Bad dice rolls have lost me many a game but its not the reason why I lost every game I've ever lost. Map choice, cheesy strategies vs a more fun build, using a tent pole that is too easy to take down, all of these and more have caused me to lose games including the biggest factor... failing to see that big play when I really needed to and realizing that it could of prevented the rear kicking I took if I had seen it before.

My problem was lack of cowbell I believe!

That sounds like a self-fulfilling prophecy right there.

I have a friend who shares this problem. Dice just don't like him.
You can argue probability all you like, & sure, maybe someday he'll just start rolling nothing but high #s. But that doesn't help him in the present.

His solution? MK, MW, HC.... He ALWAYS plays these games with pieces packing PC & Perplex (or thier equivelents).

We have a guy at our venue who consistently rolls exactly ONE LESS than what he needs to score a hit. It happens in at least 50% of his rolls. It happens so often that the act of rolling exactly one less than you need to score a hit is now a noun bearing his name.

It doesn't matter how often he changes dice, or whose dice he uses, or whether the dice are old or fresh, or whether the table is slanted or straight, or whether or not one die is larger than the other, or whether or not one die has a booger on it, or whether or not the planets are in a certain alignment, or whether or not Uri Geller is rockin' the house with his psychokinetic abilities.

Period.

So screw your "consistent laws of probability" in both of its ears -- I contend that it fails to exist and that some people are just plain cursed.

Having a better team and being a better strategist will only increase your chances of winning. However, sometimes luck will dominate. Many times when two good teams and two good players go head to head the first few realistic and meaningful rolls like (6-8) will determine the outcome of a standard 300 point game. While you can pack prob which I always do, things can still go wrong. I've missed 7's twice to cripple my opponents best piece in a well set up play only to have one of my best pieces junked resulting in me losing the game. That's textbook playing because the odds were on my side but I still lost. Like I said smart playing and smart team making only gave me a higher percent chance to win, but getting unlucky cost me the game.

I wasn't going to say anything, but it isn't your bad luck...its that I put a curse on you.

My sister has repeatedly gone to various bingo and casinos and won thousands of dollars. She hits on lottery tickets at a rate that is truthfully scarey. (Wow I made her sound like a white trash hilljack who spends the rent money on gambling. Actually she is a speach and hearing therapist who goes to bingo about twice a month and to the casino about once every 6 months.)
I have no luck. Not good or bad. She got mine somehow.
Do I believe in luck? Honestly I do. Sometimes ya got it and sometimes ya don't.

Actually, I don't think so. For example, if you and I are both using my dice, and over the course of the night, I average a roll of 6 and you average a roll of 8, we still come up with a total average of 7. But that in no way means that our individual averages are the same.

Dice rolls are random. In the grand scheme of things, they will tend towards a statistical average, but in a day, a week, a month or even a year, there is no reason to believe that streaks do not occur.

Everyone's average lifetime rolls are the same.

Happy now?

I haven't been playing too long compared to some, a little more than a year, but I build pretty good teams. At first, I was losing a lot due to rolls, so I built a team around high defense and attack, not stressing damage and started winning... a lot. Now, making sure I hit and trying to ensure I can't be hit is the main concern in building teams. Besides high Attacks and Defenses, Perplex and Probability Control, having more characters is a really good way to ensure bad rolls don't destroy you. If you roll for 6 different characters, it's far more likely that one hit that 8 you need. Adding Incapacitate makes you get hit a lot less, as do CR, ESD and even Stealth. Maximize your opportunities. Will you still lose to bad rolls? Sure, in 400 pts, Martian Manhunter made an absurd number of Shape Change rolls against me and picked me apart, but it simply will NOT happen all the time if you build around it.

I used to be philosophical about luck, both good and bad. I've won games as a direct result of luck, and lost them as well. Far more often luck plays a small, non-determining role in how long the game lasts and the final point tally as opposed to the W/L result. Luck was luck, and that was fine.

Then I went to GenCon last year and in King of the Hill I had 9 straight SS rolls made against me.

I smashed my worthless Thor beneath my boot and swore to burn the entire world that day.

I'm not, because it's simply not true. It's entirely possible for someone to roll literally nothing but crit hits (or crit misses), every single roll, for their entire lives. Now, it's statistically unlikely, even very very unlikely, but it's in no way impossible. Similarly, there are going to be people who average a 4 or a 10 instead of the much more likely 7. Again, it's unlikely, although not as unlikely... The 'law of averages' only says what's likely to happen over a large number of samples, not what must or will happen. Over a large number of people, even though it's much more likely for each individual to be average, it's also likely that some people will be anomalies. It would, in fact, be anomalous if there weren't anomalous people...

This is a fun discussion.

My few cents: You certainly can have had bad luck-- but to claim it as an attribute of oneself is superstition. You can have the worst luck in the world one day and it will have no bearing on your next dice roll.

Randomness often is "streaky" in hindsight. While the next roll might be anything, when you look back at series of rolls, they will look hot and cold. It reinforces they notion that people are "lucky' or "unlucky."

I thought it funny when in the online league, somebody complained that the online dice rollers were prone to runs of high or low numbers. just like real life!

Last, and I think the real meat of this-- some people will blame their dice long before they blame themselves. This keeps them from getting better.

I came to this conclusion a long time ago. Your opponent in a game of heroclix is the dice, not the person sitting across the table from you.