The truth is that our world is the fictional setting where adventurers gather in a tavern in the real world to play a futuristic game. I think they call it Accounts & Ledgers.
We played Shadowdark for a while, but the whole torch mechanic got old quickly.
They snuff out your torch (or it goes out due to time), and the monster massacre you. Rinse and repeat.
Just isn't fun after a while. More tedious than tracking encumbrance.
Who cares if a monster is male or female. They are just constructs that equal a bag of xp, or get you closer to a milestone.
Once they are dead, and you've looted the corpse, do you really ponder their gender?
If it's that important to someone, simply reskin them, and you're good to go.
There wasn't a "it depends" option, so I didn't answer the poll.
I openly show combat rolls, but I will hide other rolls that might give the player more information than their PC would have.
I can't think of any specific examples, but I don't hide rolls that often.
Again thanks everyone for all of the insight and perspective. However, from the reaction of a few folks, it seems that I've accidentally stepped on a sore spot, which wasn't my intention.
The gods in my campaign act primarily as avatars that the players will likely never interact with unless the campaign reaches tier 4. They are off doing their godly things that are beyond mortal understanding.
OT: So I finalized the stats of the Cleric mentioned in the OP, and asked the Copilot, AI attached to Microsoft Edge to create a picture of a dwarf cleric of Asmodeus.
It returned a picture with a dwarf holding a mace with a pentagram on it, but also had crosses on it's stole and was carrying a...
WoTC is a corporation doing what corporations do, which is to find ways to increase profits.
I just don't get people who, even after the OGL scandal and their open contempt for the customer, still defend WoTC as if the company was their best friend.
I'm not a fan of ads either, however it takes money to run a site, and ads are the easiest way to generate the needed $$ to cover the costs.
The alternative is donations, and people usually don't like that either.
I think deception is different from fear and similar effects in that fear is a gut reaction whereas deception operates at an intellectual level.
If the players can tell that an NPC is not being truthful, they should be able to react accordingly.
Another example would be NPC persuasion. Should...