Ok, dice are supposed to be little low-tech random-number generators, right? They should have no pre-dispossition to land on any particular side unless they're weighted.

Well, over a consistent YEAR of gaming. Everyone in my group has agreed on the fact that I just have abnormally, filthy luck. I will come up with an idea that nets me a few bonuses, and instead of the dice letting the bonuses I get turn it into an awesome outcome, I barely make it. In many cases I don't. We started out with the ragging of: "Heh, heh, it's because you don't treat your dice well, or you're nasty to them." This is all joking, and all of them (players & GM) are rational ...well overall, stable ...(checks for lightning bolts) non-superstitious people. In a moment of seriousness, my GM and others have grudgingly admitted that yes, dice are just little pieces of plastic and by the law of averages, I should get some decent or really awesome roles. They still don't let me touch their dice though...

I do get good roles though. IE, the last round of combat when everyone had been taken out and I was on a moderate wound, once again, BAD rolling. The mop-up round. Instead of my usual 1s and 2s, I get all 6s for initiative. Bloody awesome...

Decking is a nightmare. Since there is far more margin for stuff-ups.

Anyway, maybe someone can explain here, HOW do you roll so as to get RANDOM outcomes? Do you do the old one hand open shake, and drop? Or 2 handed closed shake for 3 seconds?

A friend once taught me to roll them around in the palm of your hand and when you saw mainly ones to drop them and they'd turn to sixes. This IMHO is cheating whether it works or not. I don't want all sixes, I just want RANDOM numbers, IE what dice are supposed to give us. /rant

phew, that feels better.

Pray to them. Compliment them when they do well, and visciously abuse them verbally if they muck up.

Roll on hard surfaces to reduce the chance of the dice simply falling and not rolling due to fabric, OR you could roll on fabric to reduce the roll and hope for the best.

Try to throw them so they don't hit the table dead on and bounce up then roll, try to get it so they land as flat as possible to maximize the roll.

Experiment, go wild. Be crazy. Just might work. grab them, shake'em, hold them for a second or two, then drop.

Also, you might want to roll fewer dice at once. The more dice you have the less they roll around in your hand because there's less space to move in. Not really a problem with 5 or 6, but with 8 or 12 its kinda dumb. split'em up between your hands and roll.

Also, check your power. Don't chuck'em full force or you'll end up getting too much roll so it'll go flying off the ass end of nowhere, or roll so much it'll be likely to wind up not rolling much at all. This is a theory that checks out for me...but I've got semi-crappy dice luck too.

I also suggest you say "so long pizza face" to your dice and buy new ones. My first brick of D6's treat me like garbage. I got another one in trade (bought'em and then someone wanted to trade bricks, so I did) and WOW has the improvement been immense.

You can always use a number generator on a calculator or something, put pieces of paper in a hat, shake it up, and pick one. The problem is its not so much random as it is the program/you picking.

Just try to find a technique that works for you. And remember to treat your dice right. It makes a difference. If nothing else you might earn some pity.

Use fake dice. They rock.

You could become a D6 shaman, or try another path.
1) get a large box
2) when rolling, throw your dice into the box with as much anger as you currently have directed toward those dice
3) get a new box because your dice tore a hole through the first one
4) don't throw quite as hard, but get the dice moving and spinning before they land

I've written numerous random number generators/dice rollers for shadowrun, and they've all rolled very nicely. Maybe I should ask my GM if I can run a dice-roller on my GBA or PDA at the table instead of the little plastic buggers. Why use low-tech when we've got a perfectly good high-tech one?

Low tech doesn't cost battery juice or cost electricity. Plus I just don't feel really like I'm playing the game to the fullest if I'm not chucking the dice that determine my fate.

It's also worth noting that contrary to the proclivities of much of the RPG community, programs like Omnihedron, assuming you have a convenient laptop to run them on, are much, much faster and a lot more convenient than rolling physical dice, which have a propensity for flying all over the place, taking time for people to reroll, etc. Of course, a lot of people seem to enjoy rolling for themselves, which is not feasible if there's only one laptop present, and a lot of people seem to enjoy rolling physical dice, but in general, I don't see it as much of a loss (especially in a game like SR, where technology is a part of the feel; a laptop might be slightly damaging to a fantasy game's atmosphere in which technology would be purely anachronistic)

I think it would be good for rolling intensive stuff like the matrix, but for stuff like "holy crap, I'm at serious stun and I need to take down this sec guard RIGHT FRAGGIN' NOW" and rolling to hit them with a one-handed burst while you open a door with the free hand, nothing beats the added intensity of tempting the fates.

