Superstitions That You Actually Abide By IRL

[JeenLeen]

I've tried to actively break myself of the "do not open umbrellas indoors", but I still feel odd about it and generally won't.

My gaming group had a superstition that I would get bad luck if my character used magic, at least on those rolls. And such bad luck was contagious, so if I used someone else's die by mistake, they stopped using it for that session.

[NRSASD]

Yes, because you'll look like a crazy man shouting at the sky. :P

Hehe fair, but I meant more like exclaiming "Oh, come on!" when you just finish setting up something water soluble outside. I swear it's listening to you and will rain all the harder.

I was walking with my friend back from classes one time while in college, and it just started raining. He muttered about how the storm was nothing compared to the storms he experienced back home, and it got worse. Every time he disparaged the storm we were trudging through, like 8 times, it got worse and worse and worse until he finally said "Ok! Ok! This storm is pretty bad too!" whereupon it died down tremendously.

Just random probability, but funny nonetheless!

[FinnLassie]

I'm trying super hard to come up with something, but I guess I just don't have any that I follow. How utterly boring. People think I don't step on cracks because I don't want my mother's back to break, but I do it because I want to see how long it takes me to get out of pace. I obsess over sending a 22.22 when the clock turns 22.22 for various reasons, but I don't see it as superstition, I don't follow it religiously, only when I notice it or it's 22.20 or so and wait.

[Ornithologist]

Let's see. I'm always trying to get over letting people touch my dice. It always happens eventually, and I just need to get over it.

Painted models do better than non-painted. Except for the first game its played with.

I knock on wood when needed. Fun fact, if theres no wood around you can knock on your own head. It reinforces that you're doing something dumb.

I have one more, but its literally about not bringing up something in conversation... so I don't want to talk about it any more. ;)

[Eldest]

It has already been mentioned.

Totally missed it! My bad.

[Spacewolf]

Working on ships there's alot of superstitions going around, I don't follow it but I've been threatened before for whistling.
Other than that there's the usual knock on wood, don't say good luck with something, don't say something is easy. My personal fav is verbal lubricant, I.E. that enough swearing with help loosen off rusted nuts and bolts.

[Scarlet Knight]

Never turn a calender early; it shortens your life.

[JeenLeen]

There's one superstition I've read about, and assume was authentic in some areas, but haven't actually heard anyone using in real life anecdotes.

Not using your given name, lest evil spirits (or fey, goblins, whatever) hear it and gain power over you. Thus the use of nicknames or shortened names (John for Jonathan, Kate for Kathleen, etc.).

[Razade]

I don't know if this counts, I still can't sleep with the closet door open, nor the bathroom door open..

I'm similar. I can't sleep without knowing my front door is locked, I need to check it even if I know it's locked. Because it shouldn't ever not be. All other doors to the bedroom also needs to be fully closed.

[Xania]

Me too, also don't want to be in front of the door while sleeping, but i don't think it's a superstition, it's just that for whatever reason i feel observed

[Gnoman]

I get extremely nervous whenever something good happens to me, because I'm afraid of how it's going to come back and bite me. I'm not paranoid, it is simply a fact that the universe is out to get me.

[Fyraltari]

I do the whole "knock on wood" thing, even if there is no wood available (I will still "knock" something, just whatever I feel is a suitable wood-substitute).

It's weird, I know, but oddly comforting.

Spoiler: Relevant

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[veti]

I'm similar. I can't sleep without knowing my front door is locked, I need to check it even if I know it's locked. Because it shouldn't ever not be. All other doors to the bedroom also needs to be fully closed.

Huh. I feel very uncomfortable with the bedroom door closed, in my own house. I like to be able to hear everything that's going on, even while I'm going to sleep.

Most of the doors in my house are always open, unless there's a specific reason to close them. For instance, if a bathroom door is closed, that means someone is inside.

