Dice generator

How it works

A physical die is a solid with numbered faces. A generator on a page is a draw from the same set of integers. A six-sider returns one of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6. A twenty-sider returns one of 1 through 20. A four-sider, eight-sider, ten-sider, and twelve-sider are the rest of the usual tabletop set. Two ten-siders can stand in for a hundred-sided percentile roll: one die for the tens, one for the units, with a house rule for the double-zero face. The page is not plastic. It is the range and the fairness rule.

Fairness here means each legal face has the same chance on a given roll. It does not mean a short session will look “spread out.” Clumps happen. Three 2s in a handful can still be a uniform generator. A tool that secretly avoids the last face so the table “looks fair” is no longer a die. It is a mixer with a memory. If you need each face once, shuffle the faces and deal them. Say which job you wanted before you argue about luck.

Independent rolls may repeat. That is the same rule as a real die left on the table. If the group needs a record, keep the die, the count, and the result together: “d20, one roll, 17.” “We used a generator” is not a record. The next person cannot replay a missing face.

Which die the table actually asked for

Name the die before the roll. A damage roll on a cube is not a check on a twenty-sider. A generator that defaults to 1–6 will quietly wreck a game that needed 1–20 if nobody looks at the control. Several dice at once are several independent draws, then a sum if the rules say to sum them. “2d6” is two cubes added. It is not one twelve-sider. The middle totals on two cubes show up more often than the ends. A twelve-sider does not behave that way. Do not swap them to save a click.

d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20: the usual polyhedral set. More than one die: independent faces, then add only if the rule says add. Percentile: two tens-faces with the group’s zero rule, not a silent 1–100 unless you agreed to that.

Advantage or a reroll: a second draw plus a rule for which face you keep, not a generator that “feels nicer.” A physical die can be poorly made. A generator can be poorly made too: a bad shuffle, a default range, a hidden “no repeats” switch. Check the control. If 20 never appears on a twenty-sider across a long night, look at the maximum before you blame the table’s luck. Inclusive ends are the ordinary reading. A twenty-sider that cannot show 20 is a nineteen-sider with extra paint.

Play, not cryptography

A dice generator is for play, a board game, a classroom picker, or a light way to choose who goes first. It is the wrong instrument for a secret key or a lottery that needs an audited draw. Pseudorandom is enough when the players cannot predict the next face by watching you. It is not a certificate. If the campaign needs a physical die for the ritual of the roll, use the plastic. The generator is a substitute when the bag is in another room, not a personality.

A die that never shows its high face is a smaller die. Paint will not restore the missing side. House rules belong next to the generator, not inside a vague hope. Agree whether a 1 is a fumble, whether a 20 is a crit, whether you reroll a die that hits the floor — or, on a page, whether you reroll a draw you simply disliked. Disliking a 1 is not a reroll rule unless the table said it was. Click once. Read the face. Play the face.