Slitherine

I am firmly convinced that re-rolls come up the same number again more often than 1 time in 6 if they are re-rolled by hand. I believe that (if true) this is because the dice sometimes skim rather than rolling.

This is the only reason I use dice cups.

If my opponent wishes to roll his re-rolls by hand, then I am happy for him to take the statistical hit. (Which might not exist, but I think it probably does).

Of course if the troops are poor....

I use a dice rolling tower.

Two reasons:

1 - I like to truly randomise.
2 - I don't like cocked dice, so this minimises it by being able to totally control where the dice go.

I think dice cups and dice towers value are directly in proportion to the size of the dice put in and the number of dice put in.

Many medium or larger dice don't jostle sufficiently in dice cups. Not to mention are you shaking you're cup, or merely stirring the dice within?

I also find the dice with indentations for their pip numbering to be disturbing, because it takes quite a bit of quality control and planning to make that dice not lighter on the side with more pips and thus heavier on the 1 pip. Perhaps a statistically insignificant amount, but....

rbodleyscott wrote:I am firmly convinced that re-rolls come up the same number again more often than 1 time in 6 if they are re-rolled by hand. I believe that (if true) this is because the dice sometimes skim rather than rolling.

This is the only reason I use dice cups.

If my opponent wishes to roll his re-rolls by hand, then I am happy for him to take the statistical hit. (Which might not exist, but I think it probably does).

Of course if the troops are poor....

But if you pick a dice up from the table you normally put your hand palm down to grab it and then rotate 180 degrees before rolling. So any skimming should have the reverse result?

I once managed to half convice McNeil that it's best to roll a dice with the "1" uppermost in your hand. "so it'll tumble 6161616161616. See - when it turns an odd number of times there are more 6s, whereas if it turns an even number of times there are an equal number of 1s and 6s. So on average it gives you more 6s". It took him a while to work it out!

grahambriggs wrote:
But if you pick a dice up from the table you normally put your hand palm down to grab it and then rotate 180 degrees before rolling. So any skimming should have the reverse result?

Hmmm, one of my pet hates is the dice being placed in hand, said hand then turned over or pulled away and dice fall an inch or so to the table to land flat on sixes and fives!

I suspect even the best prestidigitators would have difficulty controlling such a "throw," but that doesn't make it any less galling or suspicious when, very rarely, I face an opponent who does it. Whinge, whinge.

Dave