"Barn door syndrome" Topic

Seeing the 'Bob' posts got me thinking about this. At our club is an 'Anti Bob'. Whenever I play against him he always suffers from Barn Door syndrome i.e couldn't hit one at twenty paces. And yet somehow it never fazes him, he just remains calm. He never has this problem against anyone else, just me. I don't think he's beat me once in the couple of years I've known him, and it's not down to my amazing skill as a player.

I have been on the poor end of Barn door syndrome myself. Playing a day long game of Corner Of Hell my Royal Marines were assualting a German held town trying to get to the bunker at the other end of town where they were shooting up a landing force. I was getting slaughtered, despite being superior troops and causing nearly zero damage. Then we had a break for lunch during which I managed to get hold of some brand new dice. The first turn after lunch with the new dice I wiped out nearly a whole Germanb squad in one go. And after that it just got better, which was very satisfying as I was playing against the club Rules Lawyer.

Has anyone else suffered from this? when the dice just don't work for you? I call it Barn door because I mainly do Twentieth century where there is plenty of shooting going on but I'm sure most people are familiar with the concept.

yeps…at least twice that I care to remember…

One was an Axis and Allies game where I was defending Karelia against the Germans. I had the equvialent of 44 dice to roll (d6) for my defense. I needed 4's or below…

42 of the 44 rolled 5's or 6's…
I rolled some singly. I rolled some in the box, some on the table, changed out dice. Everything I could do…it didn't help.
Mike Mitchell was watching and afterwards looked at me and just shook his head and said "only you"…

The other time was AK47 republic game where the GM spent 45 minutes setting it up, and in three turns, there were three shots fired (mortars), Zero casualties, but because they were mortars I had to make morale checks. I had European Professionals, and needed anything but a one. It went like this…
1st Turn. Vehicles come on board. Rupert fires his mortars. Misses. No damage. I make morale check. A "1". Ouch.

2nd Turn. Vehicles move towards area. Rupert fires his mortars. Misses. No damage. I make morale check. A "1" Double Ouch.

3rd Turn. I deploy troops. Rupert fires his mortars on them. Misses. No Damage. I make morale check. GM looks at me, shakes his head, and whispers…"Please don't"…I shake the dice. I've seen the future and it isn't good. I roll it…
A "1".
No causalties. No direct fire, No losses. Three moves, three shots, no hits, 3 failed morale checks, and the main unit breaks from the board, which essentially ended the battle right there.

The GM griped that it took him "longer to set up, than for us to play"…

I've got to say that after reading the title, I didn't think this would be about dice rolling.

We've got a guy like that in our area. A couple of times its been really bad. Six dice out of 10 D6's coming up ones. As a GM I've given him the option of totaling up his dice values into one or two good hits if he gets more ones than anything else. He's not a bad guy, he just throws bad dice.

Years ago…Squad leader game… forget details but my opponent parked his tank in the hex next to my tank (which I think had been immobilized) and shot at it- and missed, and shot again- and missed, and shot again – and missed…

I decided this couldn't last forever so the xcrew bailed out and ran for cover, he tried to MG them…and missed….

Happy Days….

Squad Leader (or ASL) just about always!
They alternating "High is good, low is good" dice rolling was "perfectly" in synch with my general poor disce rolling abilities…

In another instance I had a Maxed out Dwarf fighter in AD&D, who passed most saves on anything but a one. I probably failed about a dozen critical saving throws…

I made 7 attempts to unjam my guns last night.
Needed a 4/5/6 on a d6. I had to do straight manuevers to be able to attempt it.
by the time I got my guns unjammed, I was behind enemy lines and not enough fuel to get home.

I have a pretty terminal case of Barn Door Syndrome when it comes to games where any kind of fire combat or CQB is D6 based.

On the other hand, if the game is D10 or D20 based, my Little Lead Heroes instantly become expert marksmen and cheerfully mallet their opposite numbers with frightening reliability, my opponents' Panthers and Tigers seem to be armoured with damp poor-quality rice paper and nobody ever runs away. Even when they probably should.

Very strange altogether. I've no explanation for it.

Ahhhhhh……. The ASL Barn Door Syndrome, I know it so well…..