Firing up a dice roller for the laptop would kill it I think. Might actually improve it for the matrix since you'd "feel" like a decker...or I would....

<_<
>_>

okay so I'm a total loser. Whee.

I say just buy new dice. Find another game store that stocks dice from another company or something. Buy a pound of d6s, roll the crap out of them and pick the ones that seem to roll better...heh. Find the ones with the manufacturing flaws in your favor.

Buy new dice and pray you don't have my luck. When I was GMing, I would completely botch at least one roll per night-- that's with a minimum of three dice, a maximum of 12, and an average of 4-6.

Not sure if its only in casinos, but all dice have to be tested for balance to ensure equal odds of rolling. I saw something about it in documentary form.

I have a feeling you're right though, they probably just did it for the first few, set the machines to match those specs, and mass-produce them. Thus, defects are probably more common. That and rough shipping can always damage dice ever so slightly or something. Who knows.

Its in the air pressure I say!

The cheap dice we use in role playing are certainly not individually tested for balance and weight. Sure, they're close enough for what we use even with minor defects, but when Real Money gets involved you have to start testing each individual die.

Although, I will say one of the guys I game with occasionally, no matter the dice he's using, he will almost always roll amazingly well on Perception rolls. It's freaky. The first character he played with us got nicknamed after it because he almost always saw everything. And yes, that's JUST Perception rolls. Otherwise, his rolling is pretty normal and average. Very odd...

It's possible the dice are actually predisposed towards bad rolling.

The edges of well-used dice get worn down with heavy usage. You may have unwittingly made it so they simply have a lot more difficulty landing on the high numbers through heavy usage and the edges getting rounded off just-so. Take a good close look at your dice and see if some of the edges seem rounded off. You can test this by taking two dice and rubbing their sides together. They should just go back and forth, but if they seem to slide over the edges and wobble a lot, they're rigged.

Another possibility is that they may be weighted and you don't know it. A good way to test for loaded dice is to get a tall glass of water and drop them into it. Repeat this a couple of times, starting with a different number up each time. If it only seems to land on 1, 2, or 3 numbers, it's loaded. I was given a 20-sided crystal die, but I was not informed of the curse upon it. Due to air bubbles that had formed in it, it was highly consistent in rolling 1's and other low numbers.

You should also just watch how they fall. Loaded dice seem to almost 'lurch'. I can't describe it well, but they just don't stop right.

[edit: This is in reference to Connor's post about the guy passing all the perception rolls. Curse you same minute postings. Bleh.]

I had a guy like that in my AD&D group. He was a bastard. Awesomely nice guy,
but he passed seemingly every freakin' roll out there. Oh how I loathe his luck. I want to kill and consume him to gain his power.

Meanwhile I'd fail even routine things. I'd be the guy to critically fumble trying to find the bathroom and end up peeing in the town fountain, getting arrested, and hung the next day for crimes against humanity.

One guy I used to GM for had trained dice. He got them warmed up, then set them out to relax. He would then proceed to roll multiple insane TN's on demand.

Dang them adepts with the power of dice rolling.

Dice are like women...the uglier they are the harder they work. Make that insecurity work for you. Find the most hideously ugly dice you can find and buy them immediately. I guarantee that you will notice a positive change from day one.

A whole year?... My friend, my ill luck has plagued me for at least 4 years now so let me give you this advice: work with your luck and do not fight it. Find game systems that work when you roll low. Fading Suns works well in this regard but pisses off those who roll a lot of 20's in that other game

My nickname, which was Sir Botchalot, has been upgraded to Lord Botchaton.

