Why does this keep happening to me?, Oddball dice rolling for your character. Options

[Kovu Muphasa]

I keep having this happening to me, Kovu who has a Body of 6 and wear Military Grade Armor so I am normally about 20 dice to resist damage. 9 time out of 10 the fist bullet of the fight will just clip me with like one or two net hits for an average 7 points of damage. No problem I think and then roll like 1 or 2 successes [ (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif) ] unless I spend a point of edge.

Does any one else have this kind of luck.

[Draco18s]

More frequently I get the reverse (dice pool 4 + 4 edge post roll = 6 successes?)

[Summerstorm]

At my table i am KNOWN for having the worst luck possible. Hell in D&D (yeah sorry) i have in a few sessions only scored two crits - when i was mindcontrolled and attacking OUR own people.

Back to SR: Have managed to (in 3 sessions) make a edged damage resistence tests with 10 dice with no hits. TWO times. Both times damage was 10P too, so my character just fell down and stayed down. The FIRST ROLL in my "career" was acritical failure: In Black Eye you have to throw three D20 to determine the outcome... first time i ever rolled i managed to get two 20's... and exploded my own horse with a firelance (while i was sitting on it) Cue the badass boast: "See what i can do with my horse? I can do the same to you all!" Orcs weren't that impressed.

Really... having a 75% chance to succeed is for me like 20%-30%. On the other hand: My NPC's are very weak for the players. I think they like that *g*.

[mielikki]

That is a problem we keep running into as well.

Of course there is the psychology part to it (no, you don't remember how many times your roll was just in line with the statistics of having 1/3 of you dice come up successful - but you do remember the odd results).

However, the sammy keeps scoring 1 or 2 successes on his 14 combat dice, whereas my mage frequently has 4 or 5 successes on her 7 assensing dice (strange, neither me nor him get these kinds of results on other pools...)

The GM is pretty unhappy about this and keeps muttering something about probability being unreliable!

[Draco18s]

At my table i am KNOWN for having the worst luck possible. Hell in D&D (yeah sorry) i have in a few sessions only scored two crits - when i was mindcontrolled and attacking OUR own people.

I've never critted.

Ever.

Not once. (Except on a mook who would have died anyway)

Not even crit threats. (Except one other time)

I've only ever rolled 20s on skill checks and initiative.

[rumanchu]

I've never critted.

Ever.

Not once. (Except on a mook who would have died anyway)

Not even crit threats. (Except one other time)

I've only ever rolled 20s on skill checks and initiative.

I had a character in a 3E game that was basically powergamed the hell and back to have a high initiative...which was crippled by the sheer disdain that the d20 world seems to hold me in. A typical session would go something like this:

DM: Okay, initiatives, everyone
Player 1: 22
Player 2: Nice! 29!
Player 3: 19
Me: God damn 28.
Player 3: What's wrong with that?
Me: My bonus is PLUS TWENTY-SIX!

[Stahlseele]

In SR/BT, i roll low.
In Gurps, i roll high.

[Draco18s]

I had a character in a 3E game that was basically powergamed the hell and back to have a high initiative...which was crippled by the sheer disdain that the d20 world seems to hold me in. A typical session would go something like this:

DM: Okay, initiatives, everyone
Player 1: 22
Player 2: Nice! 29!
Player 3: 19
Me: God damn 28.
Player 3: What's wrong with that?
Me: My bonus is PLUS TWENTY-SIX!

I had a friend like that. He actually went second once.

[Dr.Rockso]

I am the dice pariah. My sr gm once thought I was just superstitious. Now he wants me to be his final project for his stats class. My gm for the game that causes cancer had to create a unique item for me that allows me to re-roll 1s. I subsequently only got 2s. A non-believing player asked me to roll for him one game to prove it. He now won't let me touch his dice.

My only respite is that occasionally i somehow pass this...err...curse on to someone else at the table and roll decent all night.

[Ascalaphus]

There are several known remedies. Sacrificing gerbils to elder gods sometimes works.

The classiest remedy is to kill one die with a hammer in view of the others, and warning them not to disappoint you.

[cndblank]

One word.

Edge.

I have a player who is infamous for rolling bad.

When we started an SR campaign I had him take the max Edge.

And he has had a much better time ever since.

[Brazilian_Shinob...]

I had a character in a 3E game that was basically powergamed the hell and back to have a high initiative...which was crippled by the sheer disdain that the d20 world seems to hold me in. A typical session would go something like this:

DM: Okay, initiatives, everyone
Player 1: 22
Player 2: Nice! 29!
Player 3: 19
Me: God damn 28.
Player 3: What's wrong with that?
Me: My bonus is PLUS TWENTY-SIX!

That's why I would always play as a Iaijutsu Master, just so I could have a hig iniative modifier to even have a chance of competing with everyone esle.

[Ghremdal]

Trying to con into somewhere with my face, with 12 dice on the con test:

result1: 1 hit
me: crap bad luck. Using edge to reroll
result2: 1 hit
GM: Bleh that was bad luck. That was a nice RP though, Ill give you a free reroll.
result3(after changing the dice): 1 hit
me and GM:.....


Though it got better later when on a negotiation test (9 dice) I got 8 hits.

[Dumori]

My mate is a dice GOD i can litraly call how many on what dice he roll and get with in 1-2 either side. I used to war game with him till he got his gift. I mean really I might as well fragging pick his dice rolls.

