The strangest superstition you have heard?

[Sable Gear]

The strangest one I ever saw was one that someone on these forums posted a link to, it might have been Ultrajoe, I can't remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6HsiixFS8

Course, I suppose that can be filed under "hilariously misinformed conspiracy theory" rather than superstition.

The deuce? That's just weird...

-Walking under a ladder I think is a pretty effective superstition, you're likely to have somehting fall on you.
-Black cats I never understood. Has something to do with witches I think, either shape-shifted or their familiar. But if a witch was really out to get you, she'd have done it by now.
-Killing a spider makes it rain the next day. Not true, but strasngely it seems to link my mild arachnophobia and love of rainy days...
-Rubbing/kissing a bald man's head is good luck. I've never really been this close to any bald guys so someone'll have to test that one for me.

 

[dmase]

step on a crack you break your mother's back, its probably just based on some rhyme tho not a real superstition

Edit by the way have you ever realized that your purposely avoiding cracks on sidewalks

 

[Davey Woo]

If you stand on a crack in the pavement a monster will appear behind you.

Throwing salt over your shoulder before eating to "throw salt in the eyes of the devil"

Not blinking when standing infront of a mirror.

Walking under a ladder ( I personally think its fun)

All odd.

 

[Rascarin]

I've not heard any particularly "whut"-worthy superstitions. I think they're all a bit daft, to be honest.

Though I did have a friend that turned Wiccan because he thought it was his duty to do so, being the ancestor of someone who had sentenced witches to death.

... Did you mean "descendant", or has one of his children/grandchildren taken up witch burning?

 

[dmase]

The strangest one I ever saw was one that someone on these forums posted a link to, it might have been Ultrajoe, I can't remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_c6HsiixFS8

Course, I suppose that can be filed under "hilariously misinformed conspiracy theory" rather than superstition.

The deuce? That's just weird...

-Walking under a ladder I think is a pretty effective superstition, you're likely to have somehting fall on you.
-Black cats I never understood. Has something to do with witches I think, either shape-shifted or their familiar. But if a witch was really out to get you, she'd have done it by now.
-Killing a spider makes it rain the next day. Not true, but strasngely it seems to link my mild arachnophobia and love of rainy days...
-Rubbing/kissing a bald man's head is good luck. I've never really been this close to any bald guys so someone'll have to test that one for me.

My highscool's football team used to rub the head of one of their teamates and they would win and when they didn't they lost and when the guy they did this to told me he was like well except for that time oh and that time, so yeah i'm positive it was your head and not the team you were facing.

 

[Internet Kraken]

In my experience, Gamers are very good at identifying patterns as they actually are, and therefore, are HIGHLY resistant to superstition.

Real-world superstitions, maybe.

But there are some strange habits gamers develop that go beyond simple strategy.

Example:

"OHSNAP! THAT DUDE'S A CHICK! SHE'LL PWN US ALL!"

*Everyone clears game lobby*

Girl Gamer: "Um...hello?"

I've never heard of anyone doing that.

However, I have noticed people consider certain dice to be lucky, as Xanadu84 said.

 

[Darkauthor81]

That vampires are completely obsessive compulsive. A good way to detect one, or to escape from one, is to throw marbles onto the ground. Apparently they HAVE to stop everything and count the marbles.

Oh, if your shoes are untied they'll tie them.

Seriously. You can look it up. This is one of a vampire's MANY MANY supposed weaknesses. LOL

 

[GodsOneMistake]

Hold your breath while passing over a bridge.... And uh don't look at a graveyard or something

 

[Tales of Golden Sun]

Does Scientology count as a superstition?

 

[DarkRyter]

Dogs can't look up. (Shaun of the Dead)

People with grey eyes can't see water. (some bull about eye pigmentation and improper refraction detection)

Red haired prostitutes bring good luck. (Leprechauns. Whores. You get the idea.)

If you dream in black and white, you're inbred. (I have no idea.)

 

[PirateKing]

The knock on wood thing makes no sense to me at all.

 

[ThePoodonkis]

People have gotten mad at me because I've picked up a penny I found, but it wasn't heads up. Apparently, the way a penny is facing on the ground affects the luck it supposedly brings.
I don't want luck, I want the penny I just found!

