D&D 5E Passive: It's not Just Perception - Passive Skill Checks

[Psikerlord#]

Or even better, get in a habit of rolling dice randomly behind the screen. That way they won't know if you are actually rolling something meaningful or just playing with your dice.

Although I run game online now, so keeping my dice secret is just a matter of convenience (I don't fudge). If I were meeting in person I might just roll everything out in the open.

Yes completely agree. I play a lot online, and secert rolls are no issue. In person we always rolls all "combat dice" in the open (always have).

 

[jprepo1]

So, that definitely can come into it, my players see no roles performed by NPC's or Mooks, aside from occasionally telling them of a humorous and/or significant result. I have found, though, that passive checks allow, as some have mentioned, to also be able to keep the story moving forward for certain tasks.

High drama and impact checks, you're probably going to want to to role for those anyway, but the more 'mundande,' if you will, rather than having everyone stop, and at least attempt to ask me if they can role too, I can allow them to proceed in a more fluid manner. I guess I find pacing of games very important as well.

From my experience, this has worked very well. Sometimes a player will ask to do X, and I can tell them the answer, info, or that they succeed, which would be due to passive skill in Y. It keeps the game moving.