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<blockquote data-quote="Charlaquin" data-source="post: 7583375" data-attributes="member: 6779196">In addition to generally running games in person, another difference in how we DM is that I don’t hide the results of my players’ dice rolls from them. Generally, I find that the more information players have, the more confident they feel in their decisions, the more rewarded they feel when their decisions yield positive results, and the less cheated they feel when their actions yield negative results. When I call for a check, I always tell the players the DC, and when it’s reasonable to do so, I tell them the potential consequences if they fail. For example, “That’ll be a DC 10 Dexterity check to cross the rope bridge. If you fail, you’ll fall off,” or “That’ll be a DC 15 Dexterity check with your Thieves’ Tools to disarm the trap, on a failure you’ll spring it.” Then I give the player the opportunity to back out. The reason being, I want characters to succeed and fail primary based on the players’ decisions. Telling the player the odds and the potential consequences allows them to make an informed decision instead of a blind guess, so success feels like you made a smart choice and failure feels like you took a calculated risk and it didn’t pay off, instead of success and failure seeming random.I always strive to provide the players with opportunities to make decisions as they imagine their characters would,&nbsp; and to empower them to make those decisions confidently. I’ve found that when I do so, protestations about not having the same expertise as the character tend to disappear.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Charlaquin, post: 7583375, member: 6779196"] In addition to generally running games in person, another difference in how we DM is that I don’t hide the results of my players’ dice rolls from them. Generally, I find that the more information players have, the more confident they feel in their decisions, the more rewarded they feel when their decisions yield positive results, and the less cheated they feel when their actions yield negative results. When I call for a check, I always tell the players the DC, and when it’s reasonable to do so, I tell them the potential consequences if they fail. For example, “That’ll be a DC 10 Dexterity check to cross the rope bridge. If you fail, you’ll fall off,” or “That’ll be a DC 15 Dexterity check with your Thieves’ Tools to disarm the trap, on a failure you’ll spring it.” Then I give the player the opportunity to back out. The reason being, I want characters to succeed and fail primary based on the players’ decisions. Telling the player the odds and the potential consequences allows them to make an informed decision instead of a blind guess, so success feels like you made a smart choice and failure feels like you took a calculated risk and it didn’t pay off, instead of success and failure seeming random. I always strive to provide the players with opportunities to make decisions as they imagine their characters would, and to empower them to make those decisions confidently. I’ve found that when I do so, protestations about not having the same expertise as the character tend to disappear. [/QUOTE]

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