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<blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 8092292" data-attributes="member: 45197">Hiya!I would say that 97% (re: &quot;ALMOST always&quot;) roll behind the screen. Mostly because sometimes I need to use the tension of an unknown dice roll to help set the scene and manage the games, well, tension level and pacing. When I roll behind the screen...the players don't know the result and don't know WHY I just rolled. This isn't as much of a problem with BECMI/1e/2e...where I could roll a d20 and get a 17, and the Players would STILL not know if that was good or bad, because they don't know why I rolled. With the 'codification' of 3e onward's &quot;high is always good&quot;, that doesn't work anymore.And when I say &quot;need to use the tension of an unknown dice roll...&quot; I mean that literally; they might not even know WHY I'm rolling dice. Sometimes I roll dice and flip a couple pages of notes, then say &quot;Huh...ok...interesting&quot;. Sometimes I will preface the roll with asking some supposedly pointless question &quot;Hey, does everyone have a cloak on...or not...?&quot;...then I roll some dice, and say &quot;Hmmm...ok...&quot;. Or, if a player is becoming a bit disengaged with the game, I say &quot;Zoltan, pass me your character sheet for a second...&quot;, then I look it over, all sides...then roll a dice...hand back the sheet, and say &quot;Ok. So, what were you guys doing again?&quot;.Using those little &quot;DM Tricks of the Trade&quot; don't work NEARLY as well when you roll dice in full view of everyone using a system where &quot;high is always good&quot;.^_^Paul L. Ming</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pming, post: 8092292, member: 45197"] Hiya! I would say that 97% (re: "ALMOST always") roll behind the screen. Mostly because sometimes I need to use the tension of an unknown dice roll to help set the scene and manage the games, well, tension level and pacing. When I roll behind the screen...the players don't know the result and don't know WHY I just rolled. This isn't as much of a problem with BECMI/1e/2e...where I could roll a d20 and get a 17, and the Players would STILL not know if that was good or bad, because they don't know why I rolled. With the 'codification' of 3e onward's "high is always good", that doesn't work anymore. And when I say "need to use the tension of an unknown dice roll..." I mean that literally; they might not even know WHY I'm rolling dice. Sometimes I roll dice and flip a couple pages of notes, then say "Huh...ok...interesting". Sometimes I will preface the roll with asking some supposedly pointless question "Hey, does everyone have a cloak on...or not...?"...then I roll some dice, and say "Hmmm...ok...". Or, if a player is becoming a bit disengaged with the game, I say "Zoltan, pass me your character sheet for a second...", then I look it over, all sides...then roll a dice...hand back the sheet, and say "Ok. So, what were you guys doing again?". Using those little "DM Tricks of the Trade" don't work NEARLY as well when you roll dice in full view of everyone using a system where "high is always good". ^_^ Paul L. Ming [/QUOTE]

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