Some highlights are 120ish points of damage to my own head as a Huckster in Deadlands and 34 points of damage in All Flesh Must Be Eaten due to botching opening a fragging crate with a simple crowbar. I've had rangers go through 20 bowstrings in a single adventure in that other game due to botches, and in CoC I've had a normal, run of the mill, non-mythos, bear kill my character without so much as a yipe as a reaction from my poor character. Just a bear. Didn't even get to the cultists yet.

And in Shadowrun.... I'm playing my dwarven bodygaurd with I think it was 7 Body. I get shot by this punk with a StreetSweeper... he goes down less then a combat phase due to return fire.

What was in the StreetSweeper one might ask? Well, the GM rolls a D6. One. Okay something bad was in there... let's see how bad. Another one. Well, it's VITAS or HMHVV. Look, HMHVV. Roll again to see what strain... Ghouls.

Well, damn... least he's a dwarf, and I have a good body to resist. Nine dice? Botch.

Though the next roll I scored a veritable Yatzee with 6's to see how well he adjusts. The power gamer in me says "w00t! Extra Willpower!" Yet the roleplayer in me can't help but realize that's bad in it's own way.

I GM via computer. I play mp3s and use Word, random host generators, NSRCG, etc. when I'm playing. But I don't use random dice rollers. There's just something inherantly...wrong about it. Maybe it's the noise, or the fact there's a physical object that's not worth much you can take your frustration out on...I don't know. But it just doesn't feel right if you're not rolling your dice.

The Abstruse One

I don't know if my dice love me or not but when I play (not so often since I GM now), I get fairly balanced rolls, I get 1s and 6s BUT the difference is that the 1s happen when I can't really be bothered about the result and 6s when I need them. It is all in the timing I say.

My dice from Walmart (hey, 5 for $0.99 plus tax) still work. I've usually ended up being the one providing dice for the group in any game I GM. Basically, I'd recommend going to Wally world and picking up about 20 dice or so. That should solve your problem.

How you throw them is important also. I've got a semi-practiced way of throwing that basically assures that the dice will bounce on the table. Dice cups are also useful; some like them, but I've never really been a fan. Check out the surface you're rolling on; sometimes the dice like to bounce better on different surfaces.

Don

the dieroller at shadowland lusts for my chitlins. i've rolled 13 dice on a stealth test, and come up with a high roll of 5. this happened three times in a row.

When I play, I definitely prefer to use real dice, although on occasion I've been known to fire up my dice program.

When I GM however, I find it much easier and quicker to juse use the dice program. I don't want to spend my time GM'ing rolling a crapload of dice for everything, I just want the numbers so I can move the game forward.

Note: I currently reside in Taiwan. Besides a notable increase in Chinese quisine (and use the term loosely) establishments, we have a decided LACK of anything role-playing related. I scared a class full of students showing them a D20 and telling them yes, it was a DIE.

My D6 collection consists of a bunch of scuffed, green monopoly dice I think I inherited from Ezra's girlfriend. A few puke patterned dice in various color schemes, my strawberries and oreo one doesn't roll too badly though (4 and sometimes 5s), and a plethora of those little green, red and blue Games-Workshop, Warhammer dice.

I'm loathe to use the warhammer dice as it just feels...wrong. They roll like demons though and you're assured of at least getting one six in there, no matter how few you roll, then again, it seems to even out when I roll though and they seem below average. My girlfriend won't let me use them however, so the point is moot I usually roll on my notepad or plastic-sleeve covered character sheet in front of me as space is limited during role-playing by M&Ms, ashtrays, ciggies and Dr.Pepper cans.

I like the high tech route idea. I play a decker, and PDAs are dirt cheap in Taiwan. I could write up a nice die roller program for my PDA and incorporate a host generator at the same time. It just remains to convince my GM, Ezra to let me use the thing to roll with in game...

I always store my dice in their container with the 6's up. The last roll I did for shadowrun, I rolled 6 or so dice and got a 26. Rock.

JaronK

Here's what you do. Freeze the dice. As the saying goes, "cool dice give cool rolls".

Additionally, give them a little bit nicer housing conditions. An ornamental chest or something lined with velvet can be picked up at an artsy store or something for not too much, and the dice will really appreciate the effort. When you store them, store them all with sixes down, so that face yearns to see the sky.

