Is the time right for electronic dice?

[Vartan]

Okay, as I don my flame retardant suit I'd like to say that I love my dice as much as the next guy. Maybe more so. I love the way they look. I love the clackety-clack. I love rolling them. I love seeing that 20 pop up in the middle of the table where everybody can see it, and I love the cheers that follow. I had special 2E Ravenloft dice, dice specifically for Hobgoblins, and my 4E rogue has his own set of black dice. Lots of them, in fact, which is why I'm writing this post.

(The following observation is based on a comparison of 2E and 4E, but this thread is about the use of dice in 4E, not the relative merits of any systems vis a vis the dice involved)

When I played 2E you rolled one, maybe two dice for damage: the work of figuring out damage was in adding together all your bonuses, which was pretty easy to do before the dice hit the table. Thieves in 2E got a damage multiplier for backstabbing, and I'm pretty good at doing multiplication in my head.

Now, when using a Daily power with Sneak Attack bonus my rogue deals 3d6 and 3d8 (backstabber feat), plus bonuses. I'm an admittedly poor mathematician, so it takes me more than a few seconds to add all these small dice results together. It seems like every class and many monsters now have "get out the bucket" dice counts for some of their damage rolls. I'm not the slowest player at my table but I like to keep the game moving, and it seems like combats would be more "fast-paced" if we didn't have to roll so many dice.

Do ya'll agree with my observation and, if so, how would you feel about dice-rolling software at the table? I refer to the use of an iPhone, PDA, or even a laptop (although I'm not crazy about laptops at the table because of their size and shape).

 

[Woas]

I imagine a day when our character sheets are plastic chips and when the DM requires some type of resolution check that historically would have been accomplished by physically rolling dice, is instead accomplished by sliding your character chip into a central 'box', the DM sliding a chip on his/her side, and then the 'box' in the center of the table would do all the calculations for you, then tell you the result all in a split second.

 

[Mark]

Dragonbone!

Dragonbone Electronic Dice « Vegas Decker’s Blog

 

[Kez Darksun]

Did you only play melee characters in 2E? I ask this because even at 5th level, Wizards were starting in on their path towards buckets full of dice with Fireball & Lightning Bolt. 4E is by no means out of line with previous editions in using numerous amounts of dice for dealing damage. As far as electronic dice rollers, the only time I would use them is if I was playing in an online game. Otherwise I'm rolling the dice.

 

[kitsune9]

Okay, as I don my flame retardant suit I'd like to say that I love my dice as much as the next guy. Maybe more so. .

Where's my lighter fluid? Hmmm.....

Actually Vartan, in games where there is a lot of dice to be rolled, having an electronic device to do it for you is a great idea. Those iPhone apps or PDA apps are clever and if the GM runs a game with a laptop, having a dice roller on the laptop isn't too bad either. I myself have given serious consideration in retiring the dice for an electronic app since I run games with a laptop, but so far, have not made the committment. Like you, I love to roll the dice too, but I don't want to take the time to count up 25d6 on some special ability that I used.

Happy Gaming!

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I do not want to play with electronic dice, unless they insert the electronics into the dice and the dice can report their results to a receiver that can be integrated into the DM's combat management software.

Besides I think 4e in general uses less dice than 3.x and that uses less dice than Palladium (which I was playing before that)

 

[Ferret]

Urgh, no. No no no.

I feel dirty. I'm used to nWoD where you regularly through over 4 dice. The thought of holding all those dice and wondering how sick the damage will be, or staring at your dm as he dips his hands into a bag and pulls out umpteen dice and wonder how you'll ever survive, thats what I like!

 

[ferratus]

I use iplay4e for my character sheets (printing out character sheets every 2 levels was a pain) and that comes with electronic dice, but I don't use them. I like rolling dice too much, and my laptop is to expensive to hurl across the room when I roll a 1.

If there was a character display app however that calculated everything by pushing one button, I'd be tempted.

 

[maddman75]

pfft.

Play Exalted. Your six dice at a time is nothing.

 

[drothgery]

Do ya'll agree with my observation

It's sort of accurate, but incomplete. A 4e rogue will typically roll more dice than a 2e Thief (or even a 3.5 rogue, if only because there are so many 3e monsters that can't be sneak attacked, and you'll often take a PrC that doesn't grant SA dice).

But a 4e wizard will roll fewer dice than a 2e Wizard (and far fewer than a 3.5 wizard) because spell damage doesn't explode as much (I guess the player may be rolling more sometimes, because he'll be rolling attack dice for every creature in an area, but that's just swapping the DM rolling saving throws for the player rolling attacks; it's the same number of dice involved).

In any case... I kind of like actual dice, even if I needed a tray when my wizards and psions got to high levels. But one of our players used an iPhone app for buckets of dice for his cleric, and that was fine.