Dice Rolling Suggestions

How about something like this, using the 'pipe' to roll multiple sets and take the highest: /roll 1d8!|1d6! The above would roll an exploding d8 and an exploding d6 and show the highest (perfect for Savage Worlds games) of the 2 results.

What about a dice roll command for Shadowrun? Counting the total of 1's and the totals of 5's and 6's.

The homebrew system our group uses combines exploding dice with successes - which works perfectly on roll20: /roll 1d10!>8 However, 1s are currently automatically subtracted from the successes, which we don't want. It would be great if it would be possible to exclude them. As an example: /roll 3d10!?>8 which could result in (8+1+10) = 4 successes (the 10 got rerolled) instead of 3 successes.

@Zeis Lentz: I just tested it. 1s show up in red, but are not subtracting from successes (which would be a good thing for me, playing V:tM).

What if Roll20 and the Dicenomoicon app worked together. I would like to roll on my iPad or iPhone using the Dicenomicon app and have the results desplayed in the Roll20 chat window. This way I could make Macros offline and have them transfer between diffrent Roll20 games. Or if you have your character sheet in Dicenomicon you could just touch the skill you wanted to roll. Making the two work together seems like it should be easier than making Roll20 have these features on its own.

Timothy: Try out /gmroll, it only shows the roll to the GM. Players can also use that command and only the player rolling the dice and the GM will see the result, which is great for secret checks. Could there be a /playerroll (or maybe /proll?) option? The game my group plays, TFT (aka Melee or Wizard), has some rolls which the players should see but the GM should not i.e., disbelieving a player-created illusion. Sharing the roll amongst the players reduces the chance of cheating as there are witnesses to the rolls.

7d10>7.1 (would mean, count 7-10's as 1) -- Exalted (same as 7d10>7) 7d10>7.2 (would mean, count 7-9's as 1 and 10's as 2) -- Exalted 7d10>7.r (would mean, count 7-10's as 1, roll all 10's again, and so on) -- Vampire

Perhaps I should include in this "official" thread for suggesting dice rolls what I suggested in the Alternative macro for rolling against Target Number thread: <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/826/alternative-macro-for-rolling-against-target-number#Item_20" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/826/alternative-macro-for-rolling-against-target-number#Item_20</a> The idea is a dice rolling macro (or the implementation of the necessary commands) for game systems that require you to roll equal or lower to your skill value ("Target Number") for determining success (or failure, if you roll higher than your value), and at the same time take in account the Margin of Success or Failure. It would work for systems like GURPS and also percentile based ones like Chaosium BRP, CoC and others. To be able to display (by defining it in the macro), also, a text saying "Success by" or "Failure by" along with the roll results will be cool as well. Here is an example of what I mean:

Re roll values: 1d20+5r(1) Re roll 1's 1d20+5r(1,2,5) Re roll 1's, 2's and 5's Custom Dice: #d{*sides*} ---------- number of dice "d" {list of types} Ex: 1d{left_arm, right_arm, left_leg, right_leg, chest, head} (random body part) 5d{head, tails} (5 coin flips) I second this. When my friends and I roll up characters, it's always 4d6, reroll 1's. That and brutal weapons re-roll on certain values (such as brutal 2 -- reroll on a result of 1 or 2).

Hi! Since actual virtual die rolls seem to be out, what's the decision on an intermediate solution? Will we get some sort of "clickable buttons" for common dice? As long as I don't need to type to roll any sort of option beyond the current one would be good. Some sort of graphic representation of the die with result would be great too. Overall what way is rolld20 going?

Not having to write anything to roll something is best handled by macros, I think. I, for one, don't see the need to actually see something dice-shaped. My screen gets full of stuff quick enough as it is. Also, there seems to be still plenty of dice-rolling options that still aren't supported. Take a look at Myth-Weavers. I can't think of a single game their dice system doesn't support.

