"Bad Luck Dice Rollers" Topic

Have you ever noticed that are some people who consistently roll bad dice? You would think that the laws of probability would even things out after awhile and they would start rolling hot dice. How is that some players can be consistently bad, while others are consistently good at rolling dice?

Maybe in the grand scheme, the bad luck rollers are balanced by the good luck rollers. Maybe a macro approach rather than a micro approach should be applied to this situation. Thus the laws of probability are satisfied.

Just my two cents.

Maybe the good rollers cheat. I knew a guy in my club who was always lucky, but then, years later I heard that he simply cheated. He would roll the dice when no one was looking and quickly scoop up the roll and call out what he had rolled -- sometimes the two did not match. Even to this day, I have been warned against playing with him.

I offer no theory concerning bad dice rollers.

I'm either feast or famine with dice. By the third roll or so I can tell whether it's going to be a good dice day or not. No middle ground whatsoever.

The last time I got some games in was a "bad" day – played 2 games, couldn't hit a darn thing in either game. Hopefully this Saturday will be a "good" dice day.

There are gamers who won't even let me touch their dice <lol>

My dice hate me. The rest of my life is going quite well thanks so stuff the dice, frankly. I've had enough practice losing to know how to enjoy it!

There's a guy I play against who only has consistently bad dice when playing against me. Does alright the rest of the time. Still keeps playing though.

Have you ever noticed that are some people who consistently roll bad dice? You would think that the laws of probability would even things out after awhile and they would start rolling hot dice. How is that some players can be consistently bad, while others are consistently good at rolling dice?

The laws of probability do work. Quickly. Although I concede that most people's grasp of actual probability is so poor that they don't realise what they are seeing is what is predicted.

"Evening out" has no place in the laws of probability. If you throw a run of stink dice, you are not owed a good run to "even out".

There is bad luck, but there are no unlucky people. There are however people who play in such a way that the first bad rolls lead to disaster. Conversely there are people that play in such a way that they can usually win, even when they throw a bad roll or two.

To convince yourself of this, take a "lucky" player and an "unlucky" player. Let the unlucky one make the tactical decisions, calling only on the lucky one to make important dice rolls. The unlucky player will generally lose, because he plays in such a way that the first error is fatal.

Swap roles. The lucky player will win, because he is actually a good player. He might be polite enough to pretend he is lucky, but don't be fooled.

If I have to use any number of D6s, then the results are pretty much consistently rotten.

However, I am prohibited from using D10s for the opposite reason, as several gamers both here and in Ireland will testify.

I don't roll noticeably well or poorly with any other dice, just those two.

Yes no D10 for him. And I normaly roll pretty well with any dice, but lately when playing against Gallowglass I roll poorly. It's sad. Must create new house rules for our games. :-)

Every roll in a game that is bad for one side is good for another. That means that he is not unlucky; his dice are traitors.

Like Captain Bligh, this probably represents a defect in dice command style that is best recitified by better overall treatment and smashing a few example offenders with a hammer.

I'm that bad roller guy! I'm also a chronic loser. Just anyone who knows me.

There is a guy in our club that rolls 5's and 6's almost every time. We joke that he does not need good tactics as he always scores hits.

And no the dice are not loaded, he can use anyone's and get the same result.

Me on the other hand, I am forbidden to touch anyone's dice, even the shop owner wont let me near them, ask Cmdrkily he will vouch for my dice jinx.

I do contact out my jinxing ability :)

There have been studies where subjects roll thousands of dice and consistantly roll slightly above or below average. It's a statistical nightmare for some of us. But still, the ratio is less than 1%.

Since I always put my troops in bad tactical situations it makes my hit percentages and morale levels pretty low. Thus, all of my rolls are bad ones.

Yet, I still enjoy gaming!

Despite all the laws of probability, one of our club members, Mike, has what has got to be consistently the worst luck I've ever seen in dice rolling. It has come to the extent that it is proverbial amongst us that if success relies on his "ability" you may as well give up and go home.

Bad roller, checking in….

I roll badly for my to hits, I roll REALLY WELL for when its something that is going to affect me. Really well for my opponent that is…

If I play Johnny Reb (2d6 for most rolls) I PLAN on never rolling better than 7.

I often seem to roll well in games that use a D10 or a D20, but when it comes to D6s, it seems that every rule set that uses a D6 requires a "natural six" for good results. I almost never fail to roll a 1, 2 or a 3. I simply can't roll a natural 6 on a D6.

In my original posting, I am assuming that people are not cheating. My intent was to focus on the actual degree of good luck or bad luck that wargamers seem to have.

No, the dice will average out. You may have a good night, or a bad night, but I don't know of people who are consistently unlucky. I know a few who think they are, but their tactics are bad, so only a set of exceptionally good rolls will save them. Thus, they consider all their dice evil, when it is actually their tactics.

It's also how you treat a bad roll. If you just go with it and compensate for a bad result, it's just a bad result. If a reverse of any kind is the end of the world for you, then you will only remember the bad die rolls.

Our group uses dice towers for rolling, just so no one can do the flip quick and let it land trick. I USED to game with a guy that did that.
There is also a rather well known personage here that consistantly rolls badly. His luck has never changed, much to his frustation.

Two guys I play with do their best to hold that lower end of the bell curve all to themselves when it comes to bad die rolling.

