Dice Tower Command Line Help/Documentation

[hoverfrog]

A help feature next to the die roll options would be really helpful. What are "legal" roll strings for the table or the command line options? What options are available for me to roll multiple dice at once, of any? Can I roll to hit and damage in the same roll like I can in OGMW? Can I add rolls together? What is the available logic that I can apply to a roll, if any? Can I label rolls better? Can I have the option of setting a DC and a roll and just seeing if I succeed or fail and if I succeed can I then roll damage?

i.e. Invalid roll with labels

Valid roll without labels

As a GM the main issue is the number of clicks I have to make to roll for monster. For example I recently finished a small combat in a game in OGMW. A party of 3rd level PCs vs 6 quasits. Each quasit has 3 attacks when full attacking. That's 18 rolls, which is click Add Dice, Label the dice, click the roll, add the modifier, add a roll, click the dice, add a modifier, repeated 18 times. Plus saving throws.

I don't want to imagine the pain of a party fighting a couple of hydras or a horde of dragons with multiple attacks.

In OGMW I type out the following (which I can store in Notepad or somewhere) : Full attack vs AC20 [ROLL="Claw"]1d20+7z 1d3-1z[/ROLL] plus poison, [ROLL="Claw"]1d20+7z 1d3-1z[/ROLL] plus poison, [ROLL="Bite"]1d20+7z 1d4-1z[/ROLL] and then copy and paste it six times (or just quote the previous post and make any changes).

For a player it does work quite well. Most of the time you'll need to roll a single skill check or saving throw. At worst you'll need to roll multiple attacks for a high level character or maybe multiple attacks if you've summoned something.

One of the key principles of good website design is accessibility. You want users to have as few clicks as possible to do what they need to do. The dice engine is the opposite of that. Although the functionality is there, the usability isn't.

The copy dice and copy all function are a good ideas. They reduce the number of clicks you need to do something.

It may be that these and the following features are available but, returning to my first point, a help feature explaining what is available would be great. Until writing this post I've only used the GUI interface for dice but I now prefer the table interface.

Additional features on my personal wishlist:

• Hidden dice for when you don't want the players to see you rolling but that you can later unhide to show players what you rolled. Not a big deal really but it comes up sometimes.
• Sheet dice (already in dev as I understand it). More importantly the ability for the GM to roll dice for every PC attached to the game or for a selection of PCs. I used to roll saving throws and initiative for my parties just to speed up play. If I have to NPC someone who is away it would be nice to make quick rolls for them without having to lookup lots of things.
• Adding dice together: In OGMW I can roll 1d4tz 4d6tz to add sneak attack to my dagger damage. I'd like to still do that. At the moment I can add different dice together but if I want 1d6+4d6 for example I just put 5d6. What happens if I don't get a sneak attack like I thought and the GM just wants the first 1d6?
• Labelling multiple rolls. It's a nice feature to add a second roll or a third roll but I'd like the option of labelling them. i.e. i.e. a quasit claws someone so I want labels for Attack roll, piercing damage, and dexterity damage. This is great in the table roll but it isn't available elsewhere, specifically the command line.
• 1d3 and 1d2 rolls. I know you can use them in the table and command line rolls but there's no option in the whizzy GUI for it. Granted that is probably by design but you could add a round up or round down option when dividing a roll.
• Why do I have the ability to click on the dice on someone else's post when I'm not the GM? Can it just be hidden if I am not supposed to have this functionality?

Edited January 27, 2023 by hoverfrog (see edit history)

[Colin]

3 hours ago, hoverfrog said:

A help feature next to the die roll options would be really helpful. 

What are "legal" roll strings for the table or the command line options? What options are available for me to roll multiple dice at once, of any? Can I roll to hit and damage in the same roll like I can in OGMW? Can I add rolls together? What is the available logic that I can apply to a roll, if any? Can I label rolls better? Can I have the option of setting a DC and a roll and just seeing if I succeed or fail and if I succeed can I then roll damage?

These should all be (or need to be added, identifying anything missing or unclear in a new thread in Feedback would be really helpful so we can expand it!) already present in the Dice Tower help page, but adding a link to the help page on the side in the Dice Tower window may be a possibility.

[Eric]

Split this into a separate topic since it’s only indirectly related to the copy button positions.

[bwatford]

@hoverfrog

In your example above, the labels need to be together in the string like so:

To Hit: | Damage:;1d20+5;1d8+2

I use the pipe symbol to separate my roll labels. I also use the damage type instead of just the word damage and the colons are not really needed in the labels the way it creates the roll table.

