Friday, January 20, 2012

How do you deal with "cold" dice?

Cold dice, they happen to everyone.  You can play 3 games in a row with hot dice that go cold at the crucial moment in the third.  You can play a game where the dice are cold only at the moments where they really matter.  You can play a tournament where all day long your dice are so cold you throw them in the trash, buy new dice only to have them be even colder, which you didn't think was even possible.  So how do you deal with cold dice?  More after the break.
First let's get one thing straight.  I am not asking if you switch dice in the middle of the game or use "cold" dice for when you need to roll low or "hot" dice for when you need to roll high, that's cheating.  What I am asking is how do you handle when the dice, no matter which dice, just don't seem to roll in your favor.  I'll start off with a few things I have done.

1.  Buy new dice.  I own a TON of dice.  I recently did a project with my 8th grade class where I asked them to make a board game based upon the expedition of Lewis and Clarke.  I told them I would supply 6 sided dice, two baggies full of d6s of every size and color imaginable came with me to work.  Chessex, translucent, opaques, swirly colored dice, speckled, 16mm, 12mm, Casino dice from the Flamingo in Las Vegas etc.  One of my students asked, "Why do you have so many dice?"  "Because I play a lot of games, moving on..."  I have bought dice to match most of my armies over the years and so I end up with a lot of dice because for whatever reason it never crosses my mind to send the dice with the army when I sell it on ebay.  Also, if my dice run cold for 5+ games in a row I usually call it quits on them for a while and buy new dice.

2.  Rotate dice.  Not in game of course!  I have so many dice as a result of number 1 that I often just rotate a new set in.  For example I used just normal translucent colored dice last weekend for the tournament at our FLGS.  They don't match my GK color scheme but I hadn't used them since I played my Tau Suit army in the waning days of 4th and I had found them when I had my students do their project.  I used them on a whim.  I have seen people alternate the dice they use in Warmahordes.  Meaning one game they use black for damage red for column, then red for damage black for column.  I also alternate dice between game systems.  Sometimes I will use FoW Soviet Dice with my Khador, sometimes I will use pink, purple, and red Casino dice with them.  Other times I may use my red, black, and gold dice from my former Templar army with my Khador.

3. Throw them away.  I have only done this once.  I have witnessed it done many times.  I had a game once with my SW against a DoA BA army.  I had Sanguinary Guard + Dante in the open clumped together in front of 3 PC totting Long Fangs.  3 overheats, 3 failed armor saves.  Ok, that happens sometimes I guess.  Same turn 5 Vanguard Vets Heroically Intervene on my Thunderwolf Lord and 4 Thunderwolf Cavalry all with Storm Shields.  I fail 6 of 7 3+ invul saves, roll a 12 for leadership (no Majesty), and roll enough to go off the table edge and die.  The hits kept coming in that game, so I threw the dice out and bought a brick of black GW dice to use the rest of the day.  Normally I wouldn't change dice in the middle of a tournament as that seems fairly underhanded but I just couldn't bring myself to play another game with those dice.

That's just me though and I have seen this discussion pop up from time to time so I thought I would pose the question.  How do you deal with your dice going cold?

11 comments:

  1. What's wrong with rotating dice during a game? Maybe I'm misunderstanding exactly what you mean, but unless I'm rolling tons of dice at once I'm constantly rotating dice.

    My typical bag of dice that I bring to 40k games contains about 10 of the standard 16mm white dice with black spots. I use these for basically everything because they are easy to read and roll nicely. I also have 36 of the 12mm chessex dice that are a pain to read and I only use when I need to roll a lot of dice at once. Then I have some 16mm dice of various colors that I use for things where I need multiple colors.

    Whenever I have a bad roll with whatever dice I was using, I set them aside and grab a new batch of dice for the next roll. The "bad" dice will eventually get used again, but they get put in "timeout" for being naughty.

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  2. What I mean is grabbing specific dice for specific purposes. I.e. these dice because I need to roll low, these other dice because I need to roll high etc. I have nothing wrong with your example, I do it myself. Sorry should have been more clear.

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  3. I usually find that my luck evens out over the course of the game, and even when it looks like the dice are hot one way or the other the dice are still extremely close to "average" when taking the whole game into perspective.

    So I simply deal with it and play another game or two. I mostly use the same dice for everything.

    The best way to deal with cold dice is to try your damnedest to not put yourself in situations where even minor bad dice rolls screw you over.

    Have a positive attitude and be willing to fight the uphill struggle the whole game, and you might just find the dice aren't as cold as you originally thought.

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    Replies
    1. I tend to find that a positive attitude goes a LONG way to improving your dice rolls. I don't believe in Karma or "vibes" but you tend to notice less and fixate on it less when you have a good attitude. Thanks for that observation!

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  5. This all sounds pretty superstitious to me. Dice will roll normally over the long-term and switching them up will not change anything.

    I guess it'll make you feel better, but I usually just accept the rolls, and make a note when my dice roll really well so that way I don't feel like I'm only focusing on the bad rolls.

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    1. It is completely superstitious in nature. However the rounded "Chessex" style dice with the indented holes definitely have a different weighting and less true roll than Casino dice. Honestly I don't think it makes all that much of a difference and I rarely use Casino dice. The point was more how do you handle it psychologically and focusing on good rolls over bad is one way of doing that.

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    2. Actually, Casinos will change your dice for you if you start rolling hot. It has happened to me so many times. I have gone to Vegas and bought used dice, they are the best. I really swear they even out and I have never had strange rolls of all 1's.

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    3. After playing someone with Casino dice (not you, paul) I kinda get the vibe that rolls are fairly easy to flub. Especially with single rolls. Maybe I was just exceptionally unlucky that game, but he seized on me twice (coteaz ftl) and couldn't fail a fnp roll.
      Maybe I am just butthurt about it, but it seemed shady at the time.

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  6. This is an easy one.

    You almost all your dice, and line them up in a semi-circle.

    Then, you select one from the group and put him in the middle so that all the dice can clearly see him.

    Take out a hammer, smash the center dice and inform all the rest of them that this is what will happen to them if they don't shape up! Works like a charm!

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    Replies
    1. HA! I prefer to use a blow torch to melt the offending die in front of his/her peers but a hammer works just as well I suppose. Conversely if you have a TON of dice like me, choosing an offending brick and melting it into multi-colored slag and the using it as terrain has the effect of constantly reminding what awaits your dice should they fail.

      It is probably important to note at this point that the entire idea/article is a bit tongue in cheek.

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