Pre-rolling dice for the game

[Xath]

In some of my groups, (especially at high levels) the players pre-roll their attacks and damage during combat before their turns. As long as you can trust the players not to cheat, the combat session works very well and quickly. It also helps to maintain the mood and suspense of the atmosphere, as you're not waiting 10 minutes for the level 20 psion-monk to roll all of his attacks.

Initially, some people didn't like it because they didn't get a chance to respond to what player X did before them in that round. But when you think about it, initiative doesn't mean you actually act any signifigant time before the others, everyone essentially is acting at the same time. So it worked out more realistically when we didn't get to respond to something that may have only happened a split-second before hand. Here's how it worked:

1. Everyone rolls out their actions for this round.
2. We go around the table in initiative order and give a brief description of what we're about to do (i.e. attack with a sword, cast a spell)
3. We then go in initiative order and rattle off our dice rolls. It's a pretty fast process of "20" "hit" "4 damage"

And for the players who are slower with the math but refuse to use a calculator, it doesn't slow down the game and fewer people get frusterated in the long run.

As a GM, I don't think I'd pre-roll everything, but I like the idea of the sheet for secret rolls, and I think I'd give that a try.

 

[Argonel]

I've started prerolling things like spot checks for combat that I know is likely to happen. This gives me spotting distances and lets me know who is or isn't suprised. Otherwise I roll as I go, and somtimes roll for no good reason to help prevent metagaming. I've played with DM that have had us preroll a bunch of D20's to use for skill checks, saving throws etc, and that has worked well too.

 

[Voadam]

My brother did this in a vampire game when we awoke and fought a major methuselah, the number of the NPC's dice for attacks and to resist damage were over the top so this kept the combat going smoothly.

 

[Umbran]

I know a guy who has a sheet of mothing more than d20 rolls so that he doesn't tip off his players when he needs to make a roