We have covered a lot of different dice rolling applications for role-playing games that are available in Apple’s App Store on this site. Over the past year that the app store has been around, these apps have started to fall into two main groups, namely, the Simulation group and the Random Number Generator group.

The Simulation group of apps seek to re-create the look and feel of rolling polyhedral dice. They often have beautiful graphics and sounds and can be quite fully features. The Random Number Generator group, by and large, are only interested in presenting the user with the calculated number of an equation.

We, in our gaming group, have players who prefer one or the other from the various groups, so we are going to do four of each.

Continue reading List of the Best 8 iPhone RPG Dice Rolling Apps

With the plethora of RPG dice rolling apps out there, I am sure I am not the only person who has though about keeping my character on the iPhone as well. After a quick investigation, it proved to be not as straightforward as you might imagine. Well, I have put some thought into it, and I have a few suggestions about how it could be done.

Continue reading Keeping your role-playing game character on your iPhone

One of the great perks of writing for the Dice of Doom blog is getting asked to play with loads of iPhone dice rollers. We get a few gentle requests to try a new one out, and generally speaking we try to cover as many as we can. A couple of weeks ago I was asked if I would like to try out dynamicDice, a new entrant into the Dice Simulation category (as opposed to the Number Generation category). Like Pip, Dicenomicon and MachDice before it, this RPG Dice Rolling app is designed to give you the feel of actually rolling dice in front of you without having to carry a dice bag around.

When reviewing a dice simulator, obviously the realism of the dice rolling is paramount. Using a true 3d engine, dynamicDice does this really well, although it currently suffers from some memory issues (which the developer assures me they are currently fixing and a free update will be upcoming) and sometimes the roll seems a little choppy (Pip on the other hand is very smooth). The quality of the graphics is extraordinary with reflections and shadows and is certainly on a par with Pip.

Dice are added to the table from the dice selection page by clicking on the die desired repeatedly (which actually works a lot better than many of the alternatives) and the entire dice selection can be erased easily by clicking the trash can. There are no adding of modifiers or adding of dice in the roll, keeping everything simple, much like Pip does. The ease in which dice are added to the table view is one of the things that dynamicDice does really well.

dynamicDice allows you to set up 5 tables with 5 differently themed dice sets, and has included d6 with round corners in both pips and numbers as well. The application comes with 20 table themes and 20 dice themes and they are all very attractive and are a nice touch addition to the app.

There is one thing about dynamicDice that I actually really like and sets it apart from some other apps, and that is its 3d perspective. You can move your iPhone around to get a complete 3d view of the dice sitting on the table. This is also supported in landscape mode.

All in all, this is a very good entrant into the dice simulation category and we look forward seeing what else this company puts out.

• dynamicDice $2.99 (iTunes Link)
• Dynamic Realms website

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.

Dicenomicon

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.

List of dice supported:

• 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

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.

List of dice supported:

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

Summary

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

Update: The situation has improved immensely since this post was written.

While I don’t think that dice rollers on your phone will ever replace the tactile awesomeness of rolling a handful of dice, I have investigated the growing number of dice roller’s available in the App Store. By and large they have been either free or only a dollar or two, which is, in most cases, too much. Of all the things that you would think would be easy to get right, an application that actually rolls the dice how you would on a games night would be one of them, surely.

Problem One: Crappy graphics…

This is almost universal amongst all of them. Only one as come close to getting it right and it has blatently stolen the graphics from the Chessex website (see our blogroll…). Others show squares that have numbers in them (regardless of the die you actually rolled), and yet others just show text (probably not the worst option in all honesty…). A simple UI that does what you’d expect, and not require obscure gestures just to use the accelerometer and which doesn’t steal from your favourite dice manufacturer would be a basic assumption for something you pay for…

Problem Two: Crappy features…

This is something that I have found most frustrating… You really want the following:

• Ability to roll multiples of one die type
• Ability to add a modifier to that die type
• Ability to roll multiple die types
• Ability to save your favourite combination of die types, multipliers and modifiers

Only one is apparently coming close to this is the D20 Dice Bag Pro ($2.99 USD/$3.99 AUD). They are the only ones who have added features to a point where it is usable (they also stole the graphics from Chessex…).

The Reviews…

After spending nearly $10 what follows is my opinion on what’s currently on offer…

D20 Dice Bag Pro

Top of the list is the D20 Dice Bag Pro. This is the only dice roller that allows you do roll multiple die types and add modifiers. It has probably the nicest UI as well. One thing that was a little annoying was the way that you add multiples of things – it wasn’t as intuitive as I would have hoped. Probably the best thing about this app is that the developer is releasing an update almost weekly, and the future features that he is promising sound quite good (like the ability to keep/drop dice from a roll, and then re-roll).

D20 Dice Bag also comes in a ‘lite’ version which doesn’t allow you to add modifiers or roll multiple die types, but is free at least. (Check out the Chessex dice set Veronica for a remarkable likeness to their images however…)

Dice Bag

This free app is really easy to use, has crappy plastic dice for images (you know, the type you have to ‘beef up’ your collection). You click on the die type you want to roll, and hey-presto, you get a number. The nice thing about this app is that it has included 3d6 and 4d6 drop lowest in the standard list of rolls.

The best part about this app is that it is free…

DiceDaemon

This app is a complete waste of money. Complete waste. The only thing that this app has on the FREE app Dice Bag is that it has ‘borrowed’ a nicer set of images from the Chessex website. That’s it. It might look pretty, but not $2.99 USD ($3.99 AUD) pretty. I don’t know how they expect to sell many copies of this app. Even for a dollar, it would be too much in my opinion.

I will give them an extra point for spelling Daemon properly though…

(Check out the Chessex dice set Translucent Purple for a remarkable likeness to their images…)

THAC0

Honestly… I don’t really know what to say about this app. They had the right idea, but it really hasn’t come together… It really hasn’t. Its difficult to use and annoying, and painful, and well… it just sucks at the moment. Its been updated recently, but still… it… well… The worst part is they charged me a dollar for it… bastards…

Anyway… check out the gallery of screenshots of the various apps in action below.