Worse luck EVER in this game

[Thewink 45]

I dont care if i get rip for this because I brought back a old thread, but some of the stuff on this thread are funny to read. I once through a die so hard that i chipped it.

[RobWeaver]

I cannot trust luck. If it comes down to needing a good dice roll at the right time, I can't do it. So I avoid that strategy. I've beaten a friend of mine a whopping total of ONCE since 2005. Reason? He reads and anticipates my playstyle. He knows I avoid chance rolls. He knows I try to maneuver for one massive overwhelming push. At this point, he even knows that I'm intimidated when we come to the board! It's what's called in sports "a bad match-up." It has more to do with personality than game skills. Still, losing to him, I learn things about the game.

[flameslayer93]

Usually, my entire soloscape game will consist of either dire attacks(imagine dealing 3 wounds to most heroes in a single strike) or invincible figures and many blanks for attack dice. When I play with others, however the dice seem to work correctly. In other words, to my advantage

[Codeman]

Originally Posted by Thewink 45

Anyone else have real bad luck in this game?

No .... the luck usally averages out, and even it doesn't it should not matter .... raise your game and remove/reduce or at least make luck less of a factor.

[Drumline3469]

Originally Posted by Codeman

No .... the luck usally averages out, and even it doesn't it should not matter .... raise your game and remove/reduce or at least make luck less of a factor.

I will say that I feel like I am far and above a better strategist than my opponents locally (Usually my armies are all synergized while theirs is a complete mixed bag with no synergy or theme and usually with low rating heroes.) I usually take Q9, Nilf, Raelin, 4th mass, and other high rated characters and play a pretty good game, but my dice have always lost it. I played in a tourney where my AE didn't drop in 4 games. I played through the entire DnD Campaign without winning initiative. Yes, theoretically it should balance out, but for me it doesn't seem to. Although, it could very well be a psyche thing (12 positives to cancel 1 negative). All I know is that it got bad enough for me to all but swear off the game.

[Codeman]

Originally Posted by Drumline3469

I will say that I feel like I am far and above a better strategist than my opponents locally (Usually my armies are all synergized while theirs is a complete mixed bag with no synergy or theme and usually with low rating heroes.) I usually take Q9, Nilf, Raelin, 4th mass, and other high rated characters and play a pretty good game, but my dice have always lost it. I played in a tourney where my AE didn't drop in 4 games. I played through the entire DnD Campaign without winning initiative. Yes, theoretically it should balance out, but for me it doesn't seem to. Although, it could very well be a psyche thing (12 positives to cancel 1 negative). All I know is that it got bad enough for me to all but swear off the game.

I don't think I've gone a complete game without winning initiative, but I have played games were I've only gotten it once or twice. All I can say that alone doesn't keep you from winning the game ( it may make it much closer and more difficult ) but you can still win .... again ... it is the dice and random turns or events that help make this game so good. If you can perdict the out come it would not be fun to play and would not have to play it. It is the dice rolls that help make the game a challenge or is some cases a cake-walk ( and I do not really like those games but again it is part of HS )

I will stand by my original statement:
"No .... the luck usally averages out, and even it doesn't it should not matter .... raise your game and remove/reduce or at least make luck less of a factor."

[Wytefang]

My question to the good Codeman would be so what about when you already playing well and you lose to an inferior player due to sheer bad luck?

You want to talk about frustrating? THAT's frustrating!

[Wytefang]

Whatcha gonna do? You fix the game! At least it worked for my issues with it, anyway.

[Tornado]

I have the worst rolls in my group. Whenever I get a good roll my friends are surprised and amazed. I am extremely pleased when I roll to averages. I was really competitive in Battletech, only losing a mech in one game at a convention in over 20 years of competition. This made getting crushed in HS a hard pill to swallow. My one saving grace was my lucky D20 from an original D&D boxed set. It was one where you had to chalk in the numbers. My armies always had Braxas, Sudema, Morsbane, and/or the Anubian Wolves. Unfortunately it was lost (stolen I believe on accident). This has lead me to play an overly aggressive style which usually backfires. I almost quit playing about a dozen times early on but everyone enjoyed HS so much, I could not bring myself to be the 'wet blanket'. You really do have to play just for the enjoyment but really that is the way it should be. Have fun, 'Scape on... peace

[gambl009]

I used to, but I did two things to change it.
I noticed that when I rolled, I would not give the dice enough room to "roll" in my hands, so I continually threw the same basic combinations.
Second, I built a crude, but effective dice tower that will spin and bounce the dice as they fall.
This helped me, maybe it will help some of you.

[Wytefang]

One other solution to the annoying over-reliance on luck in the game design, is to house-rule all the lame, unreliable special powers utilizing D20 rolls. Just make powers that are supremely potent a one-shot or limited use deal. Works really well and you get results that match the abilities of the players rather than the random results of the dice.

[SuperflyTNT]

And the kickoff...

Originally Posted by Wytefang

One other solution to the annoying over-reliance on luck in the game design, is to house-rule all the lame, unreliable special powers utilizing D20 rolls. Just make powers that are supremely potent a one-shot or limited use deal. Works really well and you get results that match the abilities of the players rather than the random results of the dice.

...then the return...

Whatcha gonna do? You fix the game! At least it worked for my issues with it, anyway.

...and now, the punt...

Well I'm not going so far as to say it's "broken" - my use of the word "fix" was only intended to refer to a specific aspect of the game that I feel needs improving.

I wonder at the reason one would invest heavily in a game that they didn't like the design of, but hey, who am I to question you. My point is that the overwhelming majority of players like the randomness. Yeah, some people complain (as I have) about it, but at the end of the day, it's part of the game that leads to exciting moments, death-defying rolls, and bitter losses. It's what makes Heroscape, Heroscape.

and removes the annoyance of making some clever tactical decisions on the battlefield only to have your special ability randomly not work.

"clever tactical decisions", huh? So the game is without clever tactical decisions? If you KNOW something is going to work, it's not all that clever. It's predictable. Imagine Atlaga if you knew, 100% of the time, that you'd get the kill. How about Chilling Touch? THAT, my friend, breaks the game.

As I see it, having a randomly-activated special ability would be like playing Unreal Tournament and having your gun's secondary powerful ability just randomly jam every once in a while.

I'm sure no soldier has ever faced a weapon jam in the heat of combat. Oh, wait, it's the reason Glocks and Kalashnikovs are revered and the M-16 requires incredibly detailed maintenance and was a battlefield failure initially.

It's just not fun (and most people would find that incredibly frustrating and annoying to boot). Instead people would just decide to not use that secondary feature and that's counter-productive to providing it in the first place.

Yeah, you're right. All those folks at events all over the world, all the people who've played Heroscape for going on ten years, all the folks who bought thousands of dollars of this game are all cringing every time a power comes along with a D20. I know that I've never in my lifetime seen Braxas use his special power. I'd bet that Sir Gilbert's a total shelf toad since his special is so utterly random. Heck, I'd be sure that Cyprien's never used Chill Touch, I mean after all, it's a D20. Nobody believes in them.

I'm calling a spade a spade here. No more, no less.