About Dice Man

This app was inspired by the 1971 novel by American novelist George Cockcroft (written under the pen name "Luke Rhinehart").
See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dice_Man.

Throughout the book, the protagonist (Luke Rhinehart) increasingly leaves decisions about his life up to chance by the roll of the dice.  This is done by assigning an action or a decision to each number of the dice and then following through with whatever the dice "decides".  Although, he does admit that he has complete free will over the options he assigns to the numbers, but the rest is left up to chance.

Ways of playing the game

This app allows the player to choose from a number of different ways in which to use dice to make decisions for them.

It should be noted that this is a game and, unlike our anti-hero in the novel, it should not be taken seriously.  However, the roll of dice can be used to make absolutely any decision, from the trivial and mundane, to the truly life altering decisions.  It is entirely up to the player to decide what decisions they want the dice to make for them.

We have probably all been in the situation where you are at lunch, but no matter how hard you try, you are unable to decide between the steak and the fish.  For those of us who have tried it, it is somewhat surprising that flipping a coin to decide for you can genuinely help the more decision challenged among us.  By assigning one dish to each side of the coin, the odious task of actually having to make a real life decision is magically taken out of your hands.  But, of course, it is up to the player as to whether they strictly follow the "advise" of the coin toss, or just use it as a suggestion and to help them out of a decision deadlock.  For example, it could be that the coin doesn't fall the way you were hoping it to.  But you didn't know that until the coin landed the "wrong way".  That is a totally acceptable way to play the "game".  It is entirely up to the player.

So, with that being said, here are some suggestions on different ways of playing.  Use one of these suggestions or come up with your own.

Basic

A game that just provides a simple die (or set of dice).  Simply assign a decision to each number and take your chances.  Or this game can also be used if you have a group of people and you need to draw straws.  Just assign a number to each person in the group and roll the dice.  Alternatively, if you're playing Monopoly, Yahtzee, or any other game that requires dice and you don't have any handy, then this is what you're looking for.

Odds and Evens

Simulate the toss of a coin using dice.  In this game you can simply assign odd dice numbers to one option and even numbers to another.  Handy for when you don't have a spare coin to toss.

Tri-state

Similar to Odds and Evens, but for those times when you have three competing options.  In this game you can assign each possible outcome to two faces of a dice, instead of to three.

Best of 𝑛

Are you not comfortable leaving your destiny to one roll of the dice?  Not a problem.  Make it a "best of three" competition".  Or, if you're still not comfortable with that, perhaps make it "best of five".  Or, best of however many attempts you care to imagine.  Perfect for the procrastinators amongst us.  And if there is no clear winner after the specified number of rolls then you just keep rolling until there is a winning number.

First to 𝑛

Similar to Best of 𝑛, but in this case 𝑛 refers to how many times a number should win before declaring any results as the overall winner.

Weighted results

Perhaps you don't want all options to have an equal change of winning.

use dice to make decisions for them.

In fact, Luke Rhinehart used this technique with his very first experimentation with the dice.

He only assigned a single potential outcome to only one face of the dice, therefore giving him a one in six chance of that being chosen.

Or, if you want a one in three chance of something being chosen, you can assign an option to two faces of the dice.

Other combinations can be used to obtain other weightings.

Don't see a variation here that appeals to you?  Then make up your own rules.

Bonne chance!

Disclaimer

The developer takes absolutely no responsibility whatsoever for any decisions taken as a result of using this app.