Excel noice seeking advice: Input and Output?

Giant nerd speaking here. If you can understand my name, you probably already knew that but that's okay!

I have been playing a game with friends call Earthdawn. It's kind of like DnD but uses much more dice. In it, everything is determined by what step dice you roll. IE, Step 7 d12, Step 8 2d6. For other table top games, I have used Excel extensively for adding up the multitude of numbers that go hand in hand with uber nerd games. However, I am kind of lost on trying to do something a little different. I believe it is possible to have a field to get certain characters (numbers / letters) based on a number in a different field.

I mean like this: When A1 has the number 7 in it, d12 appears in the A2 field. 8 in B1 makes 2d6 in B2. 12 in C1 yields 2d10 C2, and so on and so forth. The game can get incredibly complex in regards to what dice to use based on different modifiers like magic and situational modifiers. Because of this, I would love being able to make an Excel sheet that could calculate this difference. I believe it is called something like a reference sheet or something, where I can program Input and Output? Any help would be appreciated.

Cheers.
-Eddie

In Sheet2 you can use column A t list the number values (7, 8, 12 etc) and column B to list the appropriate text values that they get converted into (d12, 2d6, 2d10 etc). Then in A2 of Sheet1 you can use this formula:

=VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!$A:$B,2,0)

Hope this helps.

Pete

All that does is give me the number 0. I am probably doing something wrong

Here is what I am attempting to do, in a little more detail:

Lets say we have Sheet 1 Columns D and E and rows 18-22. I would like to be able to put a number in D18 (say, 9) and have it show a 2d6 in E18. If I change the number to 10, it would change to 1d8 1d6, etc. On Sheet 2, I created A1-A20 and B1-B20. The A Column has the Input numbers while the B Column has the Output (the dice to roll). I think I created the sheet correctly but the =VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!$A:$B,2,0) only seems to give me a zero. When I type in the cell, it removes the formula.

I just noticed that I misspelled novice. I am not a Excel "noice", I'm a Novice. =-)

Thanks for the help and the patience Pete.

What you describe seems to be right and the formula is almost right - I had assumed that the number was in A1, but you now say that it is in D18. So, type the formula in E18 and change the A1 to D18. You can then copy it down to E22 to convert any numbers that are in D19:D22.

Hope this helps.

Pete

Goodness gracious, 8 minute reply time!
And yup, that's exactly what I wanted. You, good sir, are awesome.

Cheers.
-Eddie