Make the roll, select the text, copy, paste.

In reply to Jordan Task (msg #2):

Usability-wise, that step is pretty cumbersome.  I take it what I'm talking about isn't possible?

In reply to andrewwolverton (msg #3):

It doesn't have to be.  Open the dice roller in a new broswer tab, or a new browser window if you can't do that, then badda bing, you're good.

Far as I know, what you're after can't be done.

In reply to Jordan Task (msg #4):

Thanks for the update.  I wonder if the site owners are open to developers adding features like this?

They're open to people asking for new features.  You'd request it in the RPOL Development Forum: link to another game

People will vote on how they feel about it and really good suggestions sometimes get implemented.  Good luck!  :)

This one has been suggested a number of times, but has been rejected as well.  Placing results from the dice roller into a post has never been the roller's intention, and it raises a number of other usability problems (e.g., Can users edit the post after the roll has been inserted?  Can they keep just editing and inserting rolls until they get the one they want?  &c.).


As for other developers making changes to the site: unlikely.  jase does not release the source code to others, and without that it would be very difficult for them to develop for RPoL.

I've never really thought of copy-paste from another window/tab as challenging, usability wise, but I usually also have GIMP open and Acrobat Reader, plus a character sheet or two in addition to the die roller, and I'm alt-tabbing amongst them all to construct a post.
This message was last edited by the user at 14:39, Tue 17 Jan 2012.

I also think--but I'm not sure--that the way the posts are structured, and the dice roller, would mean that it would be a pretty hefty undertaking to make the dice roller auto-post results to a specific post, for the same reason that you can't link to a specific post in a thread.  I mean, you have to leave the post to operate the dice roller in the first place, whether that's navigating to it or running it in another tab/window/whatever--how are you supposed to tell it to send the results to a post that you may not even have open at the time?

It's one of those things that would require a pretty hefty revamp of the overall site code...the only way I could see it working would basically require the dice roller to be available in every post, like all the formatting options at the bottom.  And then there's the question of how to keep results from being edited, etc...when it comes to a 'bang for the buck' analysis, that's an awful lot of bucks for a relatively small bang...I have no doubt some people would find it convenient--but I think the problems that would be solved are far outweighed by the problems that would be caused.

Just my personal take on it, with my (extremely limited) understanding of how the site's coded.

There is an existing mechanism to insert a link to roll a dice within a post...  so perhaps as DM you could write an IC post with effectively a "click here to make your saving throw" type link in it...  effectively it is just a link to open up the dice roller, pre-configured to whatever you want.  It simplifies the dice rolling for the player - since all they have to do is two clicks - one on the supplied link and one on the "Roll The Dice" button of the dice roller...  Then all they need to do is cut & paste the results into their next post...

But having said that, I don't think that was quite what you were looking for.  :)

  Yeah, but unless everyone has the same bonus, then:

  1.  The GM must include the link.
  2.  Players must open another tab and roll.
  3.  Players must self-report their bonus and total, which likely leads to:
    3A.  GMs have to verify the bonus and check the math.

  Which seems like much more work.
This message was last edited by the user at 16:09, Wed 18 Jan 2012.

True - in that respect it IS much more work...  I confess I don't often use a dice roller link in IC threads.   But I do use it on character sheets or my own OOC thread...

For example, I have a variety of links set up on the DM's character sheet to roll Init rolls/saving throws/Spot checks for all the party members at once - so I don't have to look up each character sheet to check before I roll...  Open my sheet, two clicks, and I have my results.

  Well, in situations where a GM is doing the roll, that works great.  It's when players are rolling (and in most system games, that's more often) that the link steps get all drawn out.

In reply to matthewfenn (msg #9):

Yes, but the OP was asking about a way that didn't involve cutting and pasting the result into an IC thread, just doing the dice roll and having the results get directly plugged into the post.

Short of re-coding the dice roller as a pop-up window that would post its results into whatever post was open at the moment, I don't see how that would work.

I know this is a long dead thread, but thetangledweb.com a V-Bulletin Board, (I think that's the spelling) allows you to roll in post. It takes care of all the problems you are talking about for editing a roll. t a post is made, you can not re-roll.

You don't necessarily 'have' to include your die rolls in your post.  Although when the GM clears the dice log, the information clears out, but there is a Rolls link over to the left in the box to the left with your image.  You can use it to bring up Your rolls from the dice roller.  I don't think this work for looking at other's rolls, but players appear to be able to see their roles, and GMs can use it to check the player's recent rolls.

On a slightly different note:  On a typical machine, copy and paste of die results is very simple.  However, I have to say that in some cases, trying to do that with a phone or some tablets can be extremely frustrating.  You might not want to assume everyone is using a PC to post.

GMs can see all a player's rolls by clicking on Rolls underneath their name.  Players can see all their rolls by clicking Rolls as well, but not other players' rolls.

On some phones, copying and pasting is harder than others.  On my iPod, it's pretty easy, but on my wife's Samsung, copying and pasting seems a little more cumbersome (but that may be because I'm not used to her phone).  For people who don't do much copying and pasting, though, it's probably harder, especially if they're used to another site that puts the dice roller right there on the Message screen.

Another decent tool is Invisiblecastle.com You can use the url for specific rolls. What I like about inline rolls for posts rather than the die roller is knowing exactly what the roll applies to. It is mentioned above about linking to a specific roll.

