The Tangled Web - Online Pen and Paper Roleplaying FAQ

To roll a die on the forum, the base code is [roll]. Let's say, for example, that you wanted to roll a d20+5.

You would just type [roll]d20+5[/roll] and you'll get Authentic Forum Dice-roll(1d20+5) [17] . Just make sure you remember to always use brackets and always include a forward slash in the closing code or it won't work.
Note: In normal forum posts the text reading 'Authentic Forum Dice-roll' will actually be replaced with a small image of a d6 that shows that text if you hover the mouse over it.

If you want multiple rolls, simply change the number of dice you want to roll. Type [roll]6d6[/roll] and you'll get Authentic Forum Dice-roll(6d6) [26] .

You can give your rolls a name as well. In the first half, you write [roll=And then you put the name here], then the dice you want, followed by the closing code like normal.
Type [roll=Damage]3d4[/roll] and you'll get Authentic Forum Dice-roll Damage - (3d4) [10] .

Note: Once you post, you cannot go back and edit the rolls or add any more die rolls to the same post. A post with processed rolls in it is set in stone. Attempts to edit a post to correct mistakes in roll tags or to add more rolls to it will be unsuccessful. You need to roll any and all new dice in another separate post. Furthermore, make sure you never Preview your post if it has roll code in it, because doing so will parse the code too early and it won't work anymore when you finally send the post through, and you still won't be able to add any more new rolls to your post after that, so be careful.

Almost any of the special characters found on your keyboard should be fine to include in the name of your roll, but there are two things you should avoid. The first is extra brackets ( [ ] ).
Since the code looks for brackets to know when to start and stop, more than normal will create confusion and keep your roll from processing correctly. The second character is the tilde ( ~ ).
If you include one of these in the title of your roll, it will not only fail to process the roll, but your entire post, no matter how large it was, will be completely gobbled up, and the end result will appear to be a blank post. The info you lost will not be recoverable, not even if you go into edit mode for the post. The info will be gone for good, so please be extremely careful not to use the tilde.

When putting formulas into your roll, compound arithmetic is technically supported, as you can add multiple bonuses to your die rolls, put your constants in any order, etc, but operations are strictly left-to-right. They do not use "normal" arithmetic precedence rules. No parenthesizing exists to specify any other ordering. Keep that in mind.

There are two ways to display your roll - the normal way or the verbose way. A normal roll (one rolled using the tags [roll][/roll]) only shows the final total. A verbose roll (which is rolled using the slightly different tags [rollv][/rollv]) shows the result of each die rolled as well as the final total.

A dice formula is made of three to six parts: a quantity, the letter "d", a type, a 1st qualifier, a 2nd qualifier, and a modifier - the first three of those being required and the last three being optional.

• The quantity defaults to 1 if left blank (i.e. d20 = 1d20).


• The letter "d" simply lets the roller know it's about to roll dice.


• The type just lets it know what kind (d6, d12, d38, etc.). It will accept any positive whole number, not just the traditional numbers of typical polyhedral dice sets. You can also use the percent symbol
  ( % ) in place of the number 100 if you wish to have the roller still roll 1d100. You can also use a letter F (as in 1dF) for 'Fudge' dice. This can result in a +1, a 0, or a -1 with equal likelihood. Or you can use a U (as in 1dU) for 'Ubiquity' dice. This can result in a 0 or a 1 with equal likelihood.


• Qualifier 1 changes how the dice are rolled. No qualifier at all means the rolled dice are used exactly as-is and summed up. This is the only qualifier supported for Fudge and Ubiquity dice. An "e" makes the dice "exploding", where if the die rolls its maximum value it is added to the total and then rolled again. An "e" followed by a positive whole number greater than 1 makes the die explode every time it rolls that value or higher. Giving 1d4e4 is the same as 1d4e. Giving 1d10e8 will repeatedly re-roll any die showing an 8, 9, or 10, adding each result until it doesn't roll an explosive value. An "r" makes the dice "re-roll" if they roll a 1. The 1 is simply ignored, the result marked out if the roll is verbose, and the die is immediately rolled again. An "r" followed by a positive whole number less than the maximum rollable value makes the die re-roll every time it rolls the given value or lower. Giving 1d10r1 is the same as 1d10r. Giving 1d6r2 will repeatedly re-roll any die showing a 1 or 2, ignoring each result until it rolls higher than the re-roll value.


• Qualifier 2 changes how the results will be counted. A "b" followed by a positive whole number will discard all but the "best" dice results before taking the sum. The number of results it keeps will be equal to the whole number you provided. For example, 4d6b3 will give the result of the best three out of four rolled d6. Or, 3d20b1 will give the result of the best single roll out of three separate d20 rolls. A "w" followed by a positive whole number will discard all but the "worst" dice results. For example, 2d20w1 will roll two d20 and use only the roll with the lower result. An "s" followed by a positive whole number will, instead of summing up all dice, simply count the number of dice which rolled the given "success" value or higher. 2d8s4 will return a result of 0, 1, or 2, depending on how many of the d8s rolled 4 or higher. This is useful if you need to roll a large number of dice and are only interested in knowing how many of them beat a target number.


• The modifier changes what numeric transform will be applied to the dice after they are done rolling. No modifier means no change. The rolled dice are summed up and used as-is. A + or - followed by a number will add or subtract that value from the dice result. A * or x followed by a number will multiply the dice result by that value. A / followed by a number will divide the dice result by that value (rounding down).

A few final notes:

Rolls support both exploding and re-rolling on the same die type, but at least 1 unexploding, unrerolling result must exist between the reroll and explode values. This means that 1d3er would be acceptable but 1d2er would not, because that roll would be forever exploding and rerolling.

You can only one of the Best, Worst, Success options per die, but you do not have to use the same one for every die-type in a compound roll.

You can freely combine qualifiers and modifiers. To roll 4d6, re-roll 1s, and keep the best three (a common D&D ability-score generation dice roll), roll 4d6rb3.

You can freely mix upper and lower case letters. 1D4 = 1d4, d20r1 = D20R1, and 4d6rb3 = 4d6Rb3 = 4d6rB3 = 4D6RB3.

When you reroll 1s or higher and also keep the best results, make sure that you instruct the dice to reroll 1s before taking the best results and not after. So a formula of 4d6rb3 will roll 4d6, rerolling all 1s first, and then select the best 3 results. A formula of 4d6b3r1 will still roll, but not correctly. And remember that, in verbose rolls, the rerolls are the ones that immediately follow the marked-out value.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions regarding the roller, contact a Staff Member. If you want to test out the dice roller code you've learned here, head to the Official Die Roller Testing Thread and test to your heart's content.