Finally, if abysmal performance continues, gather all your dice around the worst of them, and commence the melting. Make the execution as long as possible, and brutalize the unlucky (literally) die. Make sure the sixes are facing away from this.

If these procedures do not work, your very soul is cursed and you must find a new one. Good luck!

I'm going with the "little, low-tech pieces of plastic" school of thought here. They have no souls, spirits or inhabiting entities of your choice. Just plastic. I have, once, thrown one across a freeway as a lesson to the others, but I tend to steer away from such superstitious activites.

No, the PDA is starting to sound good. Maybe I'll buy it a nice case... and put a Shadowrun logo on the front...

Sweet Jesus, Plastic Rat. For the first two paragraphs I thought I had written the post and forgot about it. Misery loves company, and I'm glad I'm not the only one with uber-shitty dice luck.
I've earned several I.C. and O.O.C. nicknames from my horrible dice luck,
Gator Bait, Karma Platinum, (both of those from the same character, spent about 12 or 14 karma over two game sessions to save my character from certain death or severe injury), Fate's Little Bitch, etc. Current physad character has only one init dice and mostly rolls low. Once when the mage cast improved reflexes on me giving me an additional die, I only rolled snake eyes for the enitire combat. The next gaming session the mage player told me if I rolled a 2 he would imediately drop the increased reflexes spell and use it on someone else who would actually benefit from it. And on the first round I roll for initiative and get two 1's.

Even in D&D, I can only roll nat 20's on knowledge skill rolls, and fail 9 out of 10 strike rolls (even as a fighter class), and only 1's damage when I do hit.

You can try good luck charms. I swear that this little ceramic good luck pig improves my day if I carry it around. Somehow the bad news isn't as bad, the dice are slightly better, things go my way even when they shouldn't.

Superstitious nonsense is the only kind of sense in this world anymore. If an ignorant bigotted texan who can't effectively speak commonplace english can become president of the USA, and pencil neck dick with glasses can become worth billions of dollars by outright bloody theft, then superstition is a viable alternative dag nabbit.

Anyways, if you want some real looks of confusion and of "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THIS PERSON!?" bring a bag of assorted dice to your English class and not only explain to them that "d6" IS NOT THE ONLY GOD DAMN BLEEDING DICE IN EXISTENCE but that rolling dice is like living life itself, and you will officially frighten, confuse, and befuddle them.

I think I could have done worse only if I wore a gigantic banana suit, wore a tutu, put on a beret and started screaming how the stinky cheese man was after my prized poodle collection.

Plastic Rat: Can't you get those d6's they use for Mah-Jonng?

Remember people. Dice are living creatures. They have a personality and a karma all of their own. Never underestimate their power.

For a lot of fun, take a few dice to a multiple choice test. A 4, a 6 and a 10 should work for most questions. Roll one before marking an answer. If anyone asks, explain that you trust your dice more than your memory.

Easiest way to get your players paranoid as hell is start rolling dice every time they say they do something, then make some notes. VERY effective for Matrix runs. "Analyze Host" is now one of my decker's favorite operations

The Abstruse One

Actually, on that note, it's worth pointing out that going with digital rolling on a laptop allows you to basically do the same thing, only faster. Your players never know if you're just opening a new document, playing a game, browsing the internet, or loading them full of 8M holes. Uncertainty keeps the game alive.

Moderation keeps it alive I think. Too much of that and it loses the impact. You'd need to do it at the right moment every so often, otherwise it'll just irritate people I imagine.

I think the sound of dice rolling would be much more effective. For added effect say "mmm that's interesting", "ooh", and of course "oh damn."

Actually, the idea is to provide false positives so your players don't know when a roll indicates something is up and when it means nothing. End result is that rolling fades into the background because the players know it means reliably next to nothing.

Right, I can understand that, but it'd kill it for me. That's something that newbie groups could benefit from I think, but after a while (maybe 2 or 5 game sessions, depending on their length) it just seems like the GM is saying "I can't trust you to roleplay decently" and that'd put me off.

I was playing in an AD&D group last summer full of experienced veterans. I was (and still am due to lack of playtime) a newbie. I had no problems going "okay the DM just rolled something, I wonder what it means" and then immediately putting it out of mind and concentrating on what my character is doing.