Perhaps I should include in this "official" thread for suggesting dice rolls what I suggested in the Alternative macro for rolling against Target Number thread: <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/826/alternative-macro-for-rolling-against-target-number#Item_20" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/826/alternative-macro-for-rolling-against-target-number#Item_20</a> The idea is a dice rolling macro (or the implementation of the necessary commands) for game systems that require you to roll equal or lower to your skill value ("Target Number") for determining success (or failure, if you roll higher than your value), and at the same time take in account the Margin of Success or Failure. This already works, as I explained in the thread you linked. • "/r 3d6 - " followed by the target number will roll 3d6 against the target number supplied and calculate the margin of success (negative MOS is a failure) for 3d6 roll over. You can substitute whatever dice you like and you can make a macro of it. • "/r - 3d6 + " followed by the target number will roll 3d6 against the target number supplied and calculate the margin of success (negative MOS is a failure) for 3d6 roll under. You can substitute whatever dice you like and you can make a macro of it.

I, for one, don't see the need to actually see something dice-shaped. I have no such need either, but players of, for instance, Fiasco and I think Dogs in the Vineyard do have such a need. Fortunately, I think that they can fulfill it now by creating a card deck consisting of die faces (or several such decks in different colours), and checking the option that says the deck is infinite. then they can draw "cards" that become tokens showing dice faces, which can be held, shown, given to other players, put on the table, discarded etc.

This already works, as I explained in the thread you linked. Not completely, as I stated in my earlier post, and in the linked thread as well. More macro commands are necessary. You can also look to the sample image above for seeing what I mean: To be able to display (by defining it in the macro), also, a text saying "Success by" or "Failure by" along with the roll results

@Axel Castilla: In effect, you want the computer to tell you that a positive or zero margin of success is a success, and that a negative one is a failure. No offence meant, but when you play at a real table you get by with having to add the numbers on the dice up by yourself, and telling which number is bigger than the other by yourself, and even doing a simple small-integer subtraction by yourself. Getting the computer to do it for you would be a bit frivolous. On the other hand, there are at least hundreds of different dice mechanics used in different games. If they all get coded into Roll20 the controls are going to become so arcane and complicated that people won't be able to play without reading the manual first. And a lot of players are going to find that off-putting, even forbidding. I would prefer that the developers kept the interface as simple and obvious as possible, even if that comes at the cost of Roll20 not doing anything for me that I have to do myself at a real table.

When my friends and I roll up characters, it's always 4d6, reroll 1's. If you re-roll again if the re-roll is another 1, and keep going until you get some other value, then you could use "/roll 4d5 + 4".

@Axel Castilla: In effect, you want the computer to tell you that a positive or zero margin of success is a success, and that a negative one is a failure. No offence meant, but when you play at a real table you get by with having to add the numbers on the dice up by yourself, and telling which number is bigger than the other by yourself, and even doing a simple small-integer subtraction by yourself. Getting the computer to do it for you would be a bit frivolous. No worries, you can disagree by showing your reasons, and I see your point. But my point of view is different: keep in mind that Roll20 is not a real table, but a virtual one. When I play at a real table I can touch and see the dice, which, like miniatures, are qualitative elements in themselves (not just numbers of the die roll result in a line displayed in a screen), and communication with my players is immediate. Agreed, you can get a good enough level of communication via webcam. However there are people gamemastering and roleplaying here only via text chat, or almost (this is my case), and a descriptive text along with some dice roll results is always very helpful, saving people to type "it's a success" or "it is not". It also minimizes confusion and helps people to keep themselves focused by showing a descriptive, clear result instead just a number --more or less open to interpretations. This is important as well because unlike the case of a real table, roleplaying via Roll20 allows a lot of distractions in the houses of each player that the GM is completely unable to know or to address effectively: boyfriend, girlfriend, kids, mom, phone, TV, web-browsing, whatever. If a sober, minimum descriptive text contributes to keep track of the action, that is a little but worthy feature that betrays nothing . I've played with many virtual tabletops and all of them implemented this functionality because these and other reasons, from OpenRPG to Fantasy Grounds 2 including MapTool, iTabletop 2, etc., and I don't see why Roll20 should fall behind other virtual tabletops here. Also remember, to be able to use macro commands doesn't force you to use them. If your actual concern is "your request is going to take time from the developers that is best to use for other features" , well, it's my request and I'm sharing why I think it's a valid one. Bottom line: what I'm saying is that being able to add a descriptive and useful text along with some roll results helps to compensate the deficiencies in qualitative elements and communication for a virtual tabletop, having as result a better focus for the participants, a less tedious communication and a bit of sober flavour in comparison with mere numbers. This feeling is hard to describe accurately. But is easy to state that I will not need to say/write to my players (or vice versa): "yes, you succeeded", etc., with each dice roll, which can be a tedious thing --unknown at a real table--, and the descriptive text adds another qualitative element (words, phrase) in a medium in which quantitative ones are majority (just numbers). On the other hand, there are at least hundreds of different dice mechanics used in different games. If they all get coded into Roll20 the controls are going to become so arcane and complicated that people won't be able to play without reading the manual first. And a lot of players are going to find that off-putting, even forbidding. I would prefer that the developers kept the interface as simple and obvious as possible, even if that comes at the cost of Roll20 not doing anything for me that I have to do myself at a real table. I don't see why you mention hundreds of different dice mechanics, and you already know that "the real table argument" isn't convincing to me for the already stated reasons. But despite these things, I see your point: it has been raised during the development of all the virtual tabletops in which I did participate: in any case I didn't ask to code all different dice mechanics of all existing games (?), but the inclusion of a few additional macro commands for allowing more versatility regarding dice roll results. Note that I'm not a programmer, and I dislike too much complexity as well: I like quick, intuitive interfaces and user-friendly use. At the same time, this thread isn't the first one that includes requests for macro commands to suit better the needs of a particular RPG system. And even if such commands would allow to make "arcane, complicated macros" (like you could think, maybe, of MapTool) --and that is not my intention, though--, nobody would be forced to use them.

