OK, this is not a thread suggesting the rollout of the formula parser. (Though I think that's far overdue.) This is the idea of having a random number generator that can be accessed through a specific command in the comments on a story. So, for example, you could roll a number between 1 and 100 by typing in "/Roll 1d100". This is the one thing that I really miss from my stay in Anon Land...
A very good suggestion there, and it kind of raises the question; how did game mode get developed without the idea of a random number function coming up?
This suggestion is not about game mode. It would only allow you to roll a dice within a chapter, saving the result as part of your comment. So I suppose it's rather meant for some kind of online RPG. Random numbers for game mode are not that useful if you can't compare them with other numbers. So the next step should be to allow calculations with more than one variable. After adding the "=" operators, I started to work on something to do that, including an RNG. This thing called "formula parser" is still in review. It should keep the basic functions easy but allow more complex calculations for advanced users.
This idea is mostly intended for "Quest" stories, for which it is nearly impossible to run on anything but GM fiat without it.
Ahh, I obviously didn't read the original post closely enough and missed it was for comments. I'd kind of assumed that it was for gamemode and would be integrated into the 'score'/variable comparisons that already exist. So, why do you need random numbers in comments?
We might not need it, or at least would have a workaround if the formula parser were implemented: but here's the basic idea... Say you are writing a [QUEST] story: One of those stories where at the end of every chapter you offer the readers a series of options to vote on that decide how the story advances from there. Now you want the story to have the chance of failures and setbacks, but don't want them to happen only when you chose to put one in, you want a randomness factor to it... By adding a dice roller that's accessible in the comments the readers can provide you with random numbers which not only give you the randomness factor you're looking for, but make them feel the story is more in their hands... Does that make sense now?
Well, they would do different things... Formula Parser would create dynamic random numbers (they are different for each reader) The above described would create static numbers which would just be part of the text (each reader would see the same number after creating the random number once) I guess, I'd rather roll a D20 in front of my keyboard (or use a random number from a calc sheet) and would hope that my readers trust me that I only rolled once
That's the workaround: the players would read that number and post in the comments what it came up as. If you make a very complicated weighted system that is not revealed to the players for turning those submissions into final results they can't cheat, but still feel more involved...
Would rolling the number automatically become a comment or could they roll the dice multiple times before they felt comfortable with a number before commenting. Would they have to write a second comment if they wanted to talk about something or not?
That's for Friedman to answer, not me: but if I had the doing of it, it would be you must publish the comment to make the roll go through and they could be integrated into normal comments.
forces more comments makes sense. If you want to play the game you need to comment every single time the roll of dice is in a chapter.
No, that's not quite what I'm saying actually: your comment can be nothing but a roll: Is perfectly valid here. But, more to the point, so is: or Savvy?
