Re: Dice Coding
So, when you have some spare time; I'm running into a small but nagging issue setting up character sheets for an Earthdawn game with the [dice=] code.
I have to put in a d-something die code to set it up, but then using the system= code essentially pre-empts that - for Earthdawn, you have to do a "Target=" with the Step Number, and it uses that instead of the dice input, as it normally would. And I'm perfectly happy with it saying, "Roll d10", say, rather than "Roll Step 6", because, well, it is a d10, so that's fair enough.
But, if I'm at one of the Steps where it rolls different dice, I can't put that in accurately. Eg., Step 10 is a d10,d6 roll. If I say [dice=d10,d6 system=earth target=10], it fills the d10,d6 into the Manual dice field, and I get the "Do not use multiple dice (comma separated) when using a game system" error, and can't roll.
Now, clearly, yes, I can just leave it with [dice=d10 etc], and since the System/Target supersedes the dice box, it will roll accurately - but it also means the character sheet is going to say "Roll d10". And ignoring my OCD tendencies, as a GM, I am worried that's going to throw off the players - whether in the sense of leaving them thinking the link won't roll the right dice, or, for those newer to the system, confusing them as to which dice are even being rolled. I can also see it affecting other systems - I don't know what all of those are, or how a lot of them work, but having to say, for example, "Roll d5" when you mean "Draw 5 Cards" could be awkward.
In terms of solutions...um. I think the simplest might actually be that "text=" that Mortuis suggested. Then people using a system could just throw out a dice=d1 to set up the code, and override it with text="Step 10" (or even text="Roll d10,d6"), or text="Draw 5" or, indeed, text="Haaiii-yah!".
A more thorough solution would have to allow system= to take the place of dice=, but then I think you're going to end up having to do a whole slew of system-specific codings - making it so if system=earth, then the text comes out as "Step {target}", and if system=deck52, it says "Draw {target}", etc, and I have no idea how much of that is going to be required or if it will end up making you regret ever even thinking about the feature the way Cruinne hates quoting. Since this would have future ramifications, too, needing to be thought about whenever you add a new system to the DR and maybe want to think about adding it to the dice= coding also... to say nothing of the added complexity in the instructions.... I think the simpler solution is probably better. It requires a little more thought/effort/familiarity on the part of whoever's putting it in, but frankly, I think this feature is aimed at people who are doing that anyway. It just doesn't seem like one of your basic first-day-user features to me. grin
So in the end, I think this post is mostly a vote in favor of adding Text= to the options, and giving a practical reason for it, too!
Or, you know, there might be something I'm not thinking of, of course. Like telling Utsukushi to sit down and say thank you.