I mention hundreds of different dice mechanics because you aren't the only person pushing for the die-rolling tool to be expanded. You want the developers to add a feature to test "success" and calculate margin of success. There are other people, equally reasonably, asking for other new features. Someone could very reasonably ask for Roll20 to calculate the Quality Ratings of D% rolls for given Success Chance according to the system in James Bond 007 or ForeSight, or announce the height and width of a roll of a number of d6 according to a system described upthread. All these requests are equally reasonable, and there is a large, growing, and potentially indefinite number of such systems to support. I'll point out, too, that what you are asking for is not a simple application of the existing "macro" system. What Roll20 calls a "macro" is really just a text substitution, with the results getting passed to the text parser. It was simple to implement because it performs no tests or conditional actions, nor indeed any computations at all, just straightforward text substitution. To gain the capacity to produce different output depending on the results of a die roll it would have to be re-done as an interpreter, which would be a vastly larger and more challenging operation. I don't think that that is likely to happen. Which leaves no general, user-implementable way to set up what you are asking for. It would have to be hard-coded into the virtual dice-roller. And a way of invoking it added to the command set for the virtual dice. And to the documentation. Which wouldn't be a problem if that were the end of it. But then come all the games that don't use margin-of-success but that have equal claims to special treatment. The James Bond and ForeSight players would want Quality Ratings. The GURPS players would want critical successes and failures announced according to GURPS rules, and the Aftermath and Bushido players according to Aftermath rules. RuneQuest/BRP/Call of Cthulhu players will want to have Roll20 tell them about their criticals, impales, and fumbles. And the HERO System players will want the stun and body counted separately on their bucket-of-d6 rolls. And whoever-it-is will was for height and width of rolls. And then the people with home brews will march out of the woodwork…. And we can all make the argument you make above with equal justice. At some point the developers are going to have to tell us to man up and do some trivial arithmetic, the same arithmetic we've been doing for decades at game tables. When that happens I'll have a lot more sympathy for the people multiplying percentages by 15% or remembering the GURPS criticals rules than those who merely have to note that a negative MOS denotes a failure. And I'll be comparing d100 rolls to half, a fifth, and a tenth of the product of PCS and modified EF, rounded up when I'm playing JB007 and down when I'm playing ForeSight. In the end it isn't really about you convincing me or me convincing you. It's about the devs taking feedback from the testers to estimate what will make the biggest difference to players at large, and then rationing their efforts between putting more chrome on the dice-roller, writing a fair-dinkum macro interpreter, adding character sheets, and fixing the management of handouts. I look at this thread, see over 100 suggestions for snazzy new dice-rolling features, and I get worried. Collectively, we are squeaking a lot of little hinges on the luxury fittings and ignoring great big rusty hinges on some important major functions.

