third – That’s How I Roll Dice
— A dice roller for roleplaying nerds, by Brendan Jurd
| Android app |  |
| Download for linux | third.tar.bz2, bzipped tarball, 28kB |
| Download for windows | third-win32-installer.exe, Inno Setup installer executable, 7.5MB |
| Source code | direvus/third on github |
Premise
Rolling dice is annoying. First you need to have the right dice with you. Then, when the time comes to make a roll, you need to extract the correct quantity and variety of dice from the assortment scattered around the room. After rolling (and picking up those dice which fell on the floor, and re-rolling them) you need to perform some tedious mental arithmetic.
Further, the kinds of dice you can use are constrained by physical attributes; to produce fair outcomes a die must be possible to construct using some face-uniform solid.
Faced with these obstacles, I did the same thing I do in pretty much every other situation in life. I wrote a program.
Usage
Each of the icons running down the middle of the application represents a different die, with the number of sides shown on the icon. The input box next to the die selects how many of that die you want to roll.
Directly underneath the dice is the custom die. Want to roll a d17 or a d1000? No problem. Just set the number of sides you want the die to have, and how many of them you want to roll.
Underneath the custom die are the multiplier (x) and modifier (+) inputs. After your dice are rolled, the total is multiplied by the multiplier and then the modifier is added (or subtracted, if it is negative).
You can set the number of dice to roll by using the up and down arrows on the spinner widget, or type in the desired number, or by clicking on the dice icon. Clicks on the dice icon have the following effects:
| Click | Shift-click | |
|---|---|---|
| Left-click | Add 1 | Add 5 |
| Right-click | Subtract 1 | Subtract 5 |
When you’ve set things up to your liking, hit the “Roll” button. The results of your roll will be shown in the results box to the right, including each individual dice roll and the total result after applying modifiers.
You can repeatedly roll the same configuration by simply hitting “Roll” again.
If you are sick of your current configuration and want to start again from scratch, that’s what the “Reset” button is for.
Presets
If you find yourself rolling a particular configuration of dice often, you might want to save it as a preset. Set up the configuration as if you were going to roll it, and then hit the Add Preset (+) button underneath the Presets list. This will save your current configuration as a new preset.
Once you’ve saved a preset you can load its configuration by clicking on it once, and roll it by double-clicking.
Profiles
Presets are saved under a profile. You can maintain several separate profiles, so you don’t need to worry about getting your wizard’s attack roll confused with your rogue’s initiative. Just set up a profile for each of your characters.
Installation (Linux)
Download the distribution package third.tar.bz2. Extract the package, cd into the directory and then type make install.
Execute the application by running /usr/local/bin/third.py.
To uninstall, just delete the installed files. These are located at /usr/local/bin/third.py, /usr/local/share/third and /usr/local/share/doc/third.
Installation (Windows)
Download the executable installer third-win32-installer.exe and run it.
Execute the application by running third.exe in whatever location you installed it, or use the Start menu/Quick-launch shortcuts if you chose to create them in the install process.
To uninstall, use the provided uninstall executable in the third Start menu folder.
Distribution
third is open-source, licensed under the Simplified BSD license. A copy of this license can be found in the file named LICENSE in the topmost directory of the source code.