"Blaming the Dice?" Topic

Other: Generally, if I lose it's my fault.

But sometimes, it really is just bad die rolling.

Case in point. Played Leviathans the other night with 3 friends, 2 on 2. At the end of the game…..my team had lost both ships, while we had inflicted only 2 hits on the enemy.

Horrible die rolling……

I think most people blame their adversities on something rational like a choice they made – rather than random chance which more often the cause.

Trebian did an analysis of die rolling over a series of DBA games and the conclusion was unequivocal: rolling higher dice in h-to-h combat wins you the game.

So there are two things … what do players think – and what is true. And it will inevitably depend on the game.

Phil

I checked blame the dice, but sometimes my friends will blame a scenario I designed. And they can be right from time to time.
--
Tim

Sometimes it's the dice. Battle is risky, so a bad roll can make a smart decision look like an awful one.

The whole 'unlucky dice' thing is a wargamer's pose.
Being just a game, it is fun to rail against the dice-gods, to exchange dice that "fail us" & have our "lucky dice" that roll prodigious numbers of '6's.

However, dice rolls should never be used as a churlish excuse. If you are soundly beaten, you need to congratulate your opponent on his skill & eschew finding excuses in dice rolls.

Stop being rational here.
Of course it's the fault of the dice!
What's the alternative? That you were wrong? Perish the thought.

I've both won and lost games because of the dice. I don't really care about that, as much as the dice producing believable and fun results, but that is usually the rulesets responsibility in how it uses dice.

An unfortunate die roll can really foul up a well laid plan – just like an overly enthusiastic junior officer can foul up a cautious advance

In most playtesting of my scenarios, I see players lamenting strings of low-probability rolls, but it is usually followed up with "I should have changed my strategy when …", "I needed a more robust approach to …", "it would have worked if …", or "I really had to … to recover" (or even, "Well, ya know, that kinda stuff happens.").

So I don't see that as really blaming the dice.

Rarely do I see someone in a funk because of the rolls.

There are a few people who I game with who roll way above average. To offset them ( well okay him) there are 3 or 4 of us who roll below average. The net result is close to average.

We know it is not the dice.

If I win, it is the dice, if I lose its my plan was at fault. (that's my excuse, and I will stick with it!)

And I have seen too many dice that were "naughty" cast into oblivion (by other gamers) – including at least one that the gamer cast with such fury I am sure it achieved escape velocity.

I did play one 2 day game, two on one side, three on the other where during the first day the dice were against us, we could do no right, few charges went home, morale was lousy and melees were lost. During the second day, they could do no right, and the last three dice rolls during the game were double sixes, resulting in the deaths of three French Generals…

Some generals (gamers0 are lucky, some are not, but the dice are usually fairly even handed, don't blame them.

(Or they will punish you!)

Some do. Some don't.

Ditto WaTJ.
Of course, for me, "When I win, it's brilliant strategy. When I lose, it's bad luck."
That's my line, and I'm sticking to it.

I have played a game just this summer where I failed to role for any ambushes, hidden moves, or first attack actions for the whole game even when it was a 80% chance of being successful. Really NO successes for the whole game. Everyone at the table saw without any doubt it was the dice rolling that sunk me in the game. It was the running joke for the whole game.

and when your playing a under powered need to be a hit and run force failing all the ambushes, hidden moves, or first attack actions in a game means you just die and die and die with almost doing no damage to the other guy at all. It was a sad thing to see.

I always blame the dice, even when playing chess.

So what happens to the poor dice when you lose at chess Gunfreak?

Yes, my dice blame themselves-:^))

Well way back in 1988 during a SYW game that came down to the Prussian Guard de Corp Cav facing off against some scum Austrians Cav and in order for the Austrians to win they would have to roll boxcars and the Prussian player to roll snakeeyes.

So the Austrian player rolls his dice and sitting on the table were Double Six's.

Well we were telling the Prussian player that even with that he should still win.

So he rolls and the dice end up with…

Double One's – SnakeEyes

So yes there are times were it is the dice that hosed you over.

Well, I remember a game of DBA during which my opponent and I rolled 5s and 6s for PIPS until both armies were joined in combat and then rolled nothing but 1s and 2s for combat for nearly an hour. We still refer to it as "the longest DBA game in history".

LT

Well, yeah! Duhh! Everybody knows what fickle, capricious, malevolent bastards those little polyhedral stinkers are!!

Nothing a good dice-cleansing ritual can't usually cure, luckily.

But in some cases, the Hammer of Destruction must be the ultimate resort. The upside to this is the opportunity to buy shiny NEW dice just bursting with good luck and sparkly optimism!

So what happens to the poor dice when you lose at chess Gunfreak?

I melt them in magnesium fire, it's the only fire hot enough to destroy bad luck.

Usually my fault, but at times those evil dice are out to get me.