"Electronic Dice" device?

Huh, that's interesting! Wonder how well it's doing?

I did a little research on it. Looks like Chessex has discontinued it. There are some internet stores that are selling it at clearance, but they have limited colors (some still have black but most are out, translucent seems to still be available most places).
 

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I liked (and often used) my old Dragonbone (red). I sold it a few years back, after I got DicePro on the Palm OS platform.

As a DM, I prefer dice. As a player, I prefer DicePro. I think the difference is that the "programmed modifiers" usefulness of DicePro is much higher as a player.

One thing I've noticed is that many DMs don't like players to use electronic dice. When my DM (from a few years back) expressed his discomfort with it, I turned the beep volume up high (so it would be obvious if I were to "fish" for good rolls) and told him he was of course welcome to spot-check the device any time he wanted to. Didn't do any good. It apparently wasn't that he didn't trust me ... it was just a vague nagging distrust of electronic randomness or something. Weird.

I know there are a couple of players in my three groups that I'd feel uncomfortable with, were they to use electronic dice. (On the other hand, these are players who use tiny and/or unreadable dice as things stand, so ... ) But for the most part, if a player wanted to use electronic dice, I'd be fine with it. Turn the beep on and go.

One big advantage is that there'd be less knocking about of miniatures on the battlemat. There are a couple of players to whom, literally every time they roll, I have to say, "Don't roll toward the miniatures." It's like trying to train hyperactive chihuahuas.
 




It apparently wasn't that he didn't trust me ... it was just a vague nagging distrust of electronic randomness or something. Weird.

Sometimes, the point is not the point, as someone once told me. :) Our group will use a dice generator if it's a large total of dice (over, say, 6 dice in a single roll) but under most circumstances we use physical dice. It's one of those things that adds something to the game, for us.

Then again, there's also that human distrust -- you can see and handle a die to know if it's drastically off-kilter, but the only way to know if a die roller is off-kilter is to look at the code or do sample rolls.
 

I remember being fascinated by the Dragonbone when it came out. I wasn't sure if I would use it though. I did not know anything about the random number generator they were using. These days, because I know how easy it can be to program a dice roller, I would not allow one in my game? Why? Because they are too easy to mess up. I prefer to have physical dice. That way, if I notice a trend with them, I can chi-square test the die to make sure it is good. I do not know enough of the programming languages to do that with electronic dice rollers.
 

I can chi-square test the die to make sure it is good. I do not know enough of the programming languages to do that with electronic dice rollers.
Huh? You don't need to know any code to run a chi-square test on digital dice. You just do it exactly as you would analog dice.
 

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