[Velaryon]

I have some dice-based superstitions when I'm gaming:

-rolling well out of combat (especially when I don't need it, such as a natural 20 on a skill I have a high modifier for) means that I will roll poorly in combat because I "used up" my good rolls.
-certain dice being "hot" or "cold" on a given day. If I roll poorly a few times with a certain die, I will put it away and use another one instead.
-one of my friends will always roll poorly on a saving throw if he says "that's my good save" before rolling.

For non-gaming stuff... I don't know if this counts as a superstition, but there are three days of the year I will always expect it to rain if (and only if) I have any plans: Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Halloween.

[Ornithologist]

For non-gaming stuff... I don't know if this counts as a superstition, but there are three days of the year I will always expect it to rain if (and only if) I have any plans: Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Halloween.

Technically, yeah I'd call that a superstition. But seriously, the 4th of July is the rainiest, windiest day of the year. There was lightning at the fireworks location 20 min before the show started this year.

[Lemmy]

I don't think the black cat superstition is racist, because not only is it very old, it's also not very consistent in what a black cat is supposed to signify (in some places or contexts it was actually seen as lucky). I think it's rather that pitch black is a quite impressive coloration (the same goes for snow white, which also tends to be linked to magic), and when it's dark, a pitch black cat will look like a shadow with two gleaming eyes.

Like most other instances of "Dark/Black is Evil" (black magic, dark elves, etc) in pop culture, it's probably because of darkness... You know... With humans being a primarily visual species and having bad night vision and all that.

It's only natural that over time at least some people and cultures would start associating "darkness" with "danger" and therefore "evil" and "death"... And in turn, that association would drip down on mythology and superstition.

- - -

...But I digress.

The only superstition I follow is knocking on wood... And it's more of an OCD habit, really. I know it doesn't do anything, but if I don't do it, it'll bother me for hours (or until I give in and do it).

Fortunately, my current keychain has a bit of wood in it, so I always have a safeguard! ^^

[Spore]

Knocking on wood but only if I jinx something. And you know that weird feeling of liberty when you open a window to breathe "more easily"? Yeah, I do that, despite being short of breath because my allergies (FROM OUTSIDE) act up. Enjoy that pollen, lungs! Other than that I decided when I was a teenager that 13 is my lucky number so I cannot have any unlucky numbers.

And whenever something "objectively" bad happens, I try to see it as a sign for my behaviour to change or as a benefit to someone else. If it starts to rain just as I step outside, already late for work, I take it as a sign I should've left the house earlier instead of being pissed at the universe for both making me late (that is almost always on me) and raining on me (weather does not care about me).

[DotLikesTurtles]

If it seems like a task is easy, it's always because the universe is conspiring to really mess you up the second you feel any joy upon completion. May or may not actually be true, but I'm always suspicious when something seems too easy

[Velaryon]

Technically, yeah I'd call that a superstition. But seriously, the 4th of July is the rainiest, windiest day of the year. There was lightning at the fireworks location 20 min before the show started this year.

I also recall getting rained on while trick-or-treating quite a few times. It wasn't necessarily a torrential downpour, but given how chilly it can be at the end of October, it didn't need to be heavy rain to put a damper on the whole evening.

As for Memorial Day, my parents and I used to drive out to cemeteries on Memorial Day and try to find some of my dad's relatives from a couple generations back, and it would always start to pour and send us scurrying back to the car to wait it out.

[Flyingbooks42]

I used to believe that there were creatures who would attack me whenever I stepped on cracks or lines in the sidewalk and (since my house has a straight path from the front door to the restroom with a door in between) whenever I flushed the toilet without having the bathroom door be locked or both doors between me and the front door closed. I have no idea how I came up with this superstition. I have never heard anything similar from any book, movie, or person.

Even to this day I stilll do the same things out of habit, though I don't believe in the creatures anymore.

