"Digital dice rollers" Topic

One thing I don't like about a lot of dice roller programs is there are no animations of the dice being rolled. So in my searching I have stumbled across a couple dice rollers with 3d dice animations. Both are freeware, although they are from companies that want you to buy products.

Viewing Dale dice has the best interface of the two, given you can program dice rolls into buttons: link

Rock'n'Roll is the better looking of the two, with some good dice graphics and backgrounds (although all with a fantasy theme; it would have been nice if they let you add your own background.): link

I still like the real thing over digital dice, but the applications are neat to play with if, say, you're writing your own scenarios and wondering what the dice rolls come out like.

I never thought something like that would have been created but those are quite cool. Shortcut is now on the desktop for itchy fingers during download times. Thanks a lot for putting this up.

What would be cool is one that worked on your mobile phone.

Well, if your mobile phone is an iphone, there are a couple dice rolling programs. I use diceonomicon:

link

There are others, probably for other types of phones as well.

Mach Dice on the iphone is very nice:

machwerx.com/apps/MachDice

Yeah, I knew there were dice rollers for the iPhone, but my phone still dates to the stone age -- tiny pterodactyl living in it and everything.

Those iPhone apps must be nice for gaming. Don't have to worry about your dice rolling off the table. I thought the computer apps would be best for playing with when you're on your laptop or trying to see how certain rolls would come out.

Even back in the 1980s, there were several electronic dice rollers. One model could even be set for any of the currently popular polyhedren dice numebrs used at that time. They did not last long. I even bought a few to sell at my store. Not a hot item!!

Most gamers like to win or lose on their own physical toss of the 'bones'.

I don't see how they are very useful fo gaming…but man are they fun to play with!

I'm with Rudy. I prefer to roll dice, just like my primative ancestors.

Rudy, I'm the same way with dice, but I bet that will change as younger players come of age. I got to admit that if I had an iPhone, I'd probably use the MachDice app -- it looks very cool, and even projects 3d dice. Don't get me wrong: There will always been people who use real dice, but I bet electronic dice will become more popular as they become more portable.

I got a digital dice roller for my Ipod touch a few weeks ago. I stopped using it when my Ipod gracefully sailed out of my hand as I was showing a mate and almost lunched a stand of some Chinese bow men I had been working on. I didn't even roll a six…

I think I'll stick to normal dice from now on…

That's taking laziness to the extreme.

And I've been using the random number function on a scientific calculator (you can get one for around $20 USD at most stationary stores now) for more than 20 years. For non D10 rolls I just multiply the random number by the # of dice sides I need and round normally.

I just multiply the random number by the # of dice sides I need and round normally.

Doesn't that give you an extra side?

I would be very suspicious of any perfect crucial dice rolls if my opponent were using his i-phone to roll imaginary dice.

Even a mediocre cheating programmer would be able to figure a way to co-opt those applications.

Chick

I hate the iPhone dice rollers. A friend of mine uses one during our D&D sessions. Might be good for him because he can create some dice combinations for damage and such. But all I see is he clicks a button, says oh darn I clicked the wrong one, scroll up and down looking for the right one, and then clicking a button again. Once or twice, he's had to stop and reconfigure a combination because he's forgotten a die because of some new feat or such. Then there's crits where he has to scroll to another combination to roll that damage. I honestly have no idea what he's doing.

Why you guys are just a bunch of Luddites! :)

I don't think real dice are in any danger of going away, but I can see how portable dice apps can come in handy. If you had to add together a bunch of dice, or were tossing a bunch of dice in a dice pool system, it is nice to have your results come up automatically on screen instead of having to count them up yourself (esp. after a few beers). Even if the current iPhone dice rollers are not great, I'm sure there will be better ones in the future.

Also, price is a factor. A lot of iPhone dice apps are only .99 cents. I just bought a couple sets of precision dice for nearly $20 USD once shipping is added in. Granted, you have to have an expensive iPhone, but I doubt dice rolling is the only thing you would use it for.

Even back in the 1980s, there were several electronic dice rollers. One model could even be set for any of the currently popular polyhedren dice numebrs used at that time. They did not last long. I even bought a few to sell at my store. Not a hot item!!

The Dragonbone, right? I know someone who still has one.

Computer/electronic/digital dice are not random. They use a set pattern of numbers and then a "seed" number (often a time stamp) to determine which number on that pattern is displayed as a "roll" result. For individual "rolls" the result will appear random, but over a large number of "rolls" the pattern can be tracked. Some randomization systems are much, much better than others, but a pattern is always present. My guess is that in commercially available "randomization" devices or programs, the less robust algorithms are used, with results you can indeed notice over time. (For example, I've detected a discernible high/low streak pattern in the dice function on the online "not-Risk" site, Conquer Club. Great site, but when the pattern of good or bad rolls hits, you know it. There's nothing you can do but hold out and hope the seed changes.)

There's a great discussion here, spurred by an entertaining video made by the great Lou Zocchi: link

Most of the chat is about physical dice, but they do get into computer randomization.

For a truly random "randomization device," I prefer a rolled physical die.

Or there's always this site: random.org

Parzival wrote:

My guess is that in commercially available "randomization" devices or programs, the less robust algorithms are used, with results you can indeed notice over time.

If so, then the programmer is guilty of extreme sloppiness.

The Mersenne Twister algorithm will satisfy practically any test of randomness you care to throw at it, and is implemented in e.g. the standard Python libraries. There's no excuse for using horrors like RANDU these days.

Even with sixties-vintage psuedo-random number generators, I strongly doubt that you could genuinely detect any pattern without taking careful and copious notes.

All the best,

John.

parzival,

I first saw the hand held devises at Lous back in 1984 when I worked for him one summer.

Farstar that was the name of one of them. may have been the most popular one.

These are fun gadgets, but our group doesn't use them. What you roll out of your hand is what you get.

Cute program, cheers, but I find my dice box more convenient to carry than CPU, monitor,keyboard and mouse etc. Course, if I get a laptop……

Hello All, I would like to add a little clarification to the dice roller apps that are about. The reason why they are made is so that if you are playing online across the web and not sat around a table then you can share the dice roll. The viewingdale dice roller can link up with other people running the app and then dice rolled on one will be shown on the other running apps. Then you can all play one game at the same time and watch each others rolls in 3D and know no one is cheating.

The other reason is to group dice roll sets into a macro to make rolling strange combination's easier.

Also, if I can add to Johns post, yes its true that sometimes these apps use very flaky randomness functions. You can test it pretty easily since rolling a D6 will on average give 3.5 so if you roll 1000 or 10000 of them in one of these apps then it should give a result of 3500 or 35000 respectively. I am sure that you will find the ViewingDale one will because it does indeed use a Marsenne Twister as its random number generator. The twister is not as random as the numbers from random dot org but the twister is reseeded using mouse and other input data frequently. Its not cryptographically strong random but its good enough for games players. Its probably more random than a real 6 sided dice – even one from a Vegas casino.