One of the members of the Austin branch of the Brazos Valley Historical Miniatures clubs, who usually posts as DontFeartheReaper, is a notoriously bad-luck dice roller. Perhaps even legendarily bad, at least for central Texas.

Sadly, I lived a little too far away to take much advantage of this… :)

When I was younger, I was genuinely lucky in my rolls. So lucky that I could play stupidly and still win most games.

Now I tend to roll average or a bit worse so I have to actually put genuine thought into my tactics. Most of the time I prefer it this way.

Those that consistently create situations where a good roll will do great things will have more 'good luck'.

This is because the 'bad' rolls don't hurt that bad.

The people that oppose me in Fire and Fury roll '9s' about 50% of the time (best possible roll). Doesn't matter what I roll, I get shot to pieces regardless. So . . for F&F luck has no place.

mjc

"You would think that the laws of probability would even things out after awhile "

There is no reason for this to happen, each dice throw is an independant event, but any one sequence (1,1,1) is just as likely (or unlikely) as any other (6,6,6 or 1,3,2 or whatever).

If you do actually believe someone is "lucky", then prove it. Take him and $1,000 and head to the nearest roulette wheel. Get him to play red/black for 1/20 of your stake. You only need to be about 5% better than average over a long haul and you should both return millionaires.

The very fact that roulette continues to make money for casinos shows that no-one is able to do this. No-one. After all these years.

If you say "ah, but he is only lucky at F&F" or whatever, then think how that sounds to others. It says "here's my excuse for not winning enough".

There have been studies where subjects roll thousands of dice and consistantly roll slightly above or below average. It's a statistical nightmare for some of us. But still, the ratio is less than 1%.

If thousands of rolls are made, some people will come out ahead. This is predicted, and does not show that those people roll consistently better than average. The next time this test is made some other person will do the same. What never happens is that it is the same person who does well all the time. Or they would be millionaires (playing craps, naturally).

The inability to get this is one of the reasons why so many people believe in psychokinesis.

There have been studies which show that people who believe that they are lucky tend to be slightly more lucky than people who believe they suffer from bad luck.

There was also a famous golfer (I think) who said that the more he practiced the luckier he got! meaning that if you put our self in a slightly more favourable position (due to practice/experience/natural ability) you are not relying entirely on the dice role and so you need a 4+ on a d6 to complete the game turning move when someone else would be needing a 5+

Either way I'm sunk

I know I'm unlucky (my sister got all the luck!! – well she did have me for a brother for a start) and my bad play leaves me needing a 7+ on a d6 to get a draw!!

But then again its the taking part that counts and not the winning (as said by all us losers!!)

Well my handle isn't doublesix for no reason:)

My dice rolling provides the token amusement for our group. At the worst possible time I will make the worst possible roll. Guaranteed.

Even with all the dice I have … I too roll very poorly

If you think someone is lucky (or unlucky) just record his dice rolls for a few games. You will find that you were wrong and he rolls, on average, average results just like the rest of us. In wargames (and in life) you make your own luck. Yes, you can lose a game due to poor dice (it happened to me last week) but if it's happening regularly, it's not the dice, it's the player.

I have the worst luck rolling d6's.However,I will hit streaks where I can roll incredibly lucky dice,so I guess I average out.

One day you are the pigeon. The other day the statue.

The Lady will not smile on you every day.

Bad decisions and bad deployments may lead to a bad situation whereby the chances of a favorable roll are limited by the rules. An unfavorable roll may then cause a cascading effect. As more bad decisions and bad maneuvering are laid upon previous bad decisions and bad manueverung positive outcomes are limited to such a degree that even moderate rolls or good rolls are for all intents and purposes – bad.

In a nutshell, play well, and roll well.

Dice are fickle, but I know some gamers that the only explanation is that the dice/fates hate them.

I've had many games where my dice have rolled poor to occasionally average. Then one or two games where it is nothing but excellent dice to the point of embarrassment!

I think we should ban Mark Plant- he's obviously not a real wargamer. :-)

I keep threatening to keep a track of my dice rolls one evening. I have a feeling my dice are perfectly average, I just roll high when I need low, and low when I need high!

Does anyone remember the Larry Leadhead cartoon where he punished his dice "pour les encouragement les autres"? This is is based on a real incident where a freind rolled 1 4 times in a row- on a d20! He really did set up all his dice up in an amphitheatre style, and use a blowtorch front on centre on the offender "so they could all learn the lesson". Doug at LL said he couldn't stop laughing when I sent it to him. Richard was mortified that he had his own strip, his wife thought it very amusing!

My bad luck with dice is more than legendary--it is absolutely astounding. Ask 45th Div and Gallowglass. Bidding wars have erupted over which team I will not infect.

And you were the only one to have lost the battle for the Alamo as the Mexicans. :-)

"And you were the only one to have lost the battle for the Alamo as the Mexicans. :-)"
YIKES … I didnt know that was physically possible with 5 to 1 odds

I go slightly unlucky for a few games then suddenly get all my luck at once. Well embarassing when it happens. You pull off a brilliant tactical move, then get a die roll that would have worked for you even if you'd done the dumbest move imaginable.
Once managed to roll 6 6's with 6d6 – In Starfleet Battles – a game where you want to roll low – in a situation where only 6's were misses!
Knew another guy in a battletech campaign who seemed only able to roll either 2 or 12 most of the time on 2d6. Got a lot of results both spectacularly good and spectacularly bad.