[Mantis]

I've got one player just like that. We can count on him to roll poorly, most especially for tests to save his life. Damage soak with 15 dice? How many hits? 3? What the hell....reroll. 3 again? Well we tried. Unfortunately for him I have the exact opposite, way more hits than expected on a pool. I'm sure I'm averaging more than 50% hits on a given pool with frequent cases of things like 9 hits on 10 dice. On the other hand, when I roll bad its really bad so I guess it all evens out.

[Mikado]

There are several known remedies. Sacrificing gerbils to elder gods sometimes works.

The classiest remedy is to kill one die with a hammer in view of the others, and warning them not to disappoint you.

I've done this... and oddly it works...

I even ground up the chunks of many crushed dice added epoxy and made some dice. They don't work very well though. Not sure why! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[Draco18s]

I've got one player just like that. We can count on him to roll poorly, most especially for tests to save his life. Damage soak with 15 dice? How many hits? 3?

My luck:

"12P exposion damage? I edge!"

*Roll*

*Roll 6s*

*Roll more 6s*

*Roll two more dice*

12 hits.

I actually staged the damage down to 2, only realizing the next session (the roll was right near the end of combat) that I hadn't added my body dice to the roll, which gave me my last two hits allowing me to go, "Grenade? What grenade?"

[kjones]

One of my players once had a single edge die that exploded four times in a row.

And there's always that C.L.U.E. file about the shaman rolling 26 1's on a fireball... I'd call BS, but I know a guy who was there.

[Muspellsheimr]

My luck seems to fluctuate - often within the same session. It is rarely, however, average. I am nearly guaranteed to roll well above or well below average.


A friend who recently began playing The Game That Shall Not Be Named (who seems to have quit again, possibly because of this) has had exceptionally bad luck with d20's. One of his roll sets was, in order, 1-2-2-2-2-1. I think they where all attack rolls or spell resistance, most with Disintegrate. Every time he switched to something that didn't require an attack roll, and somehow got past the spell resistance, the GM consistently rolled 15+ on the saves against it.

[Dumori]

Really I've never forget the day 10 korne beskers killed my 100 plus conscripts n a turn. Every roll was waht he wanted 1s for blood lust and all 6s to hit and wound my poor guards men ran like babies from those guys who then consolidated in to a squad that wasn't fodder... the reast of his army fell to my hail of lasguns and heavy weapons but those 10 men killed more men than any humman would have though possable all in a torniment. We had near by games stop to watch this... Though my 400pt Space marine army was really one man with fodder he has never died and has won me many a game as the last man alive on the table.

[Stahlseele]

Just for shits and giggles i got me some loaded dice on last Nerdcon.
Just for shits and giggles i actually roll with them from time to time.
If the roll is good, i change them for non loaded dice.
If the roll is bad, i keep the roll from the loaded dice.
Believe it or not, i still roll bad even with loaded dice.

[MadDogMike]

Really I've never forget the day 10 korne beskers killed my 100 plus conscripts n a turn. Every roll was waht he wanted 1s for blood lust and all 6s to hit and wound my poor guards men ran like babies from those guys who then consolidated in to a squad that wasn't fodder... the reast of his army fell to my hail of lasguns and heavy weapons but those 10 men killed more men than any humman would have though possable all in a torniment. We had near by games stop to watch this... Though my 400pt Space marine army was really one man with fodder he has never died and has won me many a game as the last man alive on the table.

Heh, my lascanon accuracy issues were amazing with SM Devastators. Had one game where I rolled a 1 EVERY single time he attacked, which given his group got into CC rather fast was quite a few ones on my turn and my opponent's. Even left the guy alive when selecting CC casualties purely for the amusement of seeing if he ever hit. My opponent suggested I remodel him with a "Shooting for Dummies" book he could be reading. Got even more amusing when I went to the new codex and had a sergeant with signum in a squad with two lascannons. Every single time I used him with one lascannon shooter said guy would miss despite having a higher chance to hit, while the unmodified gunner was scoring almost every time. I imagined the hapless shooter screaming at his sergeant "STOP HELPING ME!!!" (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

On the other side of things, my dice were downright plot sensitive in a d20 Legend of the Five Rings game I played. My iaijutsu master seemed to constantly roll 20s on fast drawing; particularly memorable when I was sucked into a duel with a superior opponent and beat him with ease when I got a 20 and he got a 1. What made it funny is the few times I didn't get a 20 were perfectly timed for campaign drama; getting beaten by one opponent (after I had slashed down all his mooks with ease) made a great "uh oh, this enemy is badass!" moment in the game.

Dice-wise I do think quite a few game dice are rounded enough to screw up their probability curves noticably. Ever since I switched to casino-quality d6s I suddenly saw a much more even distribution of luck in my rolling. While not as amusing as the obviously biased to good rolls dice, it does work out much more fun with the improved randomness.

[Daylen]

most of the time I roll crap, sheer crap. having more dice seems to help me roll more average though.

[knasser]

All this, and yet every month there's an argument on these forums where people drag out averages to prove how Character X never needs to worry because they get Y hits from their dice pool. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

For the record, I'm GM, and my mooks never get as many hits as I think they ought to.

K.

[nemafow]

My NPCs are notorious for always rolling under statistics... Perhaps I should throw a few extra dice on just to keep it 'even'