Roll Dice buttons

[robust haven]

i love maptool, its robust and simple, the one thing I really wish it had was a simple built in "press a button and roll dice" bar. Maybe you could right click on the dice, so if you want to roll 3d6, you right click 3 times, then left click and boom, the dice appear in the chat window. doesn't need to be 3d dice like foundry or w/e, could be static 2d images in the chat window. They' attribute to the player whole rolled them.

I realize lots of extensions and addons and custom macros are doing this sort of thing, but some barebones built in functionality would be great.

[quick peak]

I get what you're saying, and I was wishing for a D&D Beyond style dice rolling feature, which there is one that you can drop in to your campaign. But then I realized all my players still preferred to roll physical dice. But if you already have the chat window open, typing /r3d6 is probably just as fast as clicking an icon 3 times and then hitting a roll button.

[robust haven]

i find those commands a bit underwhelming, like they add them all up, which maybe you want, maybe you dont

like, i want to see dice faces personally. because sometimes you aren't trying to sum the result, maybe you need to take highest or something

but like, a VTT is meant to simulate a real tabletop. having easily accesible, readable, dice... seems like a core function?

[robust haven]

interestingly, even you got the syntax wrong. need a space between the /r and 3d6

/r 3d6

so yeah, just clicking a few buttons is a lot simpler and more intuitive

most of the interface is point and click, i don't want to move to keyboard for every dice roll

[quick peak]

And I don't think the library drop-in I was thinking of shows individual dice results, either... Just the total. Hmm.

[robust haven]

https://www.d20srd.org/extras/d20dicebag/ for ages i was just using this

[quick peak]

I made super-quick and easy macros for all the "normal" dice rolls and just have them on my "Global" panel. So I have like different colored buttons for 1d4, 1d6, d18, 1d10, 1d12, 1d20, 1d100, and a coin toss button. But you would have to click them multiple times to get what you want, but they DO show the result of each dice, because it rolls just one with each click.

[robust haven]

and some of my players were rolling physical dice, but a lot of my players have since grown very pleased with dnd beyond and foundries dice stuff, the 3d animated dice, don't blame them. But i think the 3d part is surely unnecessart

[robust haven]

this is what i did for the last thing i ran in map tools, a game of FIST, which has only d6 rolls of a few types, so i coded up a macro thing for my players. But the text display was sitll kinda bad.

[quick peak]

I know JMR made a pretty comprehensive dice roller plug-in that does lots of stuff. I bet it can do what you are looking for.

[robust haven]

have a link?

[quick peak]

let me see if I can find it real quick

[robust haven]

but really, the devs should take whatever the best current dice tool plugin is and roll it into a core feature

[quick peak]

https://discord.com/channels/296230822262865920/1329828404047908935

[robust haven]

like if you were to make a list of core features for a VTT, Dice Rolling is surely a top 10, no?

[quick peak]

Agreed. I think that's why most functions/commands in MapTool are actually called "roll options." And I believe there is even a tutorial that walks you through creating macros using images of dice in a table that are part of the standard install.

[robust haven]

bookmarked that github... maybe i'll look into. But really... being linked to a github... is this not just making clear the situation is bad?

like imagine asking "i want to move a token" and being linked toa github

[quick peak]

I think most the addins are linked to githubs. Not sure if that's the case for other VTTs.

[robust haven]

right, dice rolling should not be add in, should be core feature. If people need complex dice stuff, go to add-ins. but basic functionality should be a core feature

[quick peak]

I think you'll find that the community is pretty active on Discord, though, so if you're trying to implement a feature, you should get some responses pretty quickly.

[quick peak]

I agree it's a good suggestion, though.

[robust haven]

give it an upvote then haha

like i realize im asking for someone to take time to do work for free, that this is community freeware and everything, don't mean to be too picky/ungrateful or anything. Amazing maptool is as good as it is, and for many years, it was surely the best around.

[quick plume]

Rumbles "dice box" was one of the early add-ons that MT had. Much better options have been provided since. MT has always leaned more towards people adding or building their own features rather than add a lot of bloat. @fluid vine s dice tool is pretty comprehensive... but if you just want a basic box the rumble box should suffice.
Link to the original dicebox (don't use that version though): https://forums.rptools.net/viewtopic.php?t=7819
Link to a newer version of it (try this one): https://app.box.com/s/h0wvkd4qz3iesfpizngq

This looks pretty new, too: #1210642652270305342 message

And this: #1045063846877999155 message

[quick peak]

The drop-in table and token that Full Bleed posted should do what you want. If you hover over the roll result in the chat, it will show you actual dice images of what each one rolled.

[robust haven]

alright, i'll look into these. But it seems 100% absurd that "adding dice rolling" would be considered bloat.

[quick plume]

I labelled it "bloat" because a "basic" dice roller has extremely limited usage for an app designed to appeal to so many different systems. In fact, MT might have native support for more systems than any other VTT out there--you just have to use basic macroscript to tap into it (which I agree is not for everyone). And while, clearly, there is demand for something basic given the number of drop-in rollers that have been made over the years, if only a small percentage of users end up using it, that's the definition of "bloat".

That said, I've always wanted MT to have in-app links to some drop-ins so people could more easily get them into their games (even if it was via something like the "Add Resource to Library"). If you could go to a section that said "Rollers" and have easy access to all the rollers I mentioned above, with an easy download, I think it would be much better for new users.

Taking a deeper dive, I think one of the reasons MT doesn't have much in the way of a UI dice roller is because "in the beginning" there was a sister tool called (you might have guessed) "Dice Tool". https://www.rptools.net/toolbox/archived-tools/ And I think there was some early resistance for MT to do things that the various sister tools already did "better" when there were so many other things it was building out... and I also vaguely remember lofty plans for integration of the various tools that just never manifested. Eventually, MT's capabilities superseded the abilities of the other tools and they fell to the wayside... but, for better or worse, most of that functionality came in via macroscript (and dropins), not shiny integrated UI elements.

[leaden hull]

MapTool is meant to be a tool box. You don’t see carpenters walking around with a finished cabinet in their back pocket, just a few tools in a tool box. Ditto for MT.

Please take a look at the dice expressions supported by MT on our wiki. Then layout a GUI panel that would encompass them all. Post it here and you may get more upvotes if it’s not too cluttered or unwieldy. 😇

[robust haven]

far beyond me, sorry if I seem pushy or demanding. I managed to setup some macros last time I used maptools. I will look into some of these existing plugins.

[quick plume]

Of the four mentioned, try them out and weigh-in on which one you like best.