Again, this is probably chasing a dead horse, I just stumbled across this thread while searching for "link to die roller" on the Google.

Yes, Invisible Castle is good, but you have to copy and paste the links there as well.  =)  You can save rolls for characters, though, so that's handy.

Personally I think dice rolls get in the way of a good story - I don't particularly want to see them alongside an in-character post.  Yes we need the rolls to resolve action (assuming you're using a game system and not just free-forming it), but the results can happily sit in the dice roller screen and I can just load 'em in another tab when I want to see them.

Besides - easier to find them in the dice roller than to have to scroll up and down when writing a GM update, particularly if they go back more than the 5 post history, in which case you'd need the original post in a separate tab anyway to see them all.

Have to say I've never had any problem working out what a roll is for, between the reason field in the dice roller and the in-character post describing what they're doing.

And yes, some things are never going to be as easy on tablet/smart phone as they are on a PC with dedicated keyboard and big (even comparatively) screen, but it's horses for courses - each does something better.

The "problem" with RPoL's die roller is that it's so complex, coming up with simple syntax to do the rolls is near on impossible.  We've got something now so people can make links in sheets etc, but that's pretty unintuitive.

What I was thinking, but it'll take a lot of work, is more of a "Publish these rolls in my next post" option in the dice roller.  That way players don't have to worry about the complex syntax that would otherwise be required, and there can be a second (system controlled) post after their next post that the GM can see the rolls in.  The other advantage of that is users can see their roll results before they post, and compose the message accordingly.

That's a groovy idea, jase, especially if you can add the option to make it a private line to the GM (I'm like Skald, I like the dice rolls private, but other folks like to include the dice rolls publicly).  Including multiple rolls in one post would also be spiffy.

I'm with Skald on this one.  I enjoy games that read like a story, and having little OOC inserts with dice results on them mess that up.  The system-based games that I play in all keep Dice Roller results out of the IC threads...you PM them to the GM, or you make the roll and the GM tells you the results, or you state what you're trying to do (IC) and the GM does the dice rolling for you...but reading through the games I play, you'd be hard-pressed in most of them to tell a difference between the freeform games and the system-based games if you only looked at the in-game threads.

If it's optional what difference does it make to you? All the games I've played that I can remember have had OOC die roll posts typically at the bottom after the IC post. Personally I don't think it's a big deal to have it their. Having a facility to do that automagically would be helpful rather than opening up an additional RPOL window and finding and copying the die results.

Doesn't make much difference to me, at all...I was just expressing an opinion in support of the commentary Skald made.

Is the dice roller log "accessible" by RPOL, or is it along the lines of a plain text file that just keeps appending new data on top?

If it's an actual log, or if it could be read and turned into a readable temporary file by code, it may be possible for an "insert my last die roll" kind of scriptlet in a similar way that the italics/private line/text color tags get inserted. The dice roller knows which player rolls what automatically when inserting the name, so reversing should be possible -- determining based on the name which player it is using the "insert my last roll" call (dealing with multiple character users might be tricky as heck though).

Conceivably it could populate a dropdown automatically, with a dropdown selection of the player's "last X rolls" is insertable at the post creation cursor like a private line. Or even simpler, don't try to determine which player is which, simply list the "last X rolls" from the die roller log and let any given player insert any given roll -- if they insert the wrong roll they will just try again.


Just some other ideas of random complexity:

When a user presses "roll die" and the result is populated, also stick that result into a specialized cookie with a timestamp. Then some mechanism on the post creation/edit screen can retrieve the most recent die result from the cookie file. This is kind of making the "copy + paste" handled in the background. Not sure what cookies can accomplish, maybe even represent all/most past rolls made by the user from a given machine and browser/session per game?

A link to open a "mini" dice roller window popup from the post creation/edit screen. Contains only the "manual" field, a description box, and a "roll" button perhaps, but when you 'roll' it inserts the results at your present cursor position on the post creation screen in addition to posting the result in the normal dice roller screen. Functionally a shaved-down dice roller screen. Will use whatever game-specific Game Setting/Special Dice setting the player's die roller is currently on (not sure if that's persistent -- cookie per game?)

Link to open up a full-sized dice roller screen in a popup (maybe the mobile site code would fit?). Same mechanism of pasting results in two places at once upon a roll.

EDIT: Oh, this wasn't Development section sorry.
This message was last edited by the user at 01:56, Sat 01 Mar 2014.

Couple of thoughts here jase ...

1) I think the decision to have dice roll results included in the game thread really needs to be at GM discretion, not just a player option, so this is one feature that I think requires a GM option to allow/disallow.  I'm thinking a few choices:

Posting of dice roll inserts:  |block   |V|
                               |as PLs  |
                               |public  |

2) very much a +1 to kouk's suggestion (lucky I read down before posting exactly the same) ... to an innocent bystander it would seem a lot easier simply to turn the proposed solution upside down and pull rather than push ... read the existing dice logs, same way the Rolls link currently does, with a link sitting with all the other bold, italics etc that displays a popup (like the multiple recipient PMs) showing that players dice rolls with checkboxes alongside prechecking today's rolls (and a clear button perhaps for good measure).

Yes, we've strayed into Development, but even though it's a new feature, it's still a solution for the original technical problem.  :>