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Rolls to raise player anxiety are a thing. It's a point against rolling in the open, too. PC-anxiety is less affected by seeing low numbers come up. Per Skyscraper's following quote, a goblin leaving without a trace is just a minigame for the GM. It's the same as the GM announcing, "ha...

Virgin blood seems like it would be a good choice. But I really like "forged without hands." How better to make psionic items than to use only one's mind? Anyway, everyone knows that the best magic items must be completed on the winter solstice.

Okay, a goblin sees the heroes and then sneaks away to summon reinforcements. As soon as you roll to see how stealthy the goblin is, you're more or less telling the PCs that there's something there that concerns them. They know there's something to find, so they might as well find something...

Not always. Sometimes people need a nudge to be able to make a decision. Fun fact: there's no need to hide stealth rolls for NPCs. The result of the roll determines how much sneaking the NPCs did, not whether the PCs noticed them. If it's possible that the PCs never notice the NPCs, you're...

If I were your GM, you'd feel like you achieved something either way, because you'd never know that the goalposts moved. This doesn't quite tie directly to fudging dice though, because a bad dice fudger (who doesn't roll in the open) can nonverbally convey that there's some fudging going on...

Frickin' Matt Colville. Just when I want to hate him for setting up fake die rolls, he goes and spouts some wisdom like, "that's basically what a GM's job is. Lying to the players." There's truth here. A GM's job, amongst other things, is deciding what happened. If you know what happened...

This is the simulationist view that Reynard is contesting. The idea that the game world exists without constant curation by the GM. There's no such thing, unless you're running a World of Warcraft server. There can be a rule set that tells the GM what's happening - Gloomhaven might fall into...

By OP definition, I'd call non-dice-fudging "game mastering." You're thinking of story-focused play versus simulationist or gamist play. This is fair (don't forget the "deus-"), especially since the adjusting-AC-or-HP suggestions are effectively the same as fudging dice.

So, did the PC say, "I want the witness to keep her mouth shut," or "I want the witness to lie about what she saw?" Sure it does. All skills should be powers. All powers should be actions that have mechanical benefits. All mechanical benefits should be defined by WotC, and endlessly cleared...

I'd like the time-coded URL as proof of this. Because I can't sit through an entire Matt Colville video. Providing these "major benefits" would be nice. Oh, thanks. I wanted to see these, being in the No camp, myself: 1. This is a good idea, if for some odd reason the GM needs to establish...

Ah, the gray approach. If only D&D had an outcome between Succeed and Fail. Murderous people can be persuaded. Offer to buy them a round of drinks. Show them the grenade you stole from the national guard. Or my personal favorite, pull out your wallet picture of them as babies, being held by...

XP for kills :devil:

Way to throw down the gauntlet! 🤓 I'd agree with you that combat doesn't take precedence over other aspects of play, but this is a D&D thread.

A DM can roll in the open and still fudge the roll - the PCs don't know what bonuses the NPC gets on each roll. An opposed in-the-open roll gives PCs a good reason to hold their breath, waiting to see if they'll win the roll. That being said, mystery is more powerful in an RPG than being...

You're not overthinking; you're making sense. This is why Modos 2 doesn't have an Intimidate skill. Persuade is for changing minds about facts, and Deceive is for changing minds about falsehoods. While on the subject . . . persuade and deceive work only against intelligent creatures. You...

I think you mean pessimistic. To the extent that anything has meaning.

Guessing you meant "social skill checks" above, because "I want to use my skill to hop over the fence," isn't usually followed by, "okay, you think you hopped over the fence." Except, that's not what most skill checks do (that I've seen, anyway). A skill check, in D&D, is a success/failure...

Covers don't count. And Pandora makes sure I hear it on a daily basis.

Speak for yourself. I want good creatures in the game because I'm an equal-opportunity killer. And the bounties on evil creatures tend to have much more competition than those on good creatures.

So you think it's fine for a vampire to persuade a PC to be friends with her, but it's a bridge too far to get a PC to hand over his favorite magic item? Because handing over his life to the vampire is less valuable? There's not much I can say to that. I do this somewhat frequently. "The...