Dice Quirks

[Darth Vader]

Heroscape is a game of dice. Like them or hate them, the game wouldn't exist without dice. I am probably the worst dice thrower in the worst dice throwing Heroscape group in the country. I couldn't throw a shield when needed to save my life, and forget about winning initiative if you're me. Just today, I got my rear end handed to me because I can't roll dice. I threw a five blanks (no shields, all blanks) in an attack roll with Chardris, which happens all too often to me. My last game, I had a total of 1 good dice rolls, which amounted to one dead greenscale. I practice my dice rolling for probably 30 minutes each day, but it just isn't helping much.

In my group, we got all sorts of excuses as to why we can't throw dice. One player (DavKop50, seriously thought that one corner of our game room was in a mysterious vortex that made all dice rolls bad. It so happened that during that day, nobody won playing from that corner, and it was because the dice couldn't fall for them.

We also are very picky about the dice we use. The Valkyrie dice don't see much action anymore, and the old red and blue dice rarely see action either. We usually stick to the basic white dice, because they seem to be the least bad. If dice aren't doing their job, we like to switch them out for different dice, but we now limit it to one dice switch out per game.

Another common practice in our group is separating our basic white dice into attacking dice and defending dice. If it appears that a certain die has thrown a few more skulls than shields in a given game, they become exclusively used as attacking dice until they can't get the job done anymore.

Some people might call these little dice quirks cheating, I see them as ways for a ridiculously bad dice roller might be able to change his or her luck in Heroscape.

My group and myself cannot be the only people who have bizarre dice rolling rituals. Please share any of your own goofy dice quirks if you got them. You never know, maybe your tip could help out a very unlucky Heroscaper conquer dice rolling.

[flameslayer93]

For attacks that pierce defense completely we only ever use the red dice.

We tend to get semi-good rolls over here with the exception of one or 2 bad games, so no troubles this way.

[Arrow Grut]

I good semi-good rolls (ok, maybe not, but when your playing omnicrons the lowest of skulls you can get is 2 if you can roll well, and if you play the 'crons like me, you rarely roll only one die when attacking with the snipers). But one thing we like to do is think about your oppenent getting a good roll and you'll get (suspossedly)a good roll.

[Fen_Hydra]

I CANNOT roll good rolls with the valkyrie dice. I haven't used them after about my 20th in a row all blanks roll. (Extremely small exaggeration.) For initiative rolls I use my lucky d20 that I got in the D&D Minis game starter set. I have barely ever rolled badly with that. My father always says that there isn't such a thing as "lucky dice". I belive differently. Apperently he hasn't seen what happens with the standard d20 or the valkyrie dice. (Which is weird because he's the only person I can play with.)

[DrAwsm]

After my dice have been used for a combat phase, I seperate all those dice into a seperate pile until all the other dice are used.

Rolling bad is all too often for me. I'll be playing Shurrak, on height, and he'll get all skulls, then the Deepwyrm Drow disappears. Likewise, if he only rolls one skull, the Drow rolls just enough to survive. And the Deathstalkers always get amazing defense rolls for my opponent, but that's usually whenever I attack them, only two skulls get rolled. I don't think my dice are very fond of me....

[CapnRedChops]

Play the percentages and the dice will look after themselves - if you roll more dice than your opponent 70% of the time you'll generally win I find.

I like to 'warm the dice up' in my hands. Old gambling cliche, but it seems to work. I also say "Skulls, skulls, skulls!" When attacking at a crucial juncture, and "Come on shields!" when defending.

CRC

[Bonecrusher]

I prefer having normal white dice and rolling regularly onto my normal section of table cloth. Some of my buddies move the dice that rolled skulls into a pile and likewise with the shields, and sometimes even they talk to their dice but I have always been the plainest of the bunch. It's just how I roll.

[Darth Vader]

Originally Posted by CapnRedChops

Play the percentages and the dice will look after themselves - if you roll more dice than your opponent 70% of the time you'll generally win I find.
CRC

Playing the percentages doesn't work if you consistently throw dice well below the percentages.

[Chilling Touch]

My dice like me. My friend, (nubGrub muncher) however, hates his dice. he stubbornly sticks to einar valkyrie dice.

I swear, one time he rolled 11 attack dice with Su-Bak-Na, and rolled ten Einar symbols. My ashigaru blocked his one skull with my one sheild. Then the ashigaru proceeded to kill subakna.

If im in a tough situation, I mutter to myself...

"heart of the dice"

It works. Sometimes. ^.^

~CT, adding his

[Darth Vader]

Originally Posted by Chilling Touch

My dice like me. My friend, (nubGrub muncher) however, hates his dice. he stubbornly sticks to einar valkyrie dice.

I swear, one time he rolled 11 attack dice with Su-Bak-Na, and rolled ten Einar symbols. My ashigaru blocked his one skull with my one sheild. Then the ashigaru proceeded to kill subakna.

If im in a tough situation, I mutter to myself...

"heart of the dice"

It works. Sometimes. ^.^

~CT, adding his

I don't doubt he tossed 10 symbols with the Einar dice. I have seen worse with the Einar Dice. They are the worst of the Valkyrie dice imo.

[CapnRedChops]

Originally Posted by Darth Vader

Playing the percentages doesn't work if you consistently throw dice well below the percentages.

Dude, we only use, what, 10% of our minds? If you go into a game thinking, "I'm gonna consistently throw dice well below the percentages." it could be that that mindset might effect your performance.

NO ONE KNOWS what our minds can really do...

The power of the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' is a long held belief among elite sportspeople in my country. You go in believing you're going to be terrible at some aspect of your game, and you generally are. You go in believing you are going to dominate in a certain aspect, and you generally do.

Now this is no black and white, clear cut, cause and effect relationship - you might believe you're going to be terrible at some aspect of your game because you haven't prepared properly, you're injured, etc. so that the results match the reality of the situation. Same with being at peak fitness and preparation... but people who rise above injury and poor prep to succeed don't go in thinking they're going to lose.

There's also the unknown of how will fits into the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' theory. If you are competing against someone, you might be visualising your success, but they may be visualising your failure. Is will a factor, or does it just come down to the person who is performing the action?

So the whole 'self-fulfilling prophecy' concept will be a theory until either our perception of reality improves or our tech changes enough so that we can understand our own potential.

A technique for creating positive mind traffic we Aussies use a lot is visualiation. You imagine the successful shot, before you attempt it. If nothing else, it helps you focus on those factors that are within your control, but if the 'self-fulfilling prophecy' theory is true, you are creating the best outcome you can imagine for yourself.

I'm not saying it's easy to defeat the negative feedback loop you've obviously set up around your die rolling (you roll badly, so you believe you will roll badly in the future, so you do roll badly, which reinforces your previously held belief).
I'd try fighting it with logic to begin with.

Roll one die over and over, many, many times (say while you have your breakfast over the course of a week), and mark down what each die roll resulted in, with nothing on the line, no figure lives or dies as a result.

Believe that half the time, it'll be a skull. Believe that a third of the time, it'll be a shield. Believe that one sixth of the time, it'll be blank. Use logic as the foundation of that belief, because it's a fact.

Look at the results after a week (you should have over 350 rolls) and roughly half will be skulls, roughly a third will be shields, and roughly 1/6 will be blank.

This should prove to you that your die rolling is no worse than anyone elses (which is the first step to making it better than everyone elses, if that's what you want - I don't, I love a square game myself).

Also, elite gamblers will tell you that there are ways to roll a die so that you are more likely to get the result you want... if you have enough skill.

CRC

[jschild]

You practice rolling dice?