Getting the computer to do it for you would be a bit frivolous. At some point the developers are going to have to tell us to man up and do some trivial arithmetic, the same arithmetic we've been doing for decades at game tables. First you say that it's a 'frivolous' request. And now you talk about it as 'trivial' . . . I think that you aren't really getting my point, which is more about communication than about 'lazy' automation.

I would support implementing special dice codes for as many games as possible, as well as what we already have, which is most common roll options supported. Reroll-on-X is one that I'd consider necessary, for instance. Really, no matter how many /roll codes are there, for the really special ones (like, "Arrowflight," say), people are only going to be using that and maybe the simple ones. Having a substantial list of supported dice doesn't necessarily translate to bogging the system down, and speaking from experience, once a dice parser is built, it should be relatively easy to add new options to it (assuming what's inside is coded extensibly). Frankly, all I care about now is (as mentioned earlier) enabling a "keep lowest N rolls" option. "Keep highest N" and "Drop lowest N" are actually the same thing said different ways (whose presence in the system might be my fault, now that I think about it), but it's missing the other way round. However, the more the merrier. Dice mechanics are fun.

it woudl be sweet if their was Conditional logic for macros and dice rolling: example /if (/roll 1d20+5 = 25){ crit threat! rolling again: /roll 1d20+5 > 17/roll 2d8+2+2 }else{ normal attack vs 17 AC /roll 1d20+5 > 17/roll 1d8+2 }

Roll20 Guys, On Moderator Ken's suggestion in answer to my question <a href="http://community.roll20.net/discussion/1081/critical-hit-bonus-die#Item_3" rel="nofollow">http://community.roll20.net/discussion/1081/critical-hit-bonus-die#Item_3</a> Adding the ability to formulate critical hit damage dice in the /roll system. I know exploding dice are already in, but I'm more specifically speaking about criting on a to hit roll on a d20 in any d20 system and then getting say a bonus d6 because you critted with a magical weapon. I imagine this might be difficult to implement because you'd need the affect within on roll command to affect the value of another/roll command if the crit condition is met.

+1 to the custom dice idea. There are probably plenty of systems that use unconventional dice (right now I'm thinking of Warhammer Fantasy RPG that merely has symbols, success/fail, boon/bane, etc.) which can be from D6's to D10's with only 3 or 4 possible outcomes (sometimes exploding). I think this could be created to make it simple enough for most users, especially if this is folded into "modules" in the future.

The two main games (outside of 3.5) that I run are Hero system and Scion. Both of these have special die needs. Hero: This was mentioned up thread, but most effect rolls are counted one of three ways. A> Total value of d6s rolled. B> Max value (6) counts as 2, min value (1) counts as 0, all others count as 1. C> Both A and B. Also note that Killing attacks roll several d6 for the Body and multiply the value by another die for the Stun. Scion: This is a modified Exalted (thus a further modified NWoD) where a number of d10s are rolled to count successes (7:9 = 1, 10 = 2) and are added to a static value. When figuring Hero's killing damage and Scion's rolls, I keep coming back to the use of parenthesis in mathematical notation. Ignoring the double target of scion, a 12d10 pool with 7 automatic successes could be written: /roll (7d10>7)+7 Likewise, a 2d6 killing attack could be written: /roll (2d6)*(1d3)

When doing target numbers, "/r 1d6>1" will result in a success always, as > is being treated as "does the number meet or exceed the target?" Similarly, < is being treated as "does the target meet or 'deceed' the target?" Can we have: greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, and less than or equal to?

it would be cool to just add buttons for what dice needs rolling and a picture of said dice perhaps in another window you can minimize somewhere close to the camera of the players or up top by the file holder to kill the typing downtime <-------------LAZY

I agree. We currently use Fantasy Grounds and the big selling point for the group was being able to roll virtual dice. We all know that the underlying code for generating the numbers would be the same for the virtual dice, but it helps keep that tabletop feel. Indeed, when using a VTT system, we are looking to try and recreate, as much as we can, the real table top experience. Sitting around a table during a critical event, watching your party member load up the dice anticipating the outcome, then seeing them launch the dice across the table followed by a whoop of joy or groan of woe as the dice come to their resting place, adds to the excitement. In Fantasy Grounds, seeing the dice skit across the screen brings that part of the experience to the VTT. It makes it seem more detached from the computer generated random number that actually is! It also adds one of the core iconic pieces, the dice itself, back in to the environment. Even the very pages and system that is Roll20, has a die as a logo :)

