Making a character ยท the first step, and what follows it
The first screen asks one question: which class. Nothing else is on it, and anyone who does not know the answer has a way out that does not require knowing any of the words.
When a step resolves it does not scroll and it does not navigate. The answered step shrinks to a line and rides to the top, and the next step rises into the space it left. The middle panel plays that movement on a loop.
Step one
Which class
Twelve names and one button. No hit dice and no key ability, because nobody chooses a class by how much health it has, and a number printed on a card people cannot use yet is just noise. No name field either: naming is its own moment and it does not belong in front of the first real decision.
Between steps
The answered step rides up
plays on a loop
The class step does not disappear and it does not scroll away. It collapses to one line that keeps the answer visible with Change beside it, and the next step rises from underneath into the room that made. Going back is the same movement reversed, which is why the loop runs both ways.
Step two
Three ways in, named plainly. Roll Dice defaults to 4d6 drop lowest and hides every other variant behind a long press. Choosing a method replaces nothing: the page makes room and the dice arrive from above.
Before a method
Three ways, with their odds
| Average | Spread | Total bonus | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4d6 drop lowest | 12.2 | ±2.9 | +5.2 |
| Standard Array | 12.0 | ±2.4 | +5 |
| Point Buy | your call | – | +5 |
The tags read as words, so the row needs no legend. The numbers are real: 4d6 drop lowest averages a total bonus of +5.2 across six scores and the standard array is exactly +5, so rolling averages out to what the array hands you. That comparison is the useful one and it is not obvious.
Roll Dice chosen
The page makes room and the dice drop in
Nothing was replaced. The method row stays where it is, everything below it shifts down, and the die arrives from above into the space that opened. The die is the control: tap it for one score, or take all six at once. Six empty slots say how many are coming.
Rolled
Six numbers, waiting to be placed
The bank sits near the top, holds every number that was rolled, and dims the ones already spent. A rolled set is never sorted for you: 16 15 13 12 10 9 came out in that order, and placing them is the player's decision, which is the part of rolling people enjoy.
Seven ways to roll, with the odds worked out exactly by enumerating every outcome. Average is the mean of one score. Spread is one standard deviation. Total bonus is what the six scores come to in modifiers, which is the number that actually compares one method against another.
| Method | Average | Spread | An 18 | 8 or less | Total bonus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4d6 drop lowest the default | 12.24 | ±2.85 | 1.6% | 10.5% | +5.2 |
| 3d6 straight | 10.50 | ±2.96 | 0.5% | 25.9% | +0.0 |
| 3d6, reroll 1s once | 11.75 | ±2.56 | 0.7% | 10.7% | +3.8 |
| 2d6 + 6 | 13.00 | ±2.42 | 2.8% | 2.8% | +7.5 |
| 4d6 drop lowest, reroll 1s | 13.27 | ±2.43 | 2.5% | 3.1% | +8.3 |
| 5d6 drop two lowest | 13.43 | ±2.60 | 3.5% | 4.1% | +8.8 |
| 6d6 keep best three | 14.27 | ±2.36 | 6.2% | 1.6% | +11.4 |
| Standard Array | 12.00 | ±2.38 | never | one score | +5 |
Two things fall out of that table. The standard array is the average roll: 4d6 drop lowest comes to +5.2 in total bonus and the array is exactly +5, so the array is what rolling gives a player on a middling day. And 3d6 straight is a different game, averaging no bonus at all across six scores, with a quarter of every score landing on 8 or below.
Several of these suit a phone better than dice do. A pool method rolls twenty-four dice, drops the worst six, and lets a player build six scores from what is left. A grid method rolls thirty-six dice into a six-by-six square and lets a player take any row, column or diagonal in order. A card method deals a deck built to a chosen point total, so every character in the party is worth the same while none of them are alike. A table method has everyone roll, writes every set up where the group can see them, and lets each player claim any set that was rolled. And a paired method splits the six into a weak pair, an average pair and a strong pair, so a character comes out deliberately lopsided.
The bank works by tapping a number then an ability, because dragging on a phone fights the scroll. Six slots appear before anything is rolled so the count is visible from the start. The comparison card shows three numbers per method and leaves the rest behind the long press. Point Buy is drawn as 27 points, which is the common figure and not a ruling. The die is the app's d20 wearing the method's name; four dice might read better for a method that rolls four.