Random sprint lengths

To have Sprinto pick how long the sprint runs, give a range, roll dice, or name one of the wheels:

/sprint options: random 15 to 20

/sprint options: roll 3d6

/sprint options: micro

The word random in front of a range, dice or a wheel name is optional. Each pair here does the same thing:

• /sprint options: random 10 to 20 or /sprint options: 10-20

• /sprint options: random micro or /sprint options: micro

• /sprint options: random 3d6 or /sprint options: 3d6

On its own, /sprint options: random spins the however long wheel.

“random x to y”#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

Give the shortest and longest sprint length you want, and Sprinto picks a length between them at random.

/sprint options: random 15 to 20

Synonyms

@Sprinto#2517 sprint random 15 to 20

/sprint options: for 15 to 20

/sprint options: for 15-20

/sprint options: 15 to 20

/sprint options: 15-20

/sprint options: roll 1d6 + 14

This starts a sprint of 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 or 20 minutes, each equally likely. The shortest form is /sprint options: 15-20 .

The possible lengths go up in steps. The size of the step depends on the two lengths you give:

Only the length is random. The sprint starts after the usual join window.

If the second number is a clock time, such as :30, nothing is random: the first number is the minute to start on, and the clock time is the end. 20 to :30 runs from :20 until :30. See “at” and “until”.

Dice#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: roll 3d6

Synonyms

/sprint options: 3d6

/sprint options: for 3d6

/sprint options: dice 3d6

/sprint options: random 3d6

@Sprinto#2517 sprint 3d6

roll 3d6 throws three six-sided dice and adds them up for a length in minutes: 3 to 18 minutes, most often 10 or 11. Lengths in the middle of the range come up more often than lengths at the ends. With random 3 to 18, every length from 3 to 18 minutes is equally likely.

Spaces around + and - are optional. Dice can only be added to a length: you can take minutes off a roll (3d6-2), but you can’t take a roll off a length, so 20 - 3d6 isn’t read as dice.

Limits: up to 100 dice, up to 1,000 sides on each die, and up to 12 parts added together (2d6 + d20 + 10 has three parts). Dice always count minutes.

If the dice come out longer than 60 minutes, Sprinto refuses the sprint, as it would a typed length. For example, 3d20+10 can roll anything from 13 to 70 minutes, and a roll over 60 gets this reply:

SprintoApp

Sorry, that sprint is too long. The maximum is 60 minutes. Adding please raises the limit a little.

Add please to allow rolls up to 2 hours.

Named wheels#

Each wheel is a list of sprint lengths. When you start the sprint, Sprinto picks one length from the wheel at random. A length listed twice on a wheel comes up twice as often.

Summary of random sprint wheels#

About two thirds of spins give a length in the Usually range.

For your own range, use random x to y, where every step between the two lengths is equally likely.

Burst sprint#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: burst

A random length from 35 seconds to 2½ minutes, usually around a minute and a half, with a short join window of 30 to 60 seconds.

To choose when the sprint starts, add in, as with any wheel:

Micro sprint#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: micro

Synonyms

@Sprinto#2517 sprint micro

/sprint options: random micro

/sprint options: μ

A random length from 1 to 6 minutes, most often 3 minutes, with a short join window of 50 to 90 seconds.

Flash sprint#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: flash

A random length from 2½ to 10½ minutes.

Not a long sprint#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: not long

Synonyms

/sprint options: nl

@Sprinto#2517 sprint nl

@Sprinto#2517 sprint not long

@Sprinto#2517 sprint for not long

A random length from 5 to 12 minutes.

But not for too long#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: not too long

/sprint options: ntl

A random length from 5 to 20 minutes.

Not too short#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: not too short

/sprint options: nts

A random length from 20 to 60 minutes, weighted toward the short end: just over half of spins are under 30 minutes, and about a quarter are 40 minutes or more.

However long#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: for however long

/sprint options: hel

More synonyms

/sprint options: surprise me

/sprint options: however long

@Sprinto#2517 sprint hel

@Sprinto#2517 sprint whatever

@Sprinto#2517 sprint random

@Sprinto#2517 sprint rng

@Sprinto#2517 sprint roll

@Sprinto#2517 sprint spin the wheel

The original Sprinto random sprint: usually 10½ to 25 minutes, with a 3% chance of 5, 5½ or 40 minutes instead.

On its own, each of these words spins the however long wheel: hel, however long, random, rng, rnd, rand, roll, dice, die, wheel, spin the wheel, surprise me and whatever. In front of a range, dice or another wheel, the word is optional: random micro is the same as micro.

These words start a sprint only inside a sprint command, such as /sprint random or @Sprinto sprint random. On its own, @Sprinto#2517 random is the dice command: it throws dice and starts no sprint. See Curious commands.

I don’t know how long#

duration Specifies how long the sprint will run. random Different results each use, depending on RNG.

/sprint options: idk

A random whole number of minutes from 1 to 60, with short sprints far more likely than long ones. A 1-minute sprint is 60 times as likely as a 60-minute sprint.

About a quarter of idk sprints are under 9 minutes, about half are under 18 minutes, and about a quarter are over 30 minutes.

If you give a length as well, such as /sprint options: idk 22 minutes , the sprint runs for that length.

Motivation and how the 'idk wheel' is weighted

The idk wheel is divided into 1,830 slices: 60 of them are 1 minute, 59 are 2 minutes, 58 are 3 minutes, and so on down to a single slice of 60 minutes. Each extra minute of length is a little less likely than the one before it.

The idea was that you spend longer in long sprints, so there should be fewer of them to make up for it. If every sprint length between 1 and 60 minutes were equally likely, then across many sprints you'd spend nearly all of your sprinting time in the long ones and very little in the short ones. Weighting the wheel toward short sprints is meant to even that out, so that at any given moment you're about as likely to be in a sprint of one length as another.

I'm no mathematician though, so the weighting doesn't balance this out exactly. If you have a better idea, send feedback:

/feedback text: I’m a mathematics professor at Brown University and I have an idea for improving and generalizing the sprint duration distributions of the IDK sprint wheel using a formula which takes account of…

When the length is picked#

Sprinto picks the length as soon as you send the command, before the join window opens. Its first message says how the length was picked:

The wheel names in this message are burst, micro, flash, not long, not too long, not too short, random (the however long wheel) and IDK. A single die, such as d20, shows as 1d20.

Rolling the same length twice#

A wheel or a dice roll gives a fresh length every time, including on a repeat. To keep the length that came up last time, use identical in place of again — see again and identical.

In a chain, add identical (or exact) to give every round that uses the same wheel the same random length. For example, nl x3 identical runs three rounds, all with one length picked from the not long wheel. See Sprint (all options).

See also#

• Sprint (all options) — every other /sprint option, including fixed lengths, start times, presets and flags
• Sprint (basics) — the short version of how to run a sprint
• Curious commands — @Sprinto#2517 roll throws dice without starting a sprint, using the same expressions