Dice pools (faces still separate)

At the table

Some rules care about each die—the highest die in the pool, how many dice show a 1, whether any die crits—not only the sum. You need several dice rolled together but not added until you choose to.

Try it

Copy the script into the playground editor and click Run.

The script

↗output("pool_sum", dice_pool(3, 6).sum())
output("notation_sum", 3d6)
output("highest_die", dice_pool(4, 6).order_stat(1))

• dice_pool(3, 6) is three fair d6 kept separate until you call .sum().
• 3d6 notation sums automatically—the distribution of pool_sum and notation_sum matches.
• order_stat(1) is the highest die in the pool (k = 2 would be second-highest). Games like Blades in the Dark start from this idea.

Reading the result

pool_sum and notation_sum have the same mean (10.5). highest_die is a single-die-style table: how often the best of four d6 shows each face.

Try this

• Compare dice_pool(2, 6).sum() to 2d6 from lesson 2.
• Try order_stat(2) on dice_pool(3, 6) for “second highest of three.”

More pool recipes: cookbook index. Conventions: API conventions.

pool_sum · DieRoll · mean 10.500

notation_sum · DieRoll · mean 10.500

highest_die · DieRoll · mean 5.245