Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So while i was in class today i was trolling through the appstore and found 2 interesting apps

The first one was an app that lets you use electronic scater dice and electronic dice

The scaterdice worked with a spiner that pointed in a random direction or wouldsay you scored a hit. The dice one let you roll 30 6sided dice at once.

The other app let you make an army list on your ipod/phone/pad

Would you be Ok with this?

/roll30d6 isn't anything new.

Never said it was haha just if someone rolled in wanting to use dice on there ipad would you be ok wih it?

I'd much rather someone bring real dice.

 ShatteredBlade wrote:
I'd much rather someone bring real dice.

I agree. I like to "proof"-count those kinds of things.

Assuming the dice are random (and I don't know anything about programming or randomly determined electronic numbers) I'd prefer that. Anything to make the game faster and easier without detracting from the game? Why would I say no?

Electronic Game materials, Yes. Ipad codex is a great idea; space saving and more managable.

But electronic rolling dice? No thanks. The physical action of rolling the dice is a fundemental aspect of the game for me.. thats why we're there playing the game. Without the physical dice, the game essential becomes a computer game.

Codex, army list, all that jazz - yes.

Electronic dice - no.

I think really it's mostly a matter of the fact that computer programs are easily changed. I'm not saying it would happen often, but say you do bring in an iPad and a dice roller. I don't know much about programming, but I'd be stunned if it were utterly impossible to go into the source files and change the probabilities of certain rolls around, say, make it more likely that a 4 will come up.

To my knowledge, it's much harder to load dice or train yourself to roll them just the right way, especially when you have to roll 20 or 30 at a time.

 Locclo wrote:
Codex, army list, all that jazz - yes.

Electronic dice - no.

I think really it's mostly a matter of the fact that computer programs are easily changed. I'm not saying it would happen often, but say you do bring in an iPad and a dice roller. I don't know much about programming, but I'd be stunned if it were utterly impossible to go into the source files and change the probabilities of certain rolls around, say, make it more likely that a 4 will come up.

To my knowledge, it's much harder to load dice or train yourself to roll them just the right way, especially when you have to roll 20 or 30 at a time.

It is actually harder to make a program that is truly random for dice rolling. That is why I would not allow electronic dice.

 ShatteredBlade wrote:
It is actually harder to make a program that is truly random for dice rolling. That is why I would not allow electronic dice.

That would be my issue as well. Random number generators often aren't properly random.

A lot of the time they just use the system clock "seconds" counter as the random number modifier or whatever, so it can be really easy to skew results in your favor. "Hang on....wait...ok Rolling! I got a 6."

Not really. I can make a program that generates a random number from 1-6 and amid it roll any number of dice i want in about.... 7 min give or take haha its a little bu harder to make numbers apear more then others.

Even though most rng go off a system clock you. An esaly write code to not make it run off te system clock and the clock its self goes of very small fractions of time smaller then a second so hou would need to have a synced clock and time it. Better then perfect

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Not really. I can make a program that generates a random number from 1-6 and amid it roll any number of dice i want in about.... 7 min give or take haha its a little bu harder to make numbers apear more then others.

Even though most rng go off a system clock you. An esly write code to not make it run off te system clock and the clock its self goes of very small fractions of time smaller then a second so hou would need to have a synced clock and time it. Better then perfect

With a post like that, I kind of doubt it. What you just said you were going to create is a Pseudorandom Number Generator, or DRBG which are not truly random as they rely on a small set of initial values.

(edited as to not come off as abrasive.)

Army list yes dice no-still prefer paper though as your device can die halfway through the game

list = yes
dice = no

If you want to put your army list on the i thingiee then more power to you.

I support the idea of 'pay where you play' as well as at least lip service to Games Workshop's right to get paid for their work, so I'm ok with putting all your books on the e-device if you actually own a real copy, too.

E-dice are out of the question. If someone needs dice I will happily loan him all the dice he could possibly need in any quantity or color permutation, so I dont think I'm being unreasonable.

Electronic dice, i've never seen but Im not sure i would be ok with.

Now. as long as i can see the list, then i would be ok with an electronic list, like on a tablet or even a phone

Just for the Sake of the Game i would say no , to easy to triggerinto and change

I wouldnt go for it, from my experience of dice rollers they either tend not to be quite as random as they should be (for instance wizards of the coast dice roller tends to roll low)

I'd be fine with the electronic army list, but not the dice.

Why the hell would you want electronic dice? The whole fun of the game is rolling dice. Without dice, all you're doing is moving plastic proxies across the board and occasionally referring to some charts.

I prefer lists and dice being physical

It'd be the easiest thing in the world to rig electronic dice. Say it picks up when you tap or double tap it, or some way of you letting it know if it was you or your opponent.

On a basic level you could make your opponent's dice d6-1. But he might get suspicious about *never* rolling a 6, so you'd make it a bit more complicated.

I say yes, as long as they allow me to use the same device for my dice rolls/army building... no shenanigans then... but if it's about preference I prefer real dice and real lists...

Dice dont lie.

Anyone can make a program to make the dice roll out in there favor.

Codex, army list, all that jazz - yes.

Electronic dice - no.

^this^


As far as owning the dex or rule book. Look we have all bought dexs, and rules before. If i'm a chaos player and will never play necrons but want to look at their dex, I dont feel so bad having an epeek.

And anyone can rig dice. Just putting your dice so the 6 faces up makes them slightly more likely to roll 6's. Dice "melt" in a similar manner to glass.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And whats the name of the app with a scatter dice?

I voted yes, however I would have rather voted:

Electronic dice: No.

Army List: Yes.

Being a programmer, I don't trust electronic dice. Period.

List: yes.
Dice: no.

A random number generator other than dice I might be convinced to use would be a mutually agreed upon dice roller displayed on a smart-board used by both players.
The one thing I will never accept is my opponent pressing a few times on his phone and then declaring that I need to roll X saves.
And my only way of checking the result is him holding up the phone post-manipulation and me leaning over the table, squinting and asking him to hold the phone still.
How many times would that happen before him and me or either of us getting annoyed?

Same as everyone.

List: yes
Dice: no

I personally use an app on my phone for list building purposes, it makes list building a lot quicker. Granted, it's not the perfect list builder, there're a lot of options missing, such as "for every x models, you can take y", for those, you'd have to refer to codex. If someone tries to use the list builder app w/o the codex, I'd be on the "ehhh" side as well.

As for dice, pretty much what everyone have said. There's no true random number generator, and the frustrations of having to look at a person's phone everytime, when rolling dice in a dice box(if you hate it scattering across the table) is so much simpler and have been working fine so far. PLUS dice aren't that expensive or heavy or space-consuming, so BYOD!