NAME
rolldice - rolls virtual dice
SYNOPSIS
rolldice [ options ] dice_string dice_string ...
DESCRIPTION
rolldice rolls virtual dice. The dice strings passed on the command
line contain information on the dice to roll in a format comparable to
the format used in fantasy role playing games.
OPTIONS
-h,--help
returns the usage of diceroll
-v,--version
returns the version of diceroll
-r,--random
uses /dev/random for random number generating
-u,--urandom
uses /dev/urandom for random number generating (default)
-s,--separate
prints out the result of each individual die separately,
as well as the operations and totals
DICE STRING FORMAT
The dice string uses the following format:
{#x}{#}d[#|%]{*#}{+/-#}{s#}
The dice string doesn’t have to be in the format that I outlined above,
but this is the nicest order for me. It will try to parse any
different string containing the same sections in the best way it can,
and will throw out anything that isn’t one of the sections below.
{#}d[#|%]
This is the only required part of the string, and now
really isn’t even required, as it defaults to 1d6 if not
found. The first number is the number of dice to roll,
and the second number is the number of sides the dice
have. The numbers rolled on each die are then added up
and given as the result. Hence 3d6 means "roll three
six-sided dice, add them together and return the result".
If the first number is left out, then the number of dice
defaults to 1. If the second number is not a number, but
a percentage sign, then the number of sides becomes 100
(for a percentage roll).
{#x} This number tells how many times to roll. For example,
if you want to roll 3 6-sided dice 6 times, you would say
6x3d6. This would return six numbers, corresponding to
the six different rolls.
{*#} This number tells how many times to multiply the result
of each roll. 3d6*100 would return a number in the range
of 300-1800, since 3-18 is the range resulting from 3d6,
which is then multipled by 100.
{+/-#} This number is the modifier to be added or subtracted,
depending on the sign, from each roll. 1d4+1 would
result in a range from 2-5 (1-4 for the die, plus 1).
This step is handled *after* the multiplication modifier.
{s#} This number tells the program to drop the # lowest dice
rolls. This step is handled *before* the multiplication
modifier.
in the order show above. For an extreme example, "3x4d6*5+1s2" would
roll four six-sided dice, drop the lowest two, multiply the result by
5, add 1 to that, and repeat the process two more times, for a total of
three results.
DIAGNOSTICS
The following error messages may appear on STDERR:
Failure in getting dice attributes
Either memory could not be allocated while parsing the string
passed to the rolldice program or an invalid dice string was
entered.
Failure in rolling dice
Memory could not be allocated while actually rolling the dice.
Unknown option
Take a wild guess ;)
BUGS
I haven’t noticed any yet... rolldice is a quick hack to provide a
virtual dice roller for FRPGs that I play. Any improvements are
greatly welcome, as I am not the most experienced C coder...
AUTHOR
Stevie Strickland <sstrickl@cc.gatech.edu>
VERSION
1.10 - 25 Nov 2001