Karmic dice, the raw d20 and the check: a note for DMs
Karmic dice in BardRoll is off by default. A player can turn it on: after 3 dull songs in a row, a raw 9 or lower, the next straight roll takes a second draw and keeps the higher, and the sheet says so. Every face stays possible. The band follows the raw D&D d20, and the check stays yours.
Raw d20
Band: Solid
10 + 5 = 15
The dice owed you one
Can a modifier change which song plays?
No. The band is read from the raw face of the die and nothing else; the modifier is added afterwards to make the check total. A 10 with +5 is a Solid song and a check of 15. The roll sheet shows the raw face large and the sum beneath it as plain arithmetic, so you can check it against your numbers at a glance.
What are karmic dice, and are they fair?
Karmic dice is an optional setting, adapted from video games that weight their dice after a bad run. BardRoll's version is off by default and never silent. It counts dull songs, a raw 9 or lower, and after 3 in a row the next straight roll draws twice and keeps the higher face. It is a second draw, not a floor, so a natural 1 can still come up.
When it fires, the roll sheet says so on the line under the spell name, once the die has landed. It never touches a roll made with advantage or disadvantage, because those are the odds someone at the table asked for.
Does the app know the DC?
No. BardRoll never sees a DC, an armour class or the result of a saving throw. It shows the raw die and the total, and whether the check succeeds is your call, as it would be with a physical die. Concentration saves stay at the table too: the app records which spell a bard is holding and never ends it on damage by itself.
What does the performance add at the table?
A few seconds of music and one line that tells everyone how the roll went, before anyone reads the numbers. The line is the same for every spell in that band, and the melody comes from the bard's phone. It never replaces the check: a Rousing song can still miss.
Questions
- Can I see the roll the app made?
- Yes. The roll sheet shows the raw face of the d20 in large type and the check total as plain arithmetic beneath it, with both dice shown when the roll has advantage or disadvantage. When a player has turned karmic dice on and it fires, the same sheet says so under the spell name.
- Does BardRoll replace the DM's rulings?
- No. It holds a bard's own resources and rolls the bard's d20, and that is all. Targets, DCs, saving throws and whether a spell's effect lands stay with the DM, and the app never guesses at any of them. A performance is flavour on top of a roll the table already knows how to read.