I'd much rather get excited when the dice start rolling then stop giving a damn altogether. For a roleplaying intensive game like vampire it might not matter so much, but for games like SR that tend to be roll-happy it'd be a strong negative.

It's not about enforcing roleplaying; it's about fostering genuine tension and fear of the unknown among players. A good roleplayer will play his character like that fear is real. A good GM will make sure he doesn't have to.

One of these days I should really pick up some casino-grade d6. I imagine this might help Plastic Rat's rolling, too.

If I want the players to be more paranoid, I'll just randomly ask them for Perception or Body rolls.

I do that all the time. And the point IS to over-saturate them with rolls. If they're rolling perception or see you rolling 30 dice (even if only the green ones count for the host's value) or whatever every 5 or 10 minutes, they won't know the one time in 50 that you actually ARE rolling seriously. And fake the reactions about half the time, and keep your face stone the other half, that way they won't know if your poker face means it's real or your "Aw, crap" face means it's real.

And don't give me that crap about "forcing roleplaying". I don't care how good of a roleplayer you are. You could be a Shakespearean improv actor with 20 years experience, you're STILL going to know, deep down inside, when the GM rolls dice, that's bad and you should be on your guard.

The only downside to this tactic, however, is players tend to keep wanting to roll search checks and perception tests and find paydata tests and analyze host tests. If you get into this, just call out "There's nothing there." before the dice finshing bouncing around the table. That usually gets the hint across.

The Abstruse One

OK dude, first, you gotta pay homage to the dice gods. I personally do this by testing each and every die I buy by testing how it rolls before I buy it. I've done this especially with d20's, and it works spectacularly.

Example. Was GMing for 3e once, 4 players, a ranger, druid, wizard, and warrior-cleric. Against 10 orcs. No sweat, right? I rolled for six of the orcs with personally tested d20s. Result? 17 18 18 19 20 20. Both of which rolled successful critical hits. All the rolls in front of the players. I should add I repeatedly rolled in the high numbers (15 and up) throughout the campaign. They still talk about it.

Moral? As someone said earlier, not all dice are created equal. Test them (thus paying respects to the dice gods by proving your sincerity to find the best dice out there) and after paying your dues in your quest for high dice rolls, you should find the dice that roll the best, and be blessed with good dice rolls to the end of your days.

Seriously, I used to have horrible luck, until I did this, and now I actually am a pretty lucky roller. There are dice gods, they are real, and they can get pretty damn pissed if you don't pay respects. Since you're from Taiwan, just think of it as paying respects to the ancestors. Just little geometrically shaped ones.

And in regards to creating tension among players, I've found one of the best methods is to simply roll major 'make or break' rolls right in the open. Nothing beats having everyone watching 'the money shot' and knowing whatever happens is straight up, no cheating, and crossing their fingers, waiting to see how the roll will turn out. Twice, a player either avoided death or killed a major enemy by the absolute exact margin (in the old school Legend of the Five Rings game, which made the fact that it was an exact margin ridiculously dramatic). We still talk about those rolls years later.

I'm firm yet loving with my dice. When they do well for me, I treat them well, lining them up nicely, petting them, cleaning them often. But when they're bad, I throw them across the room, slam them on the table, etc. I once melted a d20 that rolled 63 rolls in a row under 8, and up to 6 1s in a row in front of all the other dice so they could see what would happen to them if they messed up.

The Abstruse One

No no no, blackmail them with some hot n' juicy that way you're assured of their support. If they start to show signs of making waves, kill them. Also, make liberal use of torture. Physical torture leaves tell-tale signs, but emotional and mental torture can't really be traced.

If you're worried about someone talking cut out their tongue.

There is only one way to deal with bad dice.

You need to get a hammer, and a block of wood. If a dice rolls 1, pick it up, and roll it again. If it rolls a 1 a second time. smash it as an example to the other dice.

Trust me, those little bastards will fall in line. If the hammer doesn't do it, devise new ways to make them pay for their insolence! I have a bunsen burner and paint thinner handy during all my games.

Remember:

There once was a boy with no luck,
His dice just seemed to suck,
He took notes from Himmler,
And became a die Killer,
Now his dice are all fucked.