Certain type of dice roll are very popular and are reused in many games. For example:
- Axis and Allies: roll 1 die per unit it's TN
- Columbia games: roll X dice per number of step vs TN in letter order
- Dungeons and dragons: roll d20 + modifiers vs TN
- White wolf RPG: roll X dices vs TN Y, where you need Z successes.
Besides calling those mechanics by referring to the original game that introduced them, is there an official way to name those die rolls?
I think in math, there is the binomial distribution that is like the white wolf RPG rolling system. That could be a form of "official naming" without referring to the game using it.
The motivation is quite simple, I was thinking in making a code library that would contains all common mechanics to accelerate development and make sure the results are logged and unit tested.
That would imply having data structures or functions which will hold the name of the rolling concepts. Having a function name called:
bool roll_XdW_greater_than_Y_where_nb_success_greater_than_Z ( int w,int x, int y, int z);
Might be ambiguous and too long. Else I was thinking of using a structure where you have different parameters on the roll behavior you can setup. When you roll the dices, you give the structure to the function and it makes the roll for you.