Editorial: Redheaded Step-Dice

Die!!! Die!! Die! No, Seriously, Die.

by Stella Nava

Admit it, you know you have your favorite. Speckled, solid, marbleized, metallic, bone, pearlized, ugly, new or old. They come in many shapes and sizes, and often bear the burden of your fate. And let’s face it…we love them.

Dice, as you know, are designed to generate a random outcome; why then, are we all guilty of believing we have specific ones that roll favorably?

There you are, in the midst of battle. It’s you against four beholders and you’re praying to the gods you roll a 20 on the attack roll. Instinctively, you reach for your “special,” high rolling d20. No false moves here. With your trusted d20 in hand, plucked from your mini dice army, your eyes dart around the table to meet the gaze of your fellow table-toppers. You hesitate. Now your heart is pounding against your magic-resistant +2 armor. You close your eyes…and roll.

The silence around the table is only broken by the GM shuffling papers and quietly mumbling ‘uhhh...’ You open your eyes and peak down.

It’s the dreaded 1. A critical miss.

But despite this failing, and even if that d20 lets you down again, it’ll just be ‘an off day.’ Is this logical? Of course not, but not even Leonard Nimoy himself could convince you otherwise (although maybe Spock could).

But what about that bag of neglected dice? What about all those other 20 siders?

Ultimately, it’s all random chance. Probability. Math. Spock stuff. Maybe the best advice is simply this: Treat your dice the way you treat your kids (or would, if you had any).

By that, I mean never let them know who your favorite is.