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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6802926" data-attributes="member: 996">To reply to what you were presumably trying to say:&nbsp; no, concealing information from the players - such as whether a die roll made behind the screen was relevant to the resolution at hand, or what role it played in that resolution, is not lying.&nbsp; The DM has lots of information the players don't, it's part and parcel of a game like 5e.&nbsp; If a player asks a direct question about something he has no business knowing, the DM might 'lie' to him by giving him false information rather than reminding him that his character doesn't know or that it's not something he needs to know.&nbsp; Depends on the DM and the player.&nbsp; &quot;Reeeally?&nbsp; What did you roll on that?&quot;&quot;Natural 23.&quot;Again, that's&nbsp; mis-characterizing the inequality of information between DM and player as a 'lie.'&nbsp; No system is perfect, and it's entirely possible that 'seeing the wires' that the DM is using to keep things playable can mar the experience for some - again, very often the ones most in need of such wires to keep the experience fun.&nbsp; You're assuming this is some kind of us/them dichotomy, and that DMs either always run way or another.&nbsp; You may always run your games a certain way, and more power to you for being consistent.&nbsp; &nbsp; I've run campaigns where everything is 'above board,' and others where lots of it is behind the screen.&nbsp; I know perfectly well the advantages and pitfalls of each.There are a lot of things in D&amp;D, both in print in 5e specifically, and in the slowly-fluctuating zietgeist of the community in general, that are only there because they were in classic D&amp;D.In this case, I think the scope, mechanics, balance, and other qualities of classic D&amp;D (and 5e, today) would still lead many DMs to taking portions of the resolution process behind the screen.&nbsp; It's certainly the way I prefer to run 5e, very fluid and improvisational and with a screen (and all that implies), thankyouverymuch.&nbsp; Other eds and systems I've found work seamlessly run more 'above board,' but even with those, I've come back to having a little old school fun with 'em after running 5e for a while.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6802926, member: 996"] To reply to what you were presumably trying to say: no, concealing information from the players - such as whether a die roll made behind the screen was relevant to the resolution at hand, or what role it played in that resolution, is not lying. The DM has lots of information the players don't, it's part and parcel of a game like 5e. If a player asks a direct question about something he has no business knowing, the DM might 'lie' to him by giving him false information rather than reminding him that his character doesn't know or that it's not something he needs to know. Depends on the DM and the player. "Reeeally? What did you roll on that?" "Natural 23." Again, that's mis-characterizing the inequality of information between DM and player as a 'lie.' No system is perfect, and it's entirely possible that 'seeing the wires' that the DM is using to keep things playable can mar the experience for some - again, very often the ones most in need of such wires to keep the experience fun. You're assuming this is some kind of us/them dichotomy, and that DMs either always run way or another. You may always run your games a certain way, and more power to you for being consistent. I've run campaigns where everything is 'above board,' and others where lots of it is behind the screen. I know perfectly well the advantages and pitfalls of each. There are a lot of things in D&D, both in print in 5e specifically, and in the slowly-fluctuating zietgeist of the community in general, that are only there because they were in classic D&D. In this case, I think the scope, mechanics, balance, and other qualities of classic D&D (and 5e, today) would still lead many DMs to taking portions of the resolution process behind the screen. It's certainly the way I prefer to run 5e, very fluid and improvisational and with a screen (and all that implies), thankyouverymuch. Other eds and systems I've found work seamlessly run more 'above board,' but even with those, I've come back to having a little old school fun with 'em after running 5e for a while. [/QUOTE]

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