Dicenomicon
I’ve started using Dicenomicon, the granddaddy of the iPhone / iPod Touch applications, as recommended and reviewed by thebitterguy. It is very shiny indeed. The animations of the rolling dice, and the choice of visual customizations you can overlay on top of them, provide wee jolts of visual pleasure. Justin pinpointed its only sensory drawback: unlike several of its free competitors, it supplies no satisfying die-rolling noises.
I’ve been using it in the ongoing D&D game to get damage values, creating custom rolls so that modifiers are already factored in. Those who are faster than me with simple arithmetic may not find this a time-saver. I don’t use it for d20 rolls; they’re such a commonplace that it’s faster to pre-generate a whole page of them and cross them off as I go. (Among the many available choices, I use random.org to generate the numbers.) For damage, though, the program is faster than my fishing in the die pile for the right polyhedral.
You can designate any die roll you input into the program with a title, to enable you to quickly find them when needed. I started by using this function, assigning names like “Zombie Hulk Smash” and “Dire Wolf Bite.” In practice I found these hard to quickly access, and wound up erasing the titles. It’s easier to find items on it’s dial-like bookmarking function by ranking them as 1d4+2, 1d6+4, and so on.
I’ve also found it very convenient to get die results when sitting at the computer writing. Somehow reaching for the Touch and shaking it makes for less of a break in concentration than switching to another window on the monitor, whether that be a spreadsheet or browser window.
The program allows you to roll polyhedrals that can only exist in a virtual space, like d15s. It gives me a kick to see these imaginary shapes given the illusion of three-dimensional life. Whatever you do, though, please don’t show this feature to Lou Zocchi. It would be an act of technological cruelty.
I remember being at a GAMA trade show in the early nineties. Lou was called upon to deliver some remarks to the assembled banquet diners. After dispensing with GAMA-related business and mentioning the crucial importance of wargaming to American military readiness, he inserted a snippet of Gamescience news into the proceedings. After years of effort, he announced, he had finally perfected a d32. The grand master of die manufacturing then allowed that he would be very grateful if some enterprising RPG designer would now find a use for a d32 in a future product.