DICE ROLL FORMAT: Feedback Requested

Hello!

Based on feedback from an active PbP game, I've made some alterations to how dice roll results are reported.

The general format is like so:

Roll Notes
XdY = Z; XdY=Z; QdR=W
(a,b,c) (d,e) (g,h,i)

where the first line is the description put on the roll, the second is the die roll with the resulting value, and the last line is 'smaller' output of the actual component rolls of multi-die throws.

The reaction roll below says you won't like it, so...

I like it.  No need for each roll to be on its own line.

I'd be curious if something like

Init = 3; Atk Throw 8+ = 16; Dmg = 3;
(1d6+1: 2,1) (1d20: 16) (1d6+2: 1,2)

STR = 5; INT = 11; WIS = 6; DEX = 11; CON = 5; CHA = 9;
(3d6:1, 3, 1 ) (3d6:4, 2, 5 ) (3d6:1, 4, 1 ) (3d6:4, 5, 2 ) (3d6:1, 3, 1 ) (3d6: 4, 1, 4 )

would be slightly more useful. It's one less line of text, to boot.

 

What would it look like if I had a general label not attached to any specific rolls?

If my rolls were 2d6;2d6;2d6 and my label was "Alchemist reaction rolls", for example, what's the output there?

So, what I didn't think about in that previous example was I'd have to enforce comment syntax, which is most likely a bad idea - there'd have to be a separator agreed upon to tie a comment to a roll, and I think that'd be a burden.

In lieu of a seperator, or simply not enforcing any syntax to have a separator, it'd probably end up looking like:

Alchemist reaction rolls = 539;
(2d6:2,3) (2d6:1,2)(2d6:3,6)

or to hijack a previous example:

STR; INT; WIS; DEX; CON; CHA = 5, 11,6,11,5,9
(3d6:1, 3, 1 ) (3d6:4, 2, 5 ) (3d6:1, 4, 1 ) (3d6:4, 5, 2 ) (3d6:1, 3, 1 ) (3d6: 4, 1, 4 )

Is there any way to make the extra line of text with each individual roll optional?

The roll components you mean? I'm marginally confident it might be able to be done with a user preference hook, but I'm not at all sure if it can be done as a "live toggle" during thread viewing.

Some sort of checkbox before the roll is made would work.

Sometimes it's nice to see what each individual roll was, but most of the time it doesn't matter.

Philosophically,  though, making the choice at the time of the roll puts it in the hands of the player, rather than the Judge, to reveal the components of any given roll.

It could perhaps be done as:

  • Checkbox at time of roll, left unchecked by default, to expose the roll components (default is do not)
  • Checkbox in the user account preference to "always show" or "never show" roll components

with some sort of future feature to "live toggle" within a forum thread to be left as a standing issue, as that's probably the most complex bit.