These guys are also doing a kickstarter for a VTT and the last stretch goal will include hiring someone to do virtual dice!! <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshuha/tabletop-forge-the-virtual-tabletop-for-google-han/posts" rel="nofollow">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/joshuha/tabletop-forge-the-virtual-tabletop-for-google-han/posts</a> If they can do it (assuming they reach their funding goal), why can't rolld20? Heck if you did another kickstarter just to add this feature I'd bet you'd reach it in no time at all. I'd like to add the "roll" to Rolld20, it's literally the only thing this VTT is missing to be "perfect".

Not sure our fearless leaders realized quite the can of worms this would open. Feature creep really is problematic, especially when there is no payment system up yet to allow for continued development into the future. I'd say this thread is a bit premature. Close it up and reopen it when you're actually getting money in so you CAN develop the finer points. Focus work on the core system, make it stable, make it profitable so you CAN work on the finer fluff, like the hundreds of dice-rolling mechanics that are used for one situation or game.

Not sure if its on the "to do" listing, but it would be a great help to be able to Copy / Duplicate full pages.

The ability to keep the lowest roll in a set would be nice instead of just keeping the highest - the D&D 5e playtest has a advantage/disadvantage system where when you have the disadvantage you roll 2d20 and take the lower.

When my friends and I roll up characters, it's always 4d6, reroll 1's. If you re-roll again if the re-roll is another 1, and keep going until you get some other value, then you could use "/roll 4d5 + 4". I suppose I should clarify. It's 4d6, reroll 1's, keep the top three dice. Rather than a lazy solution to rerolling dice, I want to see the feature actually implemented.

What does it matter, so long as the distribution of probability to outcomes is correct? "/r 4d5k3 + 3" gets the job done correctly and efficiently.

I'd like for the simple ability to roll multiple dice at once with each getting its own modifiers, in one string, with one grouped printed result: macro: /roll3 1d8+8+3 Looks like: Ken R (GM): rolling 3x 1d8+8+3 (2)+8+3, (7)+8+3, (1)+8+3 =13, 18, 12 here the "roll3" indicates 3 rolls of the following type. It's not the same as 3d8+11, resulting in a single sum. 3 sums are needed for 3 attacks on 3 opponents. Yes, you could make 3 roll strings in the macro, but this eats up chat space. Additionally, for large numbers of enemies, this could become cumbersome for someone GM'ng or for a player to dole out damage.

Alright ive been skimming through the forum and i may have missed this but: is their a way to set up macros so that you can roll a variable amount of dice? Or even to input variables when you type the macro name? Example: /roll [Xd10<Y ] Where X is the number of dice to be rolled and Y is the target number that counts as a success. this means my playgroup would only need a single macro for us to run our WOD game. Does a solution exist for this somewhere in the ether of the help forum? If not then a feature for variable prompting for macros would be greatly appreciated.

Kenzerco's Hackmaster "penetrating" dice. Like exploding, but at 1 less value. i.e. 1d6p: rolling 6, 6, 1 tallies to 11. 6 (face value), 5 (6-less-1), 0 (1-less-1). This. I play Hackmaster, and the non-cumulative -1 for successive exploding rolls would be great!

Alright ive been skimming through the forum and i may have missed this but: is their a way to set up macros so that you can roll a variable amount of dice? Or even to input variables when you type the macro name? Example: /roll [Xd10<Y ] Where X is the number of dice to be rolled and Y is the target number that counts as a success. this means my playgroup would only need a single macro for us to run our WOD game. Does a solution exist for this somewhere in the ether of the help forum? If not then a feature for variable prompting for macros would be greatly appreciated. I would welcome such an option as well. I have just created a campaign for Shadowrun 4 and ended up with 80+ makros for all the different dice pools and test options (normal, exploding, GM-only, GM-only & exploding). Using variables would have allowed me to do the same thing I've got now with only 4 makros...

