In reply to Alyse (msg # 1):
No takers on this?
Incidentally, 4d3-8 has the same distribution of results as 4dF, if that helps any.
http://rumkin.com/reference/dnd/diestats.php
is a useful reference for checking out dieroll statistics.
The challenge in emulating a deck of cards with a roll of dice is that pulling from a deck usually implies
sampling without replacement. (If cards drawn are shuffled back into the deck before each succeeding draw, then that does not apply.)
If
sampling without replacement is desired in this particular case, the best way to go is to make an array holding the 81 total possible results (ranging in this case the over the integer values from -4 to +4) as separate values, and just roll a d81, looking up the result.
This array could even include both the numerical result and the separate values for the faces of each die rolled (or symbols that would represent them).
Keep a log of successive d81 dierolls, excluding duplicate results by comparison to all previous dierolls, and re-rolling until the roll does not match any previous ones.
Seems like this would be simple enough to do in php, javascript, or C. The trick would be integrating it into RPoL.
Huh. There are Android and iPhone apps for this deck!