"How do you handle your friends bad luck?" Topic

When you are having terrible luck on the field of imaginary conflict, do your buddies console you?

Ha! Console me?! They give me the pink die of death until my rolling improves!

No, they laugh at me. The way they're supposed to.

Merciless mockery is called for in that situation. But it is done knowing full well that you will get yours served up one day when the dice gods desert you.

Friends? Friends? What is this "friends" of which you speak?

Our group is pretty good with bad luck, as we have all been there.

Give them new dice

"Sucks to be you, John. Have another beer."

No way. You mercilessly exploit that bad luck and throw in some good-natured ribbing as well because next time that could be you (or you'll have Mr. Hind-End-Of-The-Bell-Curve on your team). The person with the worst luck does seem to have to go get his own beer less often, so there is that

Since most of the time I am the arbiter of the game (my rules, my house, my figures, my beer), I tend to give others some type of bonus if they hit a string of bad rolls. Usually, it isn't just reroll that (though bad luck can make me more liberal on what I call a cocked die), but a situational bonus like, "Your guys just took a pounding for four volleys in a row without a single hit in return … I don't think the terrain obstructing your fall back is providing movement penalties." Usually, everyone at the table is pretty jake with such a call.

After all, I'd rather win because I outplayed you, not because you happened to get twelve 1's in a row.

My friends do not have bad luck – they play badly. *I* have bad luck…

Since their bad luck runs at about 5% of mine, I pretty much ignore theirs.

We make them change dice.

Laughter and cries of the curse of the Chairman's dice continues.

Its already understood that my luck will grow sour at a critical part of the game.

Like etotheipi I'm usually the GM and so it's my figures, table, dice, munchies and meals.

There's no point in changing dice as all he dice are mine, all are the same, pink with white spots, and so the dice are inevitably changed.

There is also a rule that if a player has made a terrible die roll he is allowed, if the loss is egregious enough, to get a re-roll provided he SINGS a song from the period we are playing. He must sing a full stanza and he can't sing the same song twice. For example he can sing a full verse of Yankee Doodle, but he must sing the FULL verse and sing it loud and not mumble it. If he wants to do it again he must sing another song like "Britons Strike Home" or if a Civil War game, Dixie or something like that. Of course arias from Operas are allowed but they must be sung in the language of performance. He gets extra consideration if he can do a little jig or hornpipe while he does it. Of course the rest of the crowd must act as chorus.

So for example, we might allow you to sing Sir Joseph Porter's patter song from H.M.S. Pinafore by Messerss G &S and the rest of the gamers when he comes to the end of the stanza must sing "And so do his sisters and his cousins, whom he reckons up by dozens, and his Aunts.

The dread of singing and making a fool of ones self keeps the attempts down to a manageable level.

The dread of singing and making a fool of ones self keeps the attempts down to a manageable level.

SWMBO has a degree in theatre. SOM is in IMBD. SO to SOM is a cosplayer. I have an acting credit with the NJ Thespian Society. My military buddies proudly know scads of drinking songs from many lands and eras. And so it goes … not really a shy bunch here.

Give them a re roll card or token. Can be used at any moment during game. If failure again…. another card or token for future attempts. The number of cards played apply to victory condition adjustments, so the use becomes a game in itself.

hint…. don't give out free beer tokens in lieu of re roll token. Some players become confused after a few rounds and they don't notice the dice roll failures.

We joke and make fun of him until we realize we are angering the dice gods and then everything goes quiet.

Aware of my record at never (ever) managing to get a British unit to conduct a bayonet charge using the "British Grenadier" AWI rules, a friend slipped me some (unknown to me, but known to everyone else around the table) "loaded" dice, designed to roll 6s virtually every time. My first three throws were 1/1, 1/2, and 1/1, after which (still none the wiser) I handed them back to him. At the end of the game, one of the other players told me the secret; to this day, after 40+ years of the hobby, it is the nearest I have ever come to crying over a wargame.

I am now the official and unchallenged "worst die roller" in my club, which was founded by Don Featherstone and Tony Bath back in the 1960s. As a famous war criminal once said: "I feel the hand of history upon me."