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Does anyone use hidden die rolls?


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If I understood your question, does anyone make hidden rolls on behalf of the player. I’ve honestly never even heard of this.

 

When I need to keep someone in the dark regarding success or failure, I ask for the roll without providing a target number. 

 

Oh. I use the alternative Target Number system, so every roll the players make is actually an “attack roll.” That’s just a me thing, because I found the whole “11 unless” system didn’t really work for me. Works for the vast majority of people, but I needed something more dynamic. So my solution was to toss the entire system and switch over to a bunch of fringe mechanics.

 

IOW: I didn’t like the ice cream at the corner store, so I moved across the country to live next to a craft creamery.

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On 1/4/2021 at 7:52 AM, Greywind said:

 

Don't forget to smile and shake your head at the result.

 

Amusingly, I do the complete opposite; I make all my rolls on the table because I’m too prone to altering the outcome; I’ve found that having the result be public out of the gate to be sufficiently terrifying, and having done it that way for so long I wouldn’t go back. One of my players was on a streak, slinging his powers, attacks bouncing off, he got brave, and hard charged a boss.

 

I rolled a 3 to hit — with a power that I legitimately unknowingly exploited his weakness. In the game in question, everyone always has at least one fundamental vulnerability; Slash, Pierce, Bash, Fire, Electric, Cold, etc. In that case I think the power was electric and ... he went negative stun and negative BODY. They dragged him out of that dungeon on a make shift stretcher.

 

Took him 2 weeks to recover from his wounds. Or as we say in the lingo, “He got rekt.”

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 1/15/2021 at 12:34 PM, Thia Halmades said:

If I understood your question, does anyone make hidden rolls on behalf of the player.

 

The opposite, actually: allowing players to make the rolls themselves, but keeping the results hidden (like in a covered box or a shaker or something). The idea is that if they roll a 9 on their Stealth Skill, they have a pretty good expectation of it having worked. If they roll a 16, they'll know it probably didn't. But if they roll a ?, it opens up for a lot of role playing possibilities. Did they hear me sneak into the room behind them? Do I keep hiding for a moment to be sure? Do I go ahead assume surprise and line up an attack? Can I take extra time to take aim without them noticing? That sort of thing. 

 

It was just an idea I'd been playing with in my head, and wondered if anyone had any experience with this sort of thing. 

 

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2 hours ago, Brian Stanfield said:

 

The opposite, actually: allowing players to make the rolls themselves, but keeping the results hidden (like in a covered box or a shaker or something). The idea is that if they roll a 9 on their Stealth Skill, they have a pretty good expectation of it having worked. If they roll a 16, they'll know it probably didn't. But if they roll a ?, it opens up for a lot of role playing possibilities. Did they hear me sneak into the room behind them? Do I keep hiding for a moment to be sure? Do I go ahead assume surprise and line up an attack? Can I take extra time to take aim without them noticing? That sort of thing. 

 

It was just an idea I'd been playing with in my head, and wondered if anyone had any experience with this sort of thing. 

 

   Generally in game play you know when something is going badly. When you blow your stealth roll you can hear the leaves crunching underfoot or your shoes squeak in the hallway. Screwing the pooch on your lockpick roll?  You can feel the tumblers sticking. 
  But when rolling against the players about things like “Did the guards hear that?” the character should have no out of game info until the stuff either hits the fan or doesn’t. And he shouldn’t be able to look over at the GM’s dice and know in advance what’s about to happen.

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I'm actually amazed at this entire thread.

 

The real question can only be based on type of game.  If the RPG you are playing is a straight forward hackfest, there is little need for secrecy.  On the other hand if the game is investigative or a mystery, secrecy is vital.

 

But all that is actually irrelevant.

The true issue here is that some players have had a bad experience in the past and have painted everyone because of that.

 

For me personally, if I decide a game I am running needs secrecy because it revolves around the unknown, then I will make rolls in secret.  What player that has issues with it is really saying is "you are an untrustworthy liar" based on an event I have nothingto do with.  That is their problem not mine and they should seek out another GM.

 

I love to run and I have yet to disappoint anyone as far as I know.  I am upfront with my games and find it far better to walk away from false expectations. A GM is not there to cater to people with unresolved trust issues, and I for one don't appreciate being called a liar at my table. 

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On 1/28/2021 at 4:06 PM, Thia Halmades said:

nope.

 

Still lost.

 

I’ll try again: so they roll dice behind a screen and don’t see their own results?


Something like that. Players like to roll dice because it makes them feel like they have control over their own fate. But sometimes you don’t want them to know the result. My guess was to use a box and let them shake it or something like that. Behind a screen works too. Mostly I was just curious if anyone has ever used a particular approach to doing this. For some reason this thread turned into some sort of “trust issues” rant. 

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So for me, as I mentioned before, I roll everything in the open; when I want to keep the results a secret, I just don’t tell them the target number they’re going for (remember, if I didn’t mention it here I mentioned it elsewhere, I don’t use the “roll 11-“ thing, I handle skills like combat, where I set a DCV for success and determine it’s scale. This gives me a lot of flexibility to shield results on an as needed basis.

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If I roll a 5- or a 16+, I have a pretty good idea about my odds of success.  I like the idea of the player rolling in a manner that they cannot see the results rather than the GM rolling, though.

 

I wonder whether any of the online gaming apps have a function where the player directs the roll so only the GM can see it.

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