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I thought this was pretty kool idea for rolling dice on a Iphone. Instead of actual dice that we all love. Will they too be replaced by computers one day? GW coming out with a dice rolling computer gadget?
What's your thoughts on the subject?

here is the link.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/08/21/mach-dice-roll-for-i.html

I already downloaded it and it's sooo good. Especially when your opponent is takinh like 30 attacks, you whip it out, set it to 30 D6 and hit roll.

I've thought about doing something similar for Android. Really this is a pretty simple app, something that you could put together in a few days. The only REAL problem is that getting something truely random on a computer is a very difficult problem. I'd also have issues with fairness, not sure I'd let an opponent use one of these.

never in a million years. talk about cheater central. why would I ever trust someone else's phone to roll dice for them. Plus, as has been said, true random is not really what you're getting here anyway.

of course, they could cheat with weighted dice, or all sorts of other ways, but those tend to be more obvious than hacked slightly-better-odds dice rolling software

I'd thought of doing something up in Flash, then putting in on my Sony PSP... Given the concern over cheating however, I decided against it.

I'm thinking no.

I like dice. They're fun to roll. Getting to do material things is half the reason I play 40k instead of Starcraft or Dawn of War.

Plus, lambadomy has a point on using it to cheat. You would need some more supervision for something like that.

Yeah, I agree. Too much opportunity to cheat. I downloaded a couple dice rolling apps for my Iphone that I use for RPG's, where the people I've been playing with are ok with it, but I couldn't see using it at a 40K tournament. Besides, sometimes the dice are faster, like when rolling for armor vs invulnerable saves, different wound values from multiple attacks, etc.

The great thing with the dice roller for the iphone is after your first roll, you can tap on the failed rolls, then shake it a second time and it only re-rolls the dice not 'pinned'.

I've written programs like this for D&D use, but it's also very easy to tip it, say, 5-10% in favour of whatever number you'd prefer. There are not many things in the world as honest as good old non-tampered-with dice.

A common app wuld sort out most of that problem, but that's akin to the suggestion that tournaments competitors be issued with tournament dice.

I LOVE actual dice and this will never replace them!

That was pretty cool and would have it's uses.
In the car,plane,train.

'How do you read the four sided dice?' I asked myself...
Tilt the screen of course, Wow!


I've spent that much on a single dice before so if I had an Iphone I would get this!

There have been electronic dice-rolling gadgets since the '80s - I remember one being advertised in Dragon magazine back in the day. They never caught on because ultimately dice-rolling is a visceral element of the hobby. Chucking a bundle of little plastic cubes on the table and waiting the results with baited breath is all part of what makes tabletop gaming fun. Take it away, and for many, it becomes less fun. Plus dice are cheap and don't break easily.

A free app for a phone, well it may appeal to some, but I can't see it having much appeal outside of a few who seem to be surgically attached to their mobiles..

Not to mention that most dice rolling apps have incredibly poor randomization, since "programmers" just use the software's built-in "random" command, which is always crappy.