Goblin #4 attack | Slashing;1d20+5;1d8+2

Or in case of Initiative I have a notepad entry saved on my PC or in a private DM thread that list all the parties initiatives in the proper format.

Johnathan Initiative;1d20+2
Kate's Initiative;1d20+1
Bob's Initiative;1d20+0

That way I can just copy each over and click "add a roll" to enter the next one. I do wish there was a way to paste in all the rolls at once but I think that is a feature that is coming. (hopefully)

You could also do a single line initiative.

Initiative: Johnathan | Kate | Bob | William;1d20+2;1d20+1;1d20+0;1d20+3

And the same with multiple goblin attacks. So, you are only pasting two lines instead of 4.

Attacks: Goblin #1 | Goblin #2 | Goblin #3 | Goblin #4;1d20+5;1d20+5;1d20+5;1d20+5
Goblin Damage (if hit): Goblin #1 | Goblin #2 | Goblin #3 | Goblin #4;1d6+2;1d6+2;1d6+2;1d6+2

Just some thoughts on rolling for you.

 

[hoverfrog]

@bwatfordare you doing this from the command line because I've copied and pasted your code and get the following:

 

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Actually it is the colon after Initiative

This works quite well:Quasit Claw | Slashing | Claw | Slashing | Bite | Piercing | Poison | Poison:1d20+7; 1d3-1; 1d20+7; 1d3-1; 1d20+7; 1d4-1; 1d2; 1d2

But it doesn't look great and isn't easy to read
 

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As for pasting multiple lines the command line works quite well for this. If I copy and paste the following:
Bob Initiative:1d20+7
Tim Initiative:1d20+3
Kate Initiative:1d20-1
Adam Initiative:1d20+1

It pastes over four lines and seems to work quite well.

 

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With a bit of planning and care this could actually work better than the existing system.

The error messages could do with some better feedback. Unknown token doesn't mean very much. Also copying and pasting can really ruin all the typing you've just done.

Thanks for the pointers though.

[bwatford]

2 minutes ago, hoverfrog said:

It pastes over four lines and seems to work quite well.

 

And I am still learning as well, I was not aware that the CLI could handle multiple lines pasted in at once.  lol.

That solves a lot of my headache. 

[Eric]

I will definitely work to improve the error mesages. Including the "please don't put a colon in the label, because that's the delimiter that splits the label from the roll strings 😄

 

[Neopopulas]

Error: 'YOU NEED A COLON'

 

Its good to see that the CLI can do multiple lines at once, it does look kinda.. rough and can be a big hard to parse, its not exactly pretty but it gets the job done so im actually really glad to know you can do that.

[Butchern]

I'm going through this whole thread to see what can already be done and what is already in the guide so I can update it as necessary. Giving some answers below as well for those who might be searching for answers to their questions.

• A help feature next to the die roll options would be really helpful. - Does not exist; not a bad idea. @Eric? Maybe just a link to the dice guide somewhere on the roller?
   
• What are "legal" roll strings for the table or the command line options? What options are available for me to roll multiple dice at once, of any? Can I roll to hit and damage in the same roll like I can in OGMW? Can I add rolls together?  In the guide already. All legal rolls and options are in the guide; yes, you can roll to hit and then damage; yes, you can add rolls together as per the guide.
   
• What is the available logic that I can apply to a roll, if any? In the guide. In the guide already. All available logic for rolls is in the guide.
   
• Can I label rolls better? Not sure what you mean. As far as I know, labels will take multiple words and most punctuation.
   
• Can I have the option of setting a DC and a roll and just seeing if I succeed or fail and if I succeed can I then roll damage? Yes and no. "Success" is in the guide already. You can ask the Tower to tell you if a roll is a success for failure using the "success" dice string (e.g. Attack: success(1d20+5, 16, above) will output the result of the roll and a "1" if the roll is a success and a "0" if the roll is a failure; no, it will not then trigger another roll on a success.
   
• Hidden dice for when you don't want the players to see you rolling but that you can later unhide to show players what you rolled. Not a big deal really but it comes up sometimes. Currently, the only way to hide dice from players is to put it in a post in a thread that is hidden from the players.
   
• Sheet dice (already in dev as I understand it). More importantly the ability for the GM to roll dice for every PC attached to the game or for a selection of PCs. I used to roll saving throws and initiative for my parties just to speed up play. If I have to NPC someone who is away it would be nice to make quick rolls for them without having to lookup lots of things. Correct, in development, but I have no idea what features will be available.
   
