built, so that should add some randomization as well.

**DeadGaurd**

I just buy more dice every couple of months. When you buy dice they come with an amount of luck roughly equal to the amount paid for the dice. The more you roll the dice the more luck they use. Once you have used up all the luck you have to set them asside to generat new luck, this is the point where you buy new dice. The new luck the dice generate will never be as great as the luck they came with, but it should get you back up to just above average after about a month. Also the longer you shake the dice in your hands the more luck they will have when you rool them, I think it has something to do with fricsion or static electricity.

**RiTides**

Kiss your dice

. Just ask Jin...

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

lol
Plead to Mr.Bones.
Supplicate by pouring libations onto the carpet.
Sacrifice chicken and/or goat
Yet more clasping of hands and genuflections while pleading to Mr.Bones.

Needless to say games get messy, go on too long and no one offers me a re match

And I still get rubbish dices
maybe I need moar chicken sacrifices

**-Nazdreg-**

I use dice in the same colour as my army, so it suits it best

That looks neat and hopefully helps with the rolls...

And I always roll some dice a few times before to warm them up a bit and to get to know about their temper for this game.

Last tournament I had a fun duel with my opponent about ruining the opponents dice. My opponent started to whirl into the air with his fingers above my rolling dice and it worked well for him... oO That looked so funny, that I adapted it with his rolls, so we had a nice laugh.

**SmackCakes**

I was always of the opinion that Space Hulk was slightly unbalanced and favoured the Genestealer player.

My theory is; that instead of changing the rules, Games Workshop instead overcame this problem by cursing all the blue dice that came packaged with the game.

Man are those things unlucky! in all my games I don't think I've ever seen a single one of them roll a 6. The red marine dice on the other hand are clearly blessed by the emperor himself.

For this reason I used red dice whenever possible, as there is always a slim chance that they may have originated from a Space Hulk box and be awesome lucky.

And if my opponent has an important roll coming up, I'm always happy to offer them my 'lucky' blue dice to roll with.

**The Survivor**

I find rolling them 1 at a time gets better results

Automatically Appended Next Post:
CURSE THE EMPORER

**Howard A Treesong**

The Survivor wrote:I find rolling them 1 at a time gets better results

Must be a joy to play against.

There's always the techniques involved in 'controlled dice shots' but this is a thinly veiled form of cheating. The outcome of dice are supposed to be random.

**JSK-Fox**

The Survivor wrote:I find rolling them 1 at a time gets better results

Automatically Appended Next Post:
CURSE THE EMPORER

That is why I have mastered my 'HURRY THE

UP!' face.