The Windows 8/Windows RT marketplace is still pretty young. There’s a lot of room for growth, niches to be filled, and things to be made. As a long-time table-top gamer, there are a few apps that can really make things easier on me, especially if I’m the GM for a given game. One such app is DiceGod.
DiceGod, shown above, is an inexpensive dice roller for Windows 8/RT. While you can get a lot of use out of it as a free app, I’ll go ahead and say its definitely worth the mere $1.99 asking price. You have the full assortment of dice to choose from; d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and a tens die for d100. You’ve got several choices for rolling area (leather is shown above) and die material (stone). Additionally, there are some pre-set configurations you can use – percentages, 3d6, and 3d20. All of this is usable in the trial, and it’s a perfectly functional die roller.
One of the nice features present is the ability to “pin” a die. By pinning it, you can reroll without changing its value. This is useful for games with exploding dice (where rolling a certain number causes you to roll another die and add it to your total), or you just need to preserve a certain roll.
What sets DiceGod apart is the ability to create multiple die rolling areas. Each area keeps its dice separate from the others, allowing you to keep and maintain different die pools. You have the option to roll/reroll the currently selected area, or roll them all. If you’re running the game as a GM, this is helpful as you can set each area for a specific purpose; one for quick skill checks, another for some NPCs, some for damage, random encounters, etc.
As a player, having one set aside for skill checks, another for one attack, and another for a different one can be helpful. This is particularly welcome in games like HERO/Champions, where you can be rolling very large quantities of dice, sometimes with different effects/damage. For instance, last time I played Champions, my character had an attack that did 12d6 physical damage, as well as 12d6 energy. Rolling two lots of 12 dice was a hassle, as was totaling them!
Make no mistake about it; this is DiceGod’s killer feature, and what makes it worth the current asking price.
One great thing BStbck (the publisher) did was make sure that DiceGod works well in the snapped position. This allows it to be useful in conjunction with another app. Above I have it with Combat Tracker, but one could also use it alongside Reader or maybe an internet browser for quick referencing. Now, the size of the areas go down, but its still usable so long as you don’t have too many of them.
One of the cons to DiceGod, however, is that you cannot have multiple colors of dice. For instance, if I’m rolling 3d6 plus a half die, I can’t really show that easily, whereas physically rolling dice I’d just say, “red is the half die.” While you could have an area dedicated to that, sometimes its nice/simpler to just to have multiple dice colors.
Additionally, while you can roll pre-made combinations, I have no idea how to create my own combinations of dice. This would be an extremely useful addition, or simply something that needs to be made clear.
One last area of possible improvement is you cannot name each area, nor save them. Being able to work on these things ahead of time, then load them as needed? That would be a very helpful addition for GMs, and make organization a bit easier.
Overall, though, these are relatively small issues. I think that DiceGod is a great start, and look forward to future updates to the app. Again, the multiple areas feature is well worth the asking price, but if you can’t pay for it (no credit card, for instance), its still a very functional dice roller. Additionally, it doesn’t require anything from Windows like user identity, access to your libraries, internet access, etc., so it stands alone quite well.
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