Dice: the gamers worst nightmare!

Dice and how people role in every fashion is a touchy subject. The line between cheating and and hot dice is very thin. Luck and carma are often viewed as the major source of your dice rolling results. Ming as an example says "you only have so much luck in your life and once you use it up it is gone"..."I used all my luck up pitching pennies when I was young and have been regretting it ever since". This is an interesting theory because we can roll the same dice and I will almost always out roll Ming. Then there is beginners luck where when you are learning something new you get really lucky. Almost every person I have played when it is one of their first few games they roll HOT! Dice are a crazy thing and no matter what there will always be some luck involved. Today I will talk a little about ways people better their rolling and what I do to keep the bad dice at bay.

Here are some things people do that I should be considered blatant cheating. First is loaded dice where the player physically alters or buys altered dice that will give them an advantage. This may be hard to detect and prove but keep a look out for it. If I suspect some one has loaded dice I would either report them if it was blatant and easy to prove or use their dice for my rolling. Some may view this as bad form but if they don't let you then there could be something up their sleeve. Using their dice will level the playing field and hopefully prove to yourself that they are not cheating. Plenty of times in heated games I will use my opponents dice if they are rolling hot. If someone asked to use my dice I willingly would say yes. The next thing to look for is practiced rolling. This can come in many ways and you have to look out for it. If your opponent is rolling funny and getting preferred results then simply ask him to stop and roll with the dice in his hand cupped and shook up. Quite often you will see people place dice in their hand and simply roll them in a way to give them better results rather than shake them. Newer players may not know how to roll properly and need to be instructed that shaking the dice up before dropping is the way you should do it. Another thing you should look for that is a combination of those two forms of cheating is people practice rolling with metal dice. It is very easy to roll well with a dice that dosnt move once it hits the table. Ask your opponent to use different dice or borrow yours. If any of these things become a problem report the player to the TO and have him explain proper dice rolling. If it's not a tourney game and my opponent refuses to stop I'll either have another player come over to help me reinforce my opinion or simply leave the game (unless I'm still beating the piss out of them)!

The next thre things I will discuss are techniques that are not cheating bit could be considered gray areas. The first is pretty standard, if you have bad dice just buy new ones. The second was started by ming's frustration at rolling poorly. If any dice consistsntly rolled poorly "just chuck it". Throw them somewhere...the trash, a fire, at your opponent, you kids or wife, or just on the floor. Now some people say the dice rolling poorly is just luck. But we know from science that no two dice will ever be the same. Every dice will be weighted differently and have it's own preferences. This is especially true in cheap bulk dice ie. Chessex dice. They are good dice don't get me wrong, I use them my self. But each die differs from the next and you can in fact buy bad dice. So those bad dice you just put on the floor in your FLGS will probably be picked up and used by some poor sap! Hahah never pick dice off the floor that are not yours! Tossing these bad dice will improve your overall rolling I can attest to that. Now when this practice is taken to the extreme and your remaining dice begin to dwindle and you buy more and repeat your total dice collection will become stronger. After over a year of ming and I sharing multiple dice cubes he thinned it down to a fairly average or better then average group of dice. So from them I select the best I can get by selecting those that roll well consistently. Trust me if you go through 6 cubes of dice and get rid of the bad dice over time your averages will go up. That's my secret to rolling decently almost every game.

Hopefully this article will give you some good information and isn't too hard to read. Typing on my iPhone I tend to lose scope and it's hard to write well.
Thanks for reading,
RIPPED