D&D General A Way for Players to Roll Hidden Checks

I wouldn't invert the d20 test. Part of the fun of rolling, is the instant gratification of rolling high which you've now taken away.

The players rolling but not seeing their roll is probably the best solution to this problem. However if with these knowledge/insight type checks you want to occasionally provide misinformation then I would maybe do something like success is 2 truths and 0 lies, failure is 1 truth and 1 lie. So even though the player knows they likely failed the check, they still have to debate which is the truth and which is the lie. You can even add a secret DM roll that makes occasionally makes failure 0 truths and 2 lies.
 

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occam said:
At the beginning of a session, have players roll a bunch of results in advance (e.g. d20s in D&D). The GM writes down the results for each player, in an order different than how they were rolled. Then when a secret die roll is required, the GM takes the next result for that player off the list. The advantage of this method is that the player doesn't even know when a die roll is called for, to avoid the "The GM's having us roll dice, my character is going to draw their weapons and look around extra good" situation. (For D&D, the introduction of Passive Perception greatly reduced the incentive for this method.)
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This is the way I like to do it. It depends on being prepared in advance, though.
 


Sorinth said:
I wouldn't invert the d20 test. Part of the fun of rolling, is the instant gratification of rolling high which you've now taken away.
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I disagree. From the reaction I have seen at my table, players now get excited by rolling really high and rolling really low. It has literally doubled the fun, from that perspective.
 

How about this as an idea.

The Player rolls a d20 in front of the screen and the Dungeon Master rolls a d20 behind the screen. Then the Dungeon Master adds their roll to the Player's roll but you roll over the count back to 1 if if the sum is more than 20.

Examples:

Player = 1, DM = 6, Final = 7
Player = 15, DM = 15, Final = 10
Player = 20, DM = 11, Final = 11
 

Everybody is overthinking things.
1) Before each session have players roll six d20s or whatever. Write them down. When a secret check needs to be done, select one of the player's rolls at random (d6). Problem solved.

2) Or, if your players are good role players, they will role play through the failure. I give bonus XP for that.

3) Offset. The players rolls are adjusted by a d8 rolled behind the screen.
 

Hawk Diesel said:
Yes, but then what's the point of using the VTT? Space on my computer desk is already at a premium. Plus, I would still have to ask for the player's modifier, and the player misses out on a chance to roll themselves.
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As pointed out earlier, VTTs like Foundry VTT (which I have used for 5 years now) offer this.

FVTTRollDialog.jpg

The Roll Mode dropdown offers Public Roll (the default), Private GM Roll (only the player and the GM see the roll), Blind GM Roll (only the GM sees the roll), and Self Roll (only the player sees the roll -- good for testing things). It will take the character's abilities and modifiers into account for the ability check, skill roll, saving throw, or attack roll. You can also roll with Advantage, with Disadvantage, or Normal. I can call for rolls from the players and they can execute it themselves. I can access this dialog as a DM and roll Blind Rolls for them without the players even knowing, but I rarely do that.
 

Well, I simply never tell players the DC of anything. A player or character can simply never know "exactly how hard something is mechanically". So when they roll, they don't know if the made the check of not. They only know what the DM tells them, so they never know how well a check was made....but sure they can guess by what happens.
 

bloodtide said:
Well, I simply never tell players the DC of anything. A player or character can simply never know "exactly how hard something is mechanically". So when they roll, they don't know if the made the check of not. They only know what the DM tells them, so they never know how well a check was made....but sure they can guess by what happens.
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well, that works great until the PCs get abilities that they can trigger if the rolled failed.
 


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