Crocked dice

[deephorse]

‘Crocked’ is what my friends and I call them, and ‘dice’, for us, refers to any number of die/dice/dices.  I’ll never change, so please don’t bother correcting me!

Prompted by a little discussion elsewhere on the internet – OK, I’ll admit that it was a wargaming group on Facebook – I ask this question.  If, when rolling two or more dice, one or more of them ends up on the floor, or otherwise crocked (not having landed flat on one face), do you re-roll all of them, or just the crocked one(s)?

The vast majority of comments were that all the dice should be re-rolled.  To me that was as though the dice were somehow in cahoots with each other, and that the one that was not crocked would somehow have landed on a different face had its companion not fallen to the floor.  Bonkers.

Seeing as most, if not all, of the replies came from Americans, I thought that it must be an unwritten rule from that country.  I was told that it wasn’t, and that wise man, John D Salt, shot down that theory by agreeing with them!

In all the years that I’ve thrown dice, I cannot remember ever re-rolling all of them if one or two were crocked.  My regular gaming companions don’t re-roll them all either.  So, are we the odd-ones-out?

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[Mike]

I only re-roll the offending one(s).

[Shaun Travers]

I also only reroll the offending dice.

[Guy Farrish]

No, quite normal (apart from the use of ‘crocked vice ‘cocked’ :^) – think cocked hat: tilted in one direction. I know you’re not going to change :^))

The die/dice that have landed flat and on the table or wherever they were supposed to land are fine. Pick the other/s up and roll it/them without compunction.

Mr Salt is an honourable, upstanding and learned member of any community he is in, but in this case I think we can allow the individual gamer to pick their own route to salvation/perdition.

[Tony S]

What a shocking breach of dice etiquette!

More seriously, as long as you always either reroll all, or just the questionable ones, it’s fine.  I could see unscrupulous types quickly glancing at the whole bucket lot, seeing a really poor roll, and suddenly deciding to reroll them all.  Or, if the roll is quite good, just rerolling the bad die.

Personally, our club’s procedure is quite clear.  When I roll a die off the table, everyone mocks me for not using a dice cup or tray.  (Although they also mock me when I sometimes use a dice tower… I’m picking up a theme here).  Then I reroll only that die.  Occasionally I will crawl under the table and shout “it’s a six; I win!” but end up rerolling it anyway.

When it’s cocked, opponents will usually insist they’ll accept the number, but the roller after protestations rerolls it.  Admittedly, my group is far, far more concerned with friendship and an enjoyable game than winning.

[John D Salt]

Well now I am beginning to experience a creeping suspicion that I might, in fact, be American.
I wonder where I could have caught it from?

All the best,

John.

[Mishima]

Just the c(r)ocked or off table die/dice.

I’d agree with above – as long as it’s the same for all throws I’ll go with whatever house rules apply. But at my place. Just the bad dice get re-rolled

Tim from Gomi Designs. 15mm Vietnam riverine. www.gomidesigns.co.uk

[Andrew Beasley]

Never thought about it till I read this thread!

I normally roll just the iffy one but sometimes both if they are close to each other though as a solo player I do find my opponent more forgiving then myself on odd rolls 🙂

 

[Patrice]

I reroll the crocked (I think I’ve learnt a new word today) ones, and also those falling off table; not the others which behave correctly.

http://www.argad-bzh.fr/argad/en.html
https://www.anargader.net/

[Mike Headden]

Crocked, eh? That’s a new one on me. A di(c)e on it’s edge or corner has always been “cocked” for me. If on the floor it’s known as “on the floor” 🙂

All the groups I can remember played that you rolled the offending di(c)e but not the others. True for both wargamers and board gamers of my acquaintance.

Crooked dice …. now that’s a different kettle of fish!

 

 

 

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[McKinstry]

Only re-roll cocked or off the table. If the rest rolled ‘correctly’, flat and clearly readable as one specific result, they stay.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[John D Salt]

OK, so what do you do if Jimmy Cockdicer rolls two dice, gets one straight and one cocked, then re-rolls the cocked die, and it hits the other die causing it to change result?

Eventually I hope one might be able to develop a sufficiently extensive set of dice-rolling etiquette rules that wargaming will become like golf, with rules covering contingencies such as dice being lost to theft by magpies or lightning strike, or fracturing as per Olaf II’s acquisition of the island of Hising. I think I would have insisted on a re-roll if the King of Sweden had shouted “cocky die!”, whatever that is in Swedish.

The Gamble Of Norway’s King Olaf II For The Island Of Hísing

All the best,

John.

[Mike Headden]

In that case John we’ve always turned the first die back to the previous face. Other groups may rule differently.

There are 100 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who can work from incomplete data

[MartinR]

We just re roll the cocked dice (no crocked dice here!), which includes any which end up on the floor. Funny how many players are incapable of rolling dice in the dice trays provided. Still, as most of our games are still remote, I roll the dice for them now.

"Mistakes in the initial deployment cannot be rectified" - Helmuth von Moltke

[deephorse]

I don’t know where ‘crocked’ came from, it just seems to have been around the gaming circles I’ve been in for ever.  Obviously it’s limited to that isolated part of West Yorkshire in which I grew up.

Anyway, it’s pleasing to see that the majority act in the same way as my companions and I do.  It’s really looking like a UK v USA thing, John!

Play is what makes life bearable - Michael Rosen

[Mike]

John D Salt wrote:

OK, so what do you do if Jimmy Cockdicer rolls two dice, gets one straight and one cocked, then re-rolls the cocked die, and it hits the other die causing it to change result?

Give them the stink-eye?

[Jemima Fawr]

People who try to re-roll non-cocked dice get a dual-purpose artillery stick across the knuckles…

I’ve actually encountered people who attempt to change their policy of re-rolling or not re-rolling based purely on what they rolled… They’re dead now…

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

[Jemima Fawr]

John D Salt wrote:

OK, so what do you do if Jimmy Cockdicer rolls two dice, gets one straight and one cocked, then re-rolls the cocked die, and it hits the other die causing it to change result?

It’s a radical concept I know, but I just move the non-cocked dice out of the way before re-rolling the rest.

I know that this idea is possibly being greeted with the same look the dog gives me when I ask her to give me the ball so I can throw it again…

My wargames blog: http://www.jemimafawr.co.uk/

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