iPhone Polyhedral (RPG) Dice Rolling Applications

• Tweet
• Share
• Email

• Tweet
• Share
• Email

Some of you might remember my previous rant on this topic. Back when the iPhone 2.0 was released, the App Store contained a pretty poor collection of RPG dice rollers. And some were asking extraordinary amounts for them. Well, that sucky state of iPhone Rollers is happily over. There are two examples of a excellent rollers which should meet pretty much everyone’s needs (if not, the developers would probably love to hear from you…).

The basic criteria that I feel is necessary for a dice rolling app on the phone is pretty straight forward:

1. Has to actually illustrate polyhedral dice rolling around
2. Has to have an editor to create custom rolls (for e.g. 3d6+2, etc.)
3. Has to have reasonable physics to the rolling process
4. Should be able to select saved dice roll sets
5. Should have some customisability for looks, etc.

The two stand-out applications available at the moment that address all five of those are Dicenomicon and MachDice.

Update: We have also recently reviewed Pip here.

Let me just get out and say it upfront… this is my favourite of the two. The choice of dice available to roll is exhaustive, the formulas that you can type and save is pretty much going to solve everyone’s needs and it has complete customisability in regards to looks.

• Standard 7 die set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d100)
• Less Common – d1, d2, d3, d5, d7, d9, d14, d15, d16, d18, d24, d30
• Other – d6a (averaging die), dF (positive or negative), 1/2d6 (effectively a d3, but you can see the original roll), Open Ended rolls and d1000 rolls
• Dice results with text (alignment, weather and hit location)
• Support for the FUDGE system (Freeform Universal Do-It-Yourself Gaming Engine).
• Support for the Storyteller system
• Supports THAC0! And because it supports parameters (meaning input before a roll) it will calculate a hit and miss easily for you.
• Support for the White Wolf system

Where Dicenomicon stands out is in its formula editor. The formula editor even allows you to set up dialog boxes, meaning you can change the number of dice rolled or modifier at roll time. You can very easily and intuitively set up dice rolls that roll 5d6, keeping all rolls over 5 plus the best 4 d10 rolls, adding to that 2d5+7 with a d30*d4 for good measure. Why you would ever need this roll is not the point (no, really…) the fact that you can do it at all is testament to its very versatile system.

Dicenomicon also supports multiple virtual tables that allow you to keep your most used dice rolls separated (and if need be, with different backgrounds, etc…).

My only complaint about Dicenomicon is the occasional sudden burst of energy that some of the dice sometimes display. Having said that, you can change the gravity settings in the app that pretty much put that to rest.

MachDice has a better feel to the dice rolling physics. Where Dicenomican can (rarely) spit a die randomly in one direction, this has never happened to me using MachDice. The dice are not as good looking in MachDice, and sometimes you can’t see what the d4 is showing, but the basics are pretty good.

The editor for creating lists is perhaps a little easier to use, but that is largely due to the much smaller list of functions that you can use. It has keep the highest, but not lowest, nor targets, nor many of the others. It currently does not support systems like FUDGE or Storyteller. The application does not support Dice Combination Bookmarks either.

One thing that MachDice does do better – its easier to switch virtual gaming tables.

• Standard 7 die set (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, d100)
• Other – d1 (as a coin)

Both dice rollers do the basics quite well, but in my opinion, Dicenomicon is the absolute best RPG dice roller out. In terms of functionality and completeness, it stands out from all the others and is certainly worth the extra money.

Dicenomicon: $3.99 | Website | iTunes

MachDice: $0.99 | Website | iTunes

• A Game of Thrones Roleplaying Game: A Mini Review
• What are the differences between the editions of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay?
• Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Core Set vs Guides and Vaults
• Warhammer Magic Guide: Lore of Beasts
• Rolemaster Fantasy Roleplaying Game Review