Oh, and Chain mail letters. That whole "If you don't resend this, the soul of a duck will chew off your eyelids" ballyhoo.

 

[Gooble]

I don't like people commenting on any sporting event as it's happening, because I think it will jinx it, and I know there's absolutely no way I can control this but I get really paranoid that if I think something during a match that encourages or damns one side or the other, especially in football, I'll somehow affect what's going to happen. But then I get paranoid as to whether I should stop thinking it because me thinking it will make the opposite happen, or to keep thinking it and to actually make it happen!

That thought process especially applies to 50/50 decisions, especially (again in football) when playing Fifa and trying to take and save penalties. Never have any idea whether to go with my instinct, or whether that instinct's telling me not to shoot/dive that way, or whether my instinct's entirely wrong. This overthinking loses me a lot of shootouts.

 

[ItsAChiaotzu]

Call it laziness but I say revising at all before a test is bad luck.

There you go, fixed it for you.

 

[crudus]

In my experience, Gamers are very good at identifying patterns as they actually are, and therefore, are HIGHLY resistant to superstition. Except in the singular area...of dice. It's uncanny. Even the most reasonable, scientific, un-suggestible gamer in the world will roll his D20 repeatedly until the bad luck wears out, and it starts to, "Get Hot", or choose certain dice for certain situations, or have some random ritual for maximizing there odds. I do it myself, and every time I have to remind myself about how stupid i'm being. But I do it anyways. Dice rolling superstitions are the strangest to me, because they are apparently impossible to stamp out, even amongst the most unsuperstitious people in the world.

I have found this superstition to have a backing once. My DM had a D20 that was made wrong and thus weighted. It rolled ones about 35-40 percent of the time (we rolled it about 100 times and counted how many times each number came up). He rolled it when it felt like being kind.

 

[Xanadu84]

In my experience, Gamers are very good at identifying patterns as they actually are, and therefore, are HIGHLY resistant to superstition. Except in the singular area...of dice. It's uncanny. Even the most reasonable, scientific, un-suggestible gamer in the world will roll his D20 repeatedly until the bad luck wears out, and it starts to, "Get Hot", or choose certain dice for certain situations, or have some random ritual for maximizing there odds. I do it myself, and every time I have to remind myself about how stupid i'm being. But I do it anyways. Dice rolling superstitions are the strangest to me, because they are apparently impossible to stamp out, even amongst the most unsuperstitious people in the world.

I have found this superstition to have a backing once. My DM had a D20 that was made wrong and thus weighted. It rolled ones about 35-40 percent of the time (we rolled it about 100 times and counted how many times each number came up). He rolled it when it felt like being kind.

My group found something similar. Ever play, "Mage Knight"? Well, the figures came with free dice, but they were ridiculously low quality. Plastic felt like it was from a tic tac container. Anyways, we eventually realized that they had to be weighted. Not in a flagrantly obvious manner initially, but we rolled up several dozen mock D+D stats useing the 4d6 drop lowest system. And about 90% of the characters had at least 2 18s. Anyways, we made a show of saying how the dice were weighted, and that we preferred them, but the DM basically assumed it was just superstition. We made a lot of very powerful characters for a while.

 

[CuddlyCombine]

Christianity.

I kid, I kid! I don't want to stir up any inferno. Anyway, I always loved the "Step on a crack, break your mother's back" one, simply because my friend's mom ingrained it in him for no apparent reason. I'd always make sure to exploit this for my own amusement (for example, I parked my car across a fifty-year-old parking lot one night when we were seeing a movie), though. It's funny watching someone hop for minutes on end. Well, I exaggerate; he was just nervous about walking on the cracks.

I may or may not be a horrible person.

 

[Weaver]

Korean fan death.

 

[ThaBenMan]

There are a couple that my stepmom actually believes in -

- If you let the blades of any knives in your house cross, it's bad luck and invites conflict into the house. And it's also bad luck if you receive knives as a gift - if anyone gives her any, she insists on giving them a penny to "pay" them for the knives.

- If you give someone a wallet or a purse with no money in it, it gives them bad luck with acquiring money. I got her a new purse for her birthday once, and she refused to accept it until I put a penny in it.