Is the time right for electronic dice?

[Rokes]

Originally Posted by PIM68

Dragonbone a deux!

<sigh> Image decided not to attach. Oh well.

I hear those iPhone/iPod Touch dice rollers are pretty spiffy.

100% personal preference, but at GenCon I played in a game where one of the players had an iphone dice rolling app. I was utterly repulsed by it. It felt... unnatural.

edit: and I'm addicted to my iphone!

[Thanee]

Originally Posted by Jeff Wilder

You honestly think a typical gamer's polyhedrals -- or even the atypical GameScience polyhedrals -- are more random than a seeded random generator? Really?

Yes.


Especially seeded random generators are absolutely non-random (in theory, of course, in practice the difference is hardly relevant).

Bye
Thanee

[Nai_Calus]

Vartan Hai Sylvar is unreasonably awesome, incidentally.

I have 970 dice. You can take them when you pry them from my cold, lifeless fingers. (OK, so I may sell my duplicates someday, which would knock me down to 485, but chances are good that I won't because diiiiiiiiiiice I am so frakkin' addicted.)

I'm not much for electronic dice. Even the 'dice' in Fantasy Grounds, which are designed to actually look like dice and be rolled, don't do it for me.

You can't grab a new electronic die in FG or forum rollers when they misbehave. :< I can go multiple Shadowrun sessions without ever using the same d6 twice. THAT'S fun.

And rofl did I ever have a player when I ran a 3.5 campaign in FGII that needed to grab a different die to roll. His attack rolls were the stuff of gaming table legend. He hit like four times the entire campaign. It was sad.

tl;dr gimme real dice or give me death. :P

[aboyd]

In one of the D&D groups I play in, everyone has an iPhone (or an iPod that can use iPhone apps). Every one of us has at least 2 or 3 different dice-rolling apps. We've all used them at one time or the other. I personally use a particular app that comes with the sound of dice rolling -- it puts me at ease, makes me feel like I'm still rolling real dice.

So... I think the time has already come, as people I know are already doing it whether the rest of the people at the table are ready for it or not.

EDIT: while I'm at it, I might as well throw out an idea (again). If you've seen the iPhone app called Bump, you know that two iPhones near each other can swap/share data. I would pay money for an application that would have a minimal character sheet -- abilities, saves, AC, HP, attacks. And then the DM (or other players casting spells, for example) could "flick" modifiers to my iPhone. Thus, if the cleric buffed my fighter for 10 rounds, my iPhone would show my attacks with enhanced damage for those rounds. This isn't a dream-world app that might happen someday in a sci-fi future. It could happen today on iPhones if someone wanted to build it.

[Thanee]

Electronic dice are around since some double-digit number of years already...

They just still don't convey the same feeling as actual dice do.

Bye
Thanee

[Rokes]

Originally Posted by aboyd

In one of the D&D groups I play in, everyone has an iPhone (or an iPod that can use iPhone apps). Every one of us has at least 2 or 3 different dice-rolling apps. We've all used them at one time or the other. I personally use a particular app that comes with the sound of dice rolling -- it puts me at ease, makes me feel like I'm still rolling real dice.

So... I think the time has already come, as people I know are already doing it whether the rest of the people at the table are ready for it or not.

EDIT: while I'm at it, I might as well throw out an idea (again). If you've seen the iPhone app called Bump, you know that two iPhones near each other can swap/share data. I would pay money for an application that would have a minimal character sheet -- abilities, saves, AC, HP, attacks. And then the DM (or other players casting spells, for example) could "flick" modifiers to my iPhone. Thus, if the cleric buffed my fighter for 10 rounds, my iPhone would show my attacks with enhanced damage for those rounds. This isn't a dream-world app that might happen someday in a sci-fi future. It could happen today on iPhones if someone wanted to build it.

If you read the announcements from Paizo at GenCon, they're working with a software developer to do what your asking for the iphone (and more)...

[Korgoth]

No, the time is always wrong for electronic dice.

Sometimes a player will pop out with an Iphone or laptop... instead of a DM screen, I should probably just lay a hammer out in front of myself.

It's not a freakin' video game! If you want electronics, play an electronic game. If you want to play with real people, roll real dice.

[Humanaut]

I love my dice, rolling dice, adding up the dice... no, I'll never give up the dice.

