I didn’t want to hijack the thread about atheist superstitions since I am not an atheist. I’m also not particularly superstitious, but I do have my ‘dice traditions.’
Before any game session, I always roll every one of whatever dice we’ll be using for the majority of rolls (d20 for D&D, etc) to determine which ones are clearly going to do badly that night.
I have a few dice that belonged to my dad, from his D&D days, that I collectively refer to as “The Dice of my Father.” They are only for Important Rolls.
I have one player whose dice are habitually ‘cursed’, although I think it’s just that his bad rolls are simply noticed more often because he makes a big deal out of them.
I have one player whose dice continuously roll high, but I think that’s because, to be indelicate, he lies about his results.
Me, I had five dice given to me by a GM for an incredibly ballsy play during a convention game (he told me he’d give me the dice if I pulled it off, and I did by coming up with a good plan instead of charging in blindly). Those five became known as ‘The Villanova dice’ (named after the enemy the plan was used against), and my players actively fear them… Although they don’t roll particularly better or worse than any other. My players seem to -think- they do, though (and I’ve lost 2 of them over the years. Annoying, but that’s life.).
Even though I have a dice rolling app on my phone, I will use physical dice for important rolls.
If I have to buy new dice, I make sure they match my character concept. I bought axe dice for Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, and some Las Vegas dice for Shadowrun (I’m playing a dwarf raised in a Vegas cabaret).
That’s less tradition, more a desire to waste money on toys.
Playing Warhammer Fantasy RPG 3rd Ed pretty much ruins all fooling with dice, since all the players and the GM share the same dice so they move around the table all the time. Not to mention when you can roll up to 20 dice, the result of any one of them isn’t so important any more.
I still fondly remember the time I was GMing 3rd Ed D&D and one of my players kept on missing every turn. He finally declared that if he misses one more time, the die gets it. He rolls 4, grabs his d20, opens the door to the patio and throws it out as far as he can. Can’t remember if his next attack hit, but at least nobody used that bad luck die ever again.
With real, physical dice, superstitions can sometimes be well-grounded, since they’re often genuinely far from fair. My first d20, for instance, has a significant statistical bias against rolling 20s (and yes, I have systematically tested this with enough rolls to be confident about this). It also seems to have another, smaller bias against rolling 1s, so it’s not exactly cursed, but it would be easy to interpret it that way.
On the other hand, the one and only time it ever rolled a 20 in a live game situation (as opposed to just a bunch of rolls in a row for testing), it was on a 2nd-edition nonweapon proficiency check… Where you’re hoping to roll low. So maybe it really is a curse.
(ah, I remember that one well: My bard was trying to barter entertainment for a free night’s stay at the inn, and was playing her flute to try to impress the inkeeper. A splinter flew out of the flute and hit him in the cheek. So, she ended up paying full price after all.)
It’s not a superstition, my dice suck.
Terrible luck on rolls. On the other hand,
of all the players I’m the only one who
isn’t divorced, single or in a bad relationship.
So being unlucky with dice isn’t that big of a deal.