Play by Post die rolling?

[Maelstrom]

There has been some talk of having some wargames in the play by post section. When it comes to a wargame where two people are competing against each other, rather than a DM adjucating for players, the rolling of dice should be handled in an independant fashion. With that in mind, are there any ways to have public die rolls as part of a post? That way everyone can be confident that things are progressing fairly.

[Riftwalker]

Suggested something dice rolling bbcodes back in October:

http://www.penandpapergames.com/foru...ead.php?t=3952

I know it's possible because I've seen it on other forums, but it's difficult to do because you need a database table for it.

[Maelstrom]

That plugin you mentioned at http://www.vbulletin.org/forum/showp...&postcount=117 sounds pretty cool.

If thats tough to get in, it might be nice just to have a simpler (non-vBulletin) page that can be referenced, which players can use to specify who is rolling for what. That's probably too cumbersome, but I'm shooting in the dark since I haven't done more than a little php.

Hmm, what about having a random value that just shows up in a given post seeded on initial post date? I assume there's a way to produce a random number in php. It could even be just a mod function of a bunch of random numbers (date/post count/poster birth date, etc)

[Riftwalker]

If you were able to do that in JavaScript, it seems like it could be easily added, because the bbcode substitution could then directly translate to HTML/Javascript.

[Maelstrom]

Here's one.

http://forums.invisionize.com/index....utorial&id=533

Wouldn't something like this allow someone to edit the post and it would reroll the dice though?

[Farcaster]

There is a much cleaner and more dynamic way to handle dice rolling using standard notation, i.e. 3d6+5x100. I'd rather use something that could translate that. There are a couple ways of approaching the problem of "rerolling"...

• Do not allow edits of posts. This would prevent the situation of the dice expression being calculated more than once.
• Only show the die result to the GM. The player wouldn't have any idea of what his result was, so he wouldn't have any incentive to reroll it.
• Or, append the the results to the bottom of the post permanently. If the post is edited, then the original rolls are still retained.

Which of those is most preferable?

[Maelstrom]

There is a much cleaner and more dynamic way to handle dice rolling using standard notation, i.e. 3d6+5x100.

Standard notation sounds good to me. Will allow for most any system out there.

Do not allow edits of posts. This would prevent the situation of the dice expression being calculated more than once.

This would apply only to posts with the dice bbcode correct? If its all posts, that's definitely not an option. I have an endless habit of posting before getting my thoughts completely straight, so I'm always editing

Only show the die result to the GM. The player wouldn't have any idea of what his result was, so he wouldn't have any incentive to reroll it.

Works great for RPG games, but not so much for wargames where there isn't a judge. Also, could people use view source and pick out what the roll is?

Or, append the the results to the bottom of the post permanently. If the post is edited, then the original rolls are still retained.

I like this option the best. Sounds pretty classy!

[nijineko]

i use crystalball lite for all my online dice rolling needs. cross platform compatible and lots of amazing features. however, it would not fit the needs of a play-by-post game, as enabling it to be tied into a board does not seem to be on the feature list at this time. my lone suggestion was not enough to spur development.

however... if enough people were to try crystalball lite, log into the forums, and then post that they wanted this feature.... ^^



as far as the options presented goes, i would have to vote for permanent appending of dice rolls. =D

[Riftwalker]

Standard notation sounds good to me. Will allow for most any system out there.

I'm sure the parsing algorithm can be finessed by anyone with some level of programming experience, even if they don't know PHP.

This would apply only to posts with the dice bbcode correct? If its all posts, that's definitely not an option. I have an endless habit of posting before getting my thoughts completely straight, so I'm always editing

Likewise. I'd prefer to retain the ability to edit posts, because I'm a grammar/spelling nazi.

Works great for RPG games, but not so much for wargames where there isn't a judge. Also, could people use view source and pick out what the roll is?

Good point.

I like this option the best. Sounds pretty classy!

You could even wrap it in a set of [ hide ] tags like this:

Dice results:

• d20 + 5: 14 + 5 -> 19
• 2d4 + 2: 3 + 1 + 2 -> 6

[Farcaster]

Works great for RPG games, but not so much for wargames where there isn't a judge. Also, could people use view source and pick out what the roll is?

No, the "hiding" would be handled on the back end, so they could not see what the roll was.

I like this option the best. Sounds pretty classy!

Yeah, I think appending the dice rolls to the post permanently is probably the most likely to be useful to most GMs and situations.

[Maelstrom]

Excellent! Thanks again for your responsiveness, Farcaster. This is a pretty fun playground you've built here.

[Riftwalker]

So this is on the list? Awesome!

[Mulsiphix]

I've actually considered running some BattleTech play by post games since I arrived here and saw PBP games were a part of the forum. The lack of a dice roller, one that could not be manipulated, is pretty much the only reason I never got a game together. I think the results should be appended to the end of the post and post editing should still be possible. I too edit my posts on a regular basis so editing is crucial. Especially in a format where people are RP'ing and want to revise something. I do this a lot when writing in general.

I think this is a pretty big feature. That is I think its presence would get even more people playing PBP games here. Any idea if you can implement a system that appends the result permanently to the bottom of a post Farcaster? If you can, any idea if this feature would be implemented anytime soon?

[Groqx]

Everyone should check out the link below for dice rolling in a play by post game. It allows for random number generation and you can send the results to the GM via email. As far as I know there is no way to fudge the results of the roll. If the GM posted what is needed to hit then the player could write the scene immediately and also send in the roll for damage to the GM. As far as I know there is no better dice server on the net.


http://www.rpghost.com/dicer.shtml

[Mulsiphix]

This is nice indeed but if the rolling could be integrated into the post itself, it would be far more useful. There are websites, programs, and other off-forum utilities that can get the job done. If at all possible, a roller integrated into the post would be preferred.