[caden_varn]

I used to believe that there were creatures who would attack me whenever I stepped on cracks or lines in the sidewalk and (since my house has a straight path from the front door to the restroom with a door in between) whenever I flushed the toilet without having the bathroom door be locked or both doors between me and the front door closed. I have no idea how I came up with this superstition. I have never heard anything similar from any book, movie, or person.

Even to this day I stilll do the same things out of habit, though I don't believe in the creatures anymore.

It's well known in the UK that bears will get you if you tread on the cracks (I had never heard the one about breaking your mother's back before). Some googling reveals a poem from A A Milne that I vaguely remember from childhood (https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lines-and-squares/, so maybe you came across this?

Reverse psychology work on dice, so if you say it'll be easy, or you can't miss, they will make sure you fail. Conversely, if you say you have no chance loudly enough, you'll roll a 20.
But this is not superstition, it is definitely science that I have much proper evidence for, honest guv.

[Lemmy]

All this talk of cracks and mother's backs remind me of this ol' video:

[Ghostrider583]

Mine is fairly corny also but I can't stand mirrors. If I had my own home I probably wouldn't have a single one. They just creep me out to no end when I look into them lol

[Shocksrivers]

I often place them so that all values are a high average or a low high "in order to encourage good rolls while not exhausting the best ones".

Ha, I do this to!

Other than that, I am quite superstitious: for example, I think you can force the wind to blow into your back while cycling by not admitting its hard to cycle with front wind. I knock on wood a lot and I genuinely believe that if you think you need something, and then think "nah, it will be okay", you will definitely need it!

[The Fury]

I'm not really a superstitious person, but for some reason the deal with finding a penny on the ground? If you pick up a penny that landed heads up it's good luck, but if it's tails up it's bad luck. Yeah... I actually do that. Maybe it's because my luck tends to be so bad.

[Blue Bandit]

I'm in a profession where its common practice to never, under any circumstances, ever, say the "Q" word. If you do, or you hear someone else say it, you will have a crazy rest of the shift. I laughed at this at first, but I absolutely practice it now. I'll even get on to people for saying it around me. You can use any other synonym, i.e. calm, peaceful, etc. Just never THAT word.

[KillianHawkeye]

I don't know if this counts, but sometimes I still hold Down + B when trying to catch a Pokemon.

[Spore]

Mine is fairly corny also but I can't stand mirrors. If I had my own home I probably wouldn't have a single one. They just creep me out to no end when I look into them lol

Let me be your guidance here and please have at least a bathroom mirror AND a hallway mirror. The amount of times my hallway mirror saved me from going outside with a smudge on my face or similar is astounding.

I don't know if this counts, but sometimes I still hold Down + B when trying to catch a Pokemon.

Certainly does it is just not IRL. On the side of game superstitions I am fairly certain my PF rogue was cursed which only broke when I switched dice with a good friend. The dice did not roll low always but they managed to roll just short of the needed result far too many times. Need a 15 for perception? Too bad you rolled a 4 with a bonus of ten. Over the course of more than a year this die has ruined my fun for my first character.

Lesson of the day: Sometimes cheap plastic dice are lopsided and screw you for only having these dice. I can really understand the people having them by the bucketload.

[KillianHawkeye]

I don't know if this counts, but sometimes I still hold Down + B when trying to catch a Pokemon.

Certainly does it is just not IRL.

What do you mean it's not IRL? It's something I actually, physically do that I'm aware has no effect.

[Yora]

I'm in a profession where its common practice to never, under any circumstances, ever, say the "Q" word. If you do, or you hear someone else say it, you will have a crazy rest of the shift. I laughed at this at first, but I absolutely practice it now. I'll even get on to people for saying it around me. You can use any other synonym, i.e. calm, peaceful, etc. Just never THAT word.

It actually is true. When things are unusually quiet, they have to return back to normal sooner or later. When it is really quiet, probably sooner. Same thing with being unusually busy. That's how averages work.

Of course, things will also get back to normal when you don't say quiet.