• Adding dice together: In OGMW I can roll 1d4tz 4d6tz to add sneak attack to my dagger damage. I'd like to still do that. At the moment I can add different dice together but if I want 1d6+4d6 for example I just put 5d6. What happens if I don't get a sneak attack like I thought and the GM just wants the first 1d6? In the guide already. Yes, this works like any other use of "adding rolls together" as per the guide (e.g. roll:4d6+10;1d6+2 outputs "roll:4d6+10;1d6+2 => ;  => 24; 5").
   
• Labeling multiple rolls. It's a nice feature to add a second roll or a third roll but I'd like the option of labeling them. i.e. i.e. a quasit claws someone so I want labels for Attack roll, piercing damage, and dexterity damage. This is great in the table roll but it isn't available elsewhere, specifically the command line. Yes, multiple labels require multiple entries into the Dice Tower, but see above for several work-arounds (multi-part labels or copy/paste multiple entries into CLI).
   
• 1d3 and 1d2 rolls. I know you can use them in the table and command line rolls but there's no option in the whizzy GUI for it. Granted that is probably by design but you could add a round up or round down option when dividing a roll. Yes, I also assume that was by design.
   
• Why do I have the ability to click on the dice on someone else's post when I'm not the GM? Can it just be hidden if I am not supposed to have this functionality? No, see "hidden dice" above.
   
• As for pasting multiple lines the command line works quite well for this. If I copy and paste the following: I did not know this either. I'll add a section in the guide Added to the guide.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Butchern (see edit history)

[Neopopulas]

So i've been playing around with some of the suggestions in this thread and i ran across something and i want to know if its a bug or if i'm doing something wonky and the system doesn't like it.

 

I'm following the idea from above to get successes. The idea is 1d20+5 with a success being anything above 9

When i use the GUI - All i did was 1 d20, add 5, success 9 and didn't touch anything else and i got this

As you can see the preview says 'TypeError: Cannot read property 'length' of undefined', which also shows up when i actually roll the dice as the previous attempts.

 

Then i tried the table mode and i got the same problem;

 

I attempted to do the same in CLI mode following the Dice Tower help article which says the string should be success(dice, threshold, direction, cancel, bonus). So i think the string should be success(1d20+5, 9, above);

Its very possible i'm just doing something totally wrong but i'm not sure what it is.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Neopopulas (see edit history)

[Butchern]

No, I think you've got it right. Adding a modifier to the die before you test it for success appears to bork the dice string. When I tested it for writing the guide, I must have only tested it for dice pools (i.e. for counting success in 6d10 for White Wolf, et al.).

 

@Eric, is this intended behavior?

[Edit] - for clarity - success(1d20+5, 16, above) does not work but success(1d20, 16, above) does.

Edited January 29, 2023 by Butchern (see edit history)

[Eric]

I'll look into it!

[Eric]

@hoverfrog Colon usage is now checked before submitting the dice.

@Neopopulas Success counter now works on a numeric roll result in addition to an array of dice.

 

@Butchern Guide away!

[Neopopulas]

I got bad news guys...

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I did it with the GUI so i knew i wasn't messing it up..

 

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HOWEVER

If you do it this way...

Its fine. So maybe its less of a problem and more of a learning experience because unlike the other glitch that needs to add 5 before it checks a value for successes, you CAN just add the modifier after you check for the highest.

Its just important that people know which order it has to be done in.

 

Edit: Oh also i dont know if this is a problem if you are capping table width to the screen so you can't force tables beyond the edge, but if you DO have a table like that, and you open the dice, it shoves the screen way out to the right and down so it can be at the right edge of that huge broken table.

 

Edited February 3, 2023 by Neopopulas (see edit history)

[Butchern]

1 hour ago, Neopopulas said:

I got bad news guys...

I think we actually talked about that way back when the dice string was rolled out, and it is working as intended. Keep is fundamentally about keeping the highest or lowest die result not total roll result. @Eric will remember better than I.

Are there any systems where players get to roll multiple dice with different modifiers for each die and then get to pick which total result is higher or lower. (e.g. the normal roll is 1d10+1, but with this special feat or whatever you can also roll 1d6+2 and if it is higher than the normal roll you can keep it)?

Once we hear from Eric, I'll update the guide to make sure it is clear about how to add the modifier for keep.