I do however have the "dicebag" app for my iPhone that I've used when away from my dice and I'm just creating NPC's or something that I want to roll for. NOT actual gaming though. :^)

I have only been to one game where someone had the Dicenomicon for his iPhone and could roll any number/ type/ modifiers ... It was wierd.

At the table: long live dice I say!

Game well everyone

[garyh]

The vast majority of my gaming is as Play By Post, so I have no problem with electronic rolling, typically on Invisible Castle.

One the rare occasions I play live, I do enjoy rolling real dice, though.

[Mort_Q]

I'd like software that would allow a camera to optically reads the dice, and then adds the bonuses.

You still roll the dice, but you can't cheat it's faster as long as you have all your powers reprogrammed.

Mostly kidding.

[kenmarable]

If you find adding up the dice slows your game down, then by all means, go ahead and use something electronic and don't feel a tinge of guilt. The fun is what matters most.

Personally, we've always liked the handfuls of dice. Even if it comes out to pretty much average results, just collecting d6's from fellow players and rolling that 18d6 spell damage just feels fun. The pile of dice hitting the table and the quick glances to see how many are 5's and 6's... those are some of the funnest moments of the game for us.

So as a player, I prefer physical dice over electronic ones. As a DM, I might consider it if the dice counting does impact play negatively. Also, even going back to pre-iPhone days, we've had two players write little macros for their phones or fancy calculators to calculate out all the damage. After checking the formulas to make sure they didn't sneak in an extra bonus, we all had no problem with it.

Use dice as long as they are fun. If they start to get in the way of fun, ditch them.

[Kaodi]

Great. Now I have an idea for the ultimate electronic die in my head, and no ability or resources to build it with. But I guess that part is what the engineering department at school is for, hehehe...

[Heselbine]

Froth, froth, grrr...electronic dice? Whatever next? Any player getting out his 'eye-pod' or other new-fangled device will get short shrift from me. One of my players attempted to use some kind of electronic bleepy d6 once. Outrageous.

Everyone knows that dice are the gaming gods' gift to gamers and that throwing them is an act of worship. Replacing dice with electronic squeaks and whistles is selling out to the demon queen of video games. Don't do it!!!!

That's a no, by the way.

[billd91]

For online or messageboard games, sure. For tabletop, hell no.

[Aus_Snow]

Frankly, even if the time was right for it (and, fwiw, I don't believe it is), I'd be staying right where I am: with a fistful o' dice, yo.

No reason to change, for me and mine. So it ain't gonna happen.

[Derren]

Originally Posted by Thakazum

Considering that there is no such thing as a truly random number in electronics or computing, I would say no. Plus tabletopping is one of my ways to get away from technology so I'm biased.

Rolling real dice also isn't random.
Just the formula for calculating what the dice will roll is too complex to calculate, so we don't bother and say "its random".

[Derulbaskul]

When I DM I often Excel on my laptop in lieu of real dice but that's because I consider it my job to facilitate the game and the story so I'm not so attached to my NPCs and monsters.

If I ever play again I am sure I would only use real dice. It just seems right when it is my character.

[Jan van Leyden]

While I'm a dice-lover myself, I wouldn't object to a player using an electronic dice analogon. There are several players around who are slower than my eight-year-old boy when adding dice results.

[Umbran]

Originally Posted by Thakazum

Considering that there is no such thing as a truly random number in electronics or computing, I would say no.

First off, this is not exactly true. Some systems take their seeds from background radio noise, and are thus as random as any natural process can be.

But whether it is "truly random" is really not the point. If the results fit the proper distribution, and are not predictable by the humans using the generator, for RPG purposes, they are random. For most of us, our dice are probably more predictable than an even vaguely-decent electronic version, to be honest.

Be that as it may, electronic dice require electronic equipment. Unless your players are using a lot of electronics to play the game anyway, I would find the extra hardware to be a distraction. And as others have said, the physicality of the dice are more of an asset to the game than may at first be understood. Actually picking up and rolling the 15-die fireball is not the same as asking your laptop to produce a number. We are physical beings, and so we respond to physical objects.

So, if we are playing over a virtual tabletop, then electronic dice-rolling makes sense. If we are all gathered in my living room, though, they don't make much sense.

[slwoyach]

No. And die.