Neal and I were playing a KG Piper scenario I managed to bog my panther, break the main gun, then game the CMG. Of course Neal rolled rolled 2s and 3s at the right moment ( he has great timing) and the rest is history.

Skrapwelder doesn't call me "The Uno Kid" fer nuttin'! I earned that title!

One I thought that I would cheat in an rpg ( I had a really bad night the week before – 5 critical fumbles in one night, so that's 10 times 1 came up on a d20), and bought those "cheater dice" with two '20's on them. But lo and behold, I rolled 2s all night instead of ones. I tossed those dice also.

"Let the dice fall where they may."

My luck runs in streaks. Sometimes I can't hit anything and fail every morale test, sometimes my muskets are automatic weapons. Once in a blue moon it runs average.

One guy in our club often rolls ones, unless he needs them. Though he does get more hits than he lets on.

You know with so many of us rolling poorly, you have to wonder who the somebody is that gets the most benefit from innate skill with dice.

My gaming buddy tends to get most out of my bad rolls. However every once in a while the tables turn and I get good rolls.
Like last Tuesday night. :)

Won't last though, I know that this weekend he will stomp me at FOG.

I had a Flames of War game a few weeks ago. I had 11 Grants facing 3 Stugs. Even using the "re-roll misses because I am British" rule, and stationary, AND using my 37mm guns in desperation… I managed 2 hits on him in two turns. None of them penetrated, I might add.
His shooting was not as bad, but only because he didn't have that many guns to shoot.
The safest place to be in that "battle" was to be sitting on the deck of a tank.

One cannot even try to hit the barn door, when one cannot shoot: I get more than my fair share of jammed guns playing WW1 aircombat. Last night, I lined up in a guy's "dead six" and my very first shot of the game was yet another jam! I just live with it….

I like the phrase as a syndrome…I will now use it whenever the Dice God's are against me.

I can just see it now….

"Dang it…I just suffered the old Barn Door Syndrome!!"

Here's a quote we have mounted on the board, it came up in a D&D game a couple of weeks ago:

"Dice don't change a thing!"
– Q. Brown

His bad rolling streak did not improve…

I had the Peninsular British Light division at point blank range against worn out 1813 French. They died/routed from the battle without causing a casualty.

Hi Guys,

Well, our local club has one "Orc" player who rolls so bad that nearly every losing side of every game has become known as the "One-pip Clan." It no longer matters what we're playing: WWII Germans, Sci-fi aliens, fantasy Orcs… all now = 1-pip clan.

I tend to roll a little over average so I can't personally complain.

Shabbat Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.
6mm-minis.blogspot.com

Rolling ones is a Young family trait.

Is there a different name for when someone can't roll nearly all the time? Our gaming group has two people like this, and we usually make a conscious effort to ensure they aren't on the same side. One guy refers to his bad rolling as a "black hole of negative mojo" because often those around him start rolling bad after a while as well. Both of them also suffer from rolling high when you need low and low when you need high.

The worst case I remember was a few years back, when these two guys were playing opposite sides in a Small Wars at Sea game. Simple mechanics, measure to the target ship, roll that number or higher on a d20. These two guys each brought several ships to within 3 inches of each other, and it took four turns of firing before one of them finally got a hit. I never saw so many ones rolled on a d20.

Both of them also suffer from rolling high when you need low and low when you need high.

That's exactly Me! Last game, I was running the German observation ballon (1WW air combat); I rolled a dozen or more times needing to roll an 80 or better on d100, so the ground could "see" and start shooting and hauling the Bag down: I rolled maybe twice over 20, and nowhere near 80. But when it comes time to roll a "critical hit" check, all the "no effect" zone is the low numbers on d100, and I roll high then, yes sir….

I was playing a 40k scenario many moons ago and I was in charge of a horde of genestealers who were trying to get into contact with a Dark Angel devastator detachment. However, my opponent was on overwatch so as I cleared the last bit of cover he duly let me have it. His rolls for the sustained fire dice very superb; maximimum results and no jams. Well I could fairly imagine the horror that was about to unfold…that is until he rolled his bucket of dice. All of them rolled together en mass and everyone a one! Twelve ones…I can tell you he was fairly sick. Needless to say the genestealers ate well…