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Luck - The Theory and the Role it Plays in our Games

Discussion in 'Off-Topic English' started by MikeTheScrivener, May 14, 2018.

  1. DrunkCorsair

    DrunkCorsair Well-Known Member

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    I will just leave that Prattchet quote here:

    When someone is saved from certain death by a strange concatenation of circumstances they say that’s a miracle. But of course if someone is killed by a freak chain of events – the oil spilled just there, the safety fence broken justthere – that must also be a miracle. Just because it’s not nice doesn’t mean it’s not miraculous.
     
  2. MikeTheScrivener

    MikeTheScrivener O-12 Peace Kepper

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    Have you considered purchasing new dice?
     
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  3. Magonus

    Magonus Well-Known Member

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    I'm not particularly superstitious, but everyone noticed in my former group that people with painted armies rolled better against people with unpainted armies. It may be purely placebo, of course, but even our biochemist (literally) player noticed the phenomenon.
     
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  4. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    I did, once I stopped playing other games. Bought color-coordinated dice for each faction.

    Not rolling over a 10 for more than a year was probably a decade ago now. And everyone in my game group still remembers it.
     
  5. Noctavigant

    Noctavigant Samaritan Extraordinaire

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    I believe in and use luck as the measure of success up until the next roll.
    There is such a things as luck and bad luck in the past, or perceived present, but not future and thus any roll you are about to make is unrelated to any universal luck quota you may perceive to have (in my opinion). So sure, it becomes statistics of 'gosh this distribution is not in my favour'.

    But I still do those silly little 'affect' my luck gestures - what'ya call em, heuristics? Roll the die more fervently, pray to the Lady of the Lake, whisper to the die or curse it after enough failure. In one instance I even threw one out of the window since it just killed Nagash turn one to a miscast (after reroll) in a game of Warhammer.
    I think those - I'll call them heuristics - make the 'turn of luck' more satisfying, and gives a welcome sense of agency in a game that is headed downhill.

    I will credit Infinity for giving me a better sense of when someone is lucky and when they make mistakes though. After taking a couple of games of Warhammer afterwards, the mistakes of my opponent were suddenly blatantly clear, and he thought it to be unluck.
     
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  6. chromedog

    chromedog Less than significant minion

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    *Superstitions.

    Also recollections of "luck" come under "confirmation bias".
     
  7. Red Harvest

    Red Harvest Day in, Day out. Day in, Day out. Day in, DAY OUT

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    Were you, perchance, rolling 20-sided dice like these? :open_mouth:
    IMG_4282_v1.JPG
    These are the original GameScience 20-sided dice, marked 0-9 twice. The two sets of numbers are different colors so that one color is 11-20 ( usually the darker color) Or you could roll a d6 and on a 4+ add ten to the number on the 20 sider. Or just roll them as d10s, since there were no dedicated d10s or d%s BITD. I still roll them when I play D&D. Good dice should last more than 4 decades ;)

    Still available too, http://www.gamescience.com/Microhedra-d20-0-9-2X-_c_27.html
     
    #47 Red Harvest, May 22, 2018
    Last edited: May 22, 2018
  8. prophet of doom

    prophet of doom Well-Known Member

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    lol, this reminds me of a game of Battletech I played decades ago. I was wondering why I rolled so badly and then realised I had been using a d3 instead of a d6 all game.
     
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  9. Section9

    Section9 Well-Known Member

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    Lord, I wish.

    No, those dice had the numbers 11-20 on them. Anyone but me could roll them. Just about everyone in my gaming group tried.
     
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