Comments on: Off To His Next Great Adventure

By: deCadmus

deCadmus — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 18:34:50 +0000

"I also had one d20 with a remarkably predictable rolling pattern that let control high side vs. low side about 80% of the time depending. All I had to do was run a few test rolls to judge the table bounce."

There's a neat conversation going on over at Making Light that started out as a bit of remembrance of Gygax, and has segued into a thread about dice, superstition and vices (of the bench variety, used for making an example of misbehaved die.) See this one, for example:

In 1986, one of my players (and future Best Man at my wedding) became frustrated one evening with his dice rolling and forced the rest of his dice to watch as the offending d10s were squeezed into shards in a large bench vise. He kept the shards and showed them to other under-performing dice as he exhorted them to improve their performance. Over the years, several other players punished lackadaisical dice in that same vice. "Getting the vice" became (and still is) the phrase for any item (animal, mineral or vegetable)that needs to be destroyed or discarded. The threat is still offered to dice on a regular basis, although the vice itself is long gone...

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 17:15:22 +0000

Only took me a few minutes after I read it. I have just been too busy to keep up with reading. My new job came with deadlines that were already whooshing past before I started. As for whether the rolling of dice was just sound effects, I’ll keep that secret to myself. I will, however, admit that some encounters had predestined events that were going to happen regardless of the dice. I also had one d20 with a remarkably predictable rolling pattern that let control high side vs. low side about 80% of the time depending. All I had to do was run a few test rolls to judge the table bounce.

By: deCadmus

deCadmus — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:36:10 +0000

I wondered how long it would take for this post to goad you into making a comment. ;)

You, of course, are in the singular position of judging your own ruthlessness; only you know how many times the roll of the dice on your side of the screen was merely by way of sound effect.

As for me, I have a peculiar sound-induced recollection, triggered by the rattle of a single die rolling. It takes me back to the occasional too-long pause in play, wherein an argument among players over tactics or game play might be interrupted by the lonely sound of a single die roll on the other side of the screen, and the admonishment: “The monsters are getting impatient…”

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 15:48:03 +0000

I was more than conniving - ruthless and evil seemed to be common descriptors. In my new job I find myself working alongside an avid gamer who still plays even with two jobs and four kids to fill his time. Makes me miss those games.

In a different context I came across this quote earlier today and it seems suited to remembering Gygax.

“When I was 10, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am 50, I read them openly. When I became a man, I put away childish things—including the fear of childishness and the desire to be grown-up.”
–C. S. Lewis