loaded dices..but how?

[Iagoba]

I think (maybe wrongly) that most of the dices found are numered from 1 to 6 by dots...(D6)

If I´ve read a lot of times tells of findings of roman dices loaded...

To fell in what number? 1? 6? perhaps other?

Sadly this won´t give us any clue of the game played beacause you load a dice to:

a) Benefit yourself
b) make things harder for the opponent...

This would be a great help for my home-made dices (loaded or not...:roll: )

[Dan Howard]

An easy way is to drill the 6 holes very deeply while only a very shallow hole in the 1. This makes the die fall on 6 more often than any other number.

[Iagoba]

That would be too easy to see. I mean the lead-weighted ones, with a metal piece inside.

[Marcus Mummius]

That would be too easy to see. I mean the lead-weighted ones, with a metal piece inside.

Then you'd have to construct the dice out of several pieces, and that would be easily visible too. Most Roman dice I know of are massive pieces of bone.

Vale,

[M. Demetrius]

If I told you how to do it, you wouldn't gamble with me any more, now would you?

Fact is, I don't know how to do it, either. :lol: Honest.

[Paullus Scipio]

Gee, there are myriad ways to load dice..... there's " inside work" - percentage dice, passers, missouts, tappers dead numbers, spot loads( referred to above),......and 'loads' can all be done with modern, transparent dice...
...then there's "outside work" - shapes, bricks and flats, bevels, suction dice, capped dice, slick dice, trip dice, raised edge work, cut-edge work, heavy paint, the pin gaff, "rollers"....the list goes on and on. :lol:
..Then of course, they can be loaded high or low, to win or lose, etc.....and clever sharks have several sets, to vary the 'load' so the 'Mark' doesn't catch on and the shark is able to switch them in and out by sleight- of -hand...

That would be too easy to see. I mean the lead-weighted ones, with a metal piece inside.

....oh, no it wouldn't! dice can be cut and restored so that you can't see the join, even with a magnifying glass !! A common one, rather than lead, is to use a mercury load ( a 'tapper'). A dumbell shape with one end in the centre is drilled and a little oil ( for lubrication) and mercury added. With the mercury placed in the centre, the dice is fair and surface tension prevents the mercury moving - like this the dice passes any 'balance test' too. When he needs 'Lucky seven' ( or 'Venus' if you are Roman) the sharp taps the dice sharply "for luck" , pauses while the mercury shifts and 'Bingo!', makes his throw...a tap on the opposite side/corner re -centres the load......... D lol:
I have even (many years ago) caught ardent wargamers using loaded dice in a competition... hock: :evil: :twisted: