CleverNickName
Limit Break Dancing
Yeah, every now and then. (Sometimes the rules require it, such as with the Augury spell.)
Most often though, I'll just roll the dice anyway, out in the open, and not declare a reason. It's amusing to watch the players exchange looks, trying to figure out what I was rolling and whether the result is good or bad (or just me messin' with them.) I don't do it frequently, but when I do it looks like this.
ME: Okay, you open the door to the chamber, and peer inside. You see a small table with a lit candle on it, dimly lighting the papers and quill pen sitting upon it. (quietly rolls a d20, gets a 5, and sets it aside) The candle flickers from the draft of the now-open door. What does everyone want to do?
PLAYERS: (nervously exchange looks) Um.
They don't know that the reason I was rolling was to see if the draft from the door would blow out the candle. Their imaginations are going nuts, trying to decide if I was rolling for a random encounter, a monster's Stealth check, or just to build tension.
Like I said, I don't do this constantly. But I do it often enough that me rolling dice "for no reason" is something they are accustomed to, and something that they've learned not to over-think. So it just happens in the background, and the players only take note if something immediately happen afterward or I roll a nat20 or something.
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