hothie said:

Myself: In the case of too many dice rolled, normally reroll entirely. The exception would beif you have some idea that someone is doing it deliberately, or wouldn't play fair (ie that they would point it out if they remembered they had done it wrong afterwards and it was negative to them, but wouldn't do the same if they realised but the overall result was positive to them). In that case: stick with it if was a total fail, or possibly remove them starting with positives if you have mixed results. However, I wouldn't make this the normal approach, as I don't like very adversarial relationships and rules in games. They are only necessary in adversarial settings (ie formal competitions and the like), and otherwise I play as if I am playing with friends.

Interesting thread… I didn't expect to see so many different perspectives.

I think the key thing is to decide what you are going to do before it happens. That seems fairest to everyone since you don't know what the dice will say when making the decision. I can see many ways to proceed here, and it is acually a complicated decision, especially when you consider my next point.

Which is, what do you do if person A rolls the wrong amount an person B then rolls the right amount before anyone realizes the mistake. Do both have to reroll?

On average it will work out over time, but it will really suck the few times someone is really helped or harmed. I agree there needs to be some sort of penalty or escalated warning system.

First time… Warning (offender reroll everything… and know this up front so it is fair).

Second time… opponent decides (i.e., the person who didn't make the mistake does what is best for them and worse for their opponent)

Third time… lose game

If you do it more than once in too many games, you have to leave the tournament.

Let's look at the flip side. If defender rolls 3 evades, do you make him re-roll the correct number of dice?

To me, the answer is yes.

If defender rolls 3 blanks, do you make him re-roll?

To me, the answer is still yes. That's being consistent. That's what, as others have brought up, is called good sportsmanship. Because in the end, a single dice roll in a game of plastic miniatures is worth far less to me than being a good sport.

If the other person displays a pattern of rolling the wrong number of dice, either they don't know the rules (and I have been guilty of this, rolling range modifiers for secondary weapons), or they are doing so deliberately. I check myself every single roll to make sure I'm rolling the right number, and if my opponent has rolled the wrong number before, i check my opponent as well before rolling. And it's usually something as simple as saying,"My 3 vs. your 2, right?"

And if it does seem deliberate, then yeah, unfortunately you will have to call a TO over to monitor the other person. But, inherently, I believe we are all good people, and we all want to play a good, fair game, but I guess that's just my own normalcy bias.

hothie said:

I totally agree! The reroll should not be based on what the original result was. It should be consistent, no matter that the result is. That way there is no question as to what will happen in that situation. If it becomes an issue, then let the TO handle it.

I just can't understand the point of allowing/forcing a re-roll when the result is a failure.

Situation: Attacker rolls 3 dice, which is the proper number of dice, scores 2 hits.

Defender rolls 3 dice, when he should have been rolling 2. He rolls three blanks. Oops, too many dice, re-roll using proper number of dice. He rolls 2 evades.

How is that good sportsmanship? Good sportsmanship would be the defender saying "oops, I rolled too many dice, but since it was the worst possible result I could have gotten on any number of dice, I'll accept the results and move on." Allowing/forcing him to re-roll is, going back to my football analogy, allowing him a do-over with no penalty. It actually encourages cheating…unless you implement an escalating "thee strikes and you're out of the event" system as well. It seems overly cumbersome and illogical to me.

I do agree that for formal events, the TO should declare what the protocol will be for that event. I'm fine with going with whatever it is…even if I find forced re-rolls in every case illogical.

Dropping the best offending dice, to me, is appealing because it preserves whatever roll you made, with the penalty being that you have to take the worst result of the dice you actually rolled for that event. There's no do-over. There's NO added incentive whatsoever to cheat. Good rolls will still be good rolls, bad rolls will still be bad rolls, and marginal rolls may turn into bad rolls. Most importantly to me, it preserves the odds of the original roll, because it doesn't add any additional dice into the equation.

kingbobb said:

Because it's the only way to actually follow the rules.

The rules to don't give you a protocol to follow when the rules get broken they just tell you to follow the rules. The rules tell you the correct number of dice to roll so the only thing to do is actually roll the correct number of dice.

I can only control my own actions. I say,"You should have rolled 2, so go ahead and re-roll with 2 instead."

If my opponent then says,"No, it's okay, I'll just take the 2 worst dice that i rolled." That would then be an example of good sportsmanship on his part. So I would be okay with that. It's not worth arguing over, and as long as I offer a re-roll, i think I'm doing the right thing.

Either way, I think having a protocol in place would be a wise idea for TO's.