Designing an integrated EN World dice-roller

Morrus · May 5, 2010

How would you like to see an intgrated EN World dice roller designed specifically for PbP games to work? I don't play PbP, so I figure the best thing to do is ask you guys how you want it to work, assuming I can have it coded from scratch.

I imagine the important bit is security - the ability to roll a dice, record it in a post, and not edit or change it, all while knowing that the roll is orginal and genuine.

So, how would you like it to be implemented? Feel free to be as detailed or vague as you like, although remember that I don't play PbP games myself so vagueness might not translate very well into the final result!

renau1g · May 5, 2010

You're right that security would be #1

The ability to roll in the post is great, a few other sites offer it currently (Myth-Weaver and DNDonlinegames are two I used to hang around). They don't allow you to modify a post with the dice rolls in it without issue a warning at the bottom of the post to everyone that a dice roll was modified. Downside with that from a PbP format is often our description of our actions is based off of the roller's results (ie if we roll a 3 we know a miss or 17 = hit). I would love if it was integrated in the post, but if it could somehow not be edited? I doubt that can happen. Even if it can be edited a warning would be great also.

GandalfMithrandir · May 5, 2010

If you create the roller so that it adds the roll to the bottom of the thread or something along those lines, then if someone were to roll again it would show that they did with extra rolls.

That's just an idea, it may not be able to actually work, but people can sort of do a similar thing (re-roll) with invisible castle as it is.

HolyMan · May 6, 2010

That's why I check dates at IC see if they match up to the post date and all and I give specific campaign guides so you can modifiy that way.

renau1g is right I usually decide my action, then get the roll and then post based on the result. If the roller was below my posting box (say around where manage attachments were that would be great but I would need the result.

If you could have a die roller spot below that went to another window where you put in your numbers then hit upload or whatever and send the result to the bottom of here we would have the result first and you could have a perment attachment on it (I'm not sure how all this works) where even if you go in and edit or re-rolled because you rolled wrong that first roll could never be changed.

my two coppers

So glad you are improving an already great site.

HM

covaithe · May 6, 2010

Purely thinking out loud here; these aren't firmly-held opinions based on long contemplation or anything...

Perhaps die rolls could work like attachments. When you're editing a post, you'd have a section under Additional Options called Dice Rolls. It would show a list of all the die rolls currently attached to the post (you'd need more than one; I've had DM posts where I rolled upwards of 30 separate attacks in a single post) and have a button to add more rolls. Adding a roll would pop up a window where you enter what roll to make and a description of what the roll represents. Once you're happy with the roll and description (and whatever other inputs end up on that page, such as tags), you click Ok and it makes the die roll and attaches the result to the post. Rolls can be added to a post, but never deleted or edited. Displaying the rolls for a completed post could look like XP comments currently do, or, better, they could be hidden by default and you click a link or button to display them, like sblocks.

You'd also want a tab on a user's account page where other users could see all the dice rolls that user had made, possibly organized in some way. (tags?)

stonegod · May 6, 2010

The current workflow for PBP dice rolling:
- Start new ENWorld post
- Figure out what my character's doing (usually look at where it is posted, either here, or more often, the LEB/L4W wikis on Wikia)
- Go to Invisible Castle and roll the dice
- Copy the result manually into the post.

The ideal workflow would be:
- Start new ENWorld post
- Figure out what my character's doing (usually look at where it is posted, either here, or more often, the LEB/L4W wikis on Wikia)
- Go to bottom of the post (or maybe to the side, under the smilies) to start a new roll. Use OpenRPG dice mechanics (like IC) and give a purpose for the roll.
- The result of the roll (with metadata) is generated at attached to the post.

Morrus · Jun 16, 2010

stonegod said:
The ideal workflow would be:
- Start new ENWorld post
- Figure out what my character's doing (usually look at where it is posted, either here, or more often, the LEB/L4W wikis on Wikia)
- Go to bottom of the post (or maybe to the side, under the smilies) to start a new roll. Use OpenRPG dice mechanics (like IC) and give a purpose for the roll.
- The result of the roll (with metadata) is generated at attached to the post.

That's pretty much how I'm imagining it. With the attachment being uneditable to prevent cheating.

So you'd see, in an unchangeable attachment under your post, all in a nice box:

Roll 1d20 + 8
My attack roll
Result: 16

Roll 3d6 + 12
My damage roll
Result: 21

Roll 4d12
A random roll I made for no particular reason
Result: 27

Myth and Legend · Jun 16, 2010

GREAT IDEA!

It's really frustrating when using a third party die roller and it goes offline.

Now, one thing i like about IK is that you can make die rolls specific to a user and a campaign. Similarly it can be done on ENworld. For example, when you go to Myth and Legends's profile, and click "Die Rolls" you can see all the campaigns i have labelled. Like so:

"Savage Tides 3.5"
"Off to War 3.5"
"Valley of the Dead 3.5"

Clicking any campaign will open up the roll history. Each roll has a date and timestamp, character name and description. For example, you see:

[sblock="Valley of the Dead 3.5"]

5 June 2010, 11:42:13 AM

Roll: 1d20+14 = 33 (rolled 19);1d20+9 = 19 (rolled 10)
Character: Bob
Action: Two attacks vs Jim, AC 15.

5 June 2010, 12:42:13 PM

Roll: 5d6=19 (rolled 4, 2, 4, 5, 1, 3)
Character: Zax
Action: Scorching ray vs Jim.

[/sblock]

Each one of these can be attached to a post via something similar to the permlink we have now to link to our signatures for example. So the DM can easily check his campaign in your profile and see your rolls. No extra rolls can be sneaked in as he only cares about HIS game and he can see each roll, timestamped and labelled nicely. Much easier to follow up on than digging around for a specific post. Plus it gives the Barbarian bragging rights when he gets 4 natural 20s in a row!

GandalfMithrandir · Jun 16, 2010

Morrus said:
That's pretty much how I'm imagining it. With the attachment being uneditable to prevent cheating.

So you'd see, in an unchangeable attachment under your post, all in a nice box:

Roll 1d20 + 8
My attack roll
Result: 16

Roll 3d6 + 12
My damage roll
Result: 21

Roll 4d12
A random roll I made for no particular reason
Result: 27

I like this a lot, it, being unchangeable, cannot be altered, removing hassle with double checking, also it would be integrated, so less hassle going to a different website to roll your dice, copy and paste results over.

Scott DeWar · Jun 16, 2010

Morrus said:
That's pretty much how I'm imagining it. With the attachment being uneditable to prevent cheating.

So you'd see, in an unchangeable attachment under your post, all in a nice box:

Roll 1d20 + 8
My attack roll
Result: 16

Roll 3d6 + 12
My damage roll
Result: 21

Roll 4d12
A random roll I made for no particular reason
Result: 27

could this also be done with the option of using sblocks to 'compress' information? that is mostly for the convenience of dm's as there can be a long list of information on some battle posts.