I want to add to and expand my earlier suggestion to include the nested capability of macros. So /roll3 1d6+3 would roll and print the outcomes of 3 separate rolls of 1d6+3, extremely useful for NPC attacks where you have for example, 15 goblins attacking. It is much better to /roll15 than to type /roll fifteen times followed by the same attack script. And I'd like that number following /roll to also allow the nested macro, so for example /roll#chance 1d6+2 (elsewhere, #chance is defined as /roll1d6) (4)+2 (6)+2 (2)+2 (1)+2 =6, 8, 4, 3 (the outcome of "chance" was 4). This really brings out the capability of the system to be much more flexible.

What about scatter dice that just has an arrow with a random direction. It is used for Warhammer.

Hi, checked all the stuff here about rolling but have not find how can I can KEEP the lowest rolls, e.g. roll 3d6 and keep two lowest (e.g. with rolls 1,2 and 6 the output will be 3). Is it possible to do that? Thanks in advance.

Hi, checked all the stuff here about rolling but have not find how can I can KEEP the lowest rolls, e.g. roll 3d6 and keep two lowest (e.g. with rolls 1,2 and 6 the output will be 3). Is it possible to do that? Thanks in advance. No, not yet - the keep/drop functions only keep the highest or drop the lowest (two ways to achieve the same thing, really). I'm waiting for the same - Barbarians of Lemuria demands such capability!

No, not yet - the keep/drop functions only keep the highest or drop the lowest (two ways to achieve the same thing, really). I'm waiting for the same - Barbarians of Lemuria demands such capability! Cheers, so we will wait :-) (Draci Doupe II - Czech RPG - needs that type of rolls as well but I can manage in the mean time, it is not super science math ;-)

In regards to keeping the low rolls, I'd suggest a minor change to the existing script. Where in expression /roll NdXkY you'd keep Y highest dice, perhaps in /roll NdXdY you'd drop Y highest dice. There's really no need for the k/d system to exist as-is, it's basic math.

However it's done, I look forward to it being done. :)

The heuristics I would need is for an indie system: It's the highest number on a roll of xd6, but doubles stack. So a roll of 2,3,3,3,4 would yield a 9. I imagine a variant of max(xdy) and min(xdy) could work for that. I'm also for dice macros.

I have to completely agree with Agemegos. This is a deep tunnel of feature creep with thousands of variations. At some point the developers should work on a full scripting dice rolling system, but that time is when other more pressing issues are finished. Just roll and look, then interpret the results using the rules you are using.

Can you add a better operator? It should be an operator like +,-,*,/ and work like them. For example, using b as the operator: 1 b 3 = 3 1d6 b 1d6 = the best of the two rolls (1d12!+2) b (1d6!+2) = Savage Worl happiness It should be easy to implement and can give players lots of flexibility.

Hi! For those whom have not seen this. Tabletop Forge is already working on virtual roll-able dice that will include the basic dice as well as odd die types like those used for DCC RPG. There is also talk of permitting configurable die faces to even permit die types for games like WFRP 3rd edition. You tube video with the work in progress. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHebR-149m8&feature=player_embedded" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHebR-149m8&feature=player_embedded</a> Instead of trying to get all these diverse macros, why can't virtual dice be made and let people read the dice according to their game system just like they do face to face? If Tabletop Forge can do it, so should roll20. With all the macro requests isn't it just "easier" to do the virtual dice? Let's put the "roll" in roll20. Peter

If you want to "read" the dices according to your system, you don't really need a visual representation of it. You can already do it now from the list of the results. If your rules call for rolling four d6 and keeping the three best, it can be done as well from a list of "3, 5, 5, 6" than from images of dices.

Probably faster just picking from a list, and besides...rolling dice on the "table" causes clutter. I don't want to spend processor cycles simulating things bouncing around the screen, I just want to click a button and get my results. And as for adding lots of macros and macro options, I'd suggest adding as many as possible. It's the kind of thing computers are good at, after all. Of course, it depends how the dice rolling engine is written. If it's using regex to match the dice statements, it's easy to end up at a point where your dice roll code looks like you facerolled your keyboard. On the other hand, if they use a parser, it's more flexible. And if they did some of the more advanced stuff as functions, it could make it a bit more readable. For instance, BestOf(1d6!, 1d8!) or even :best (1) of (1d6!, 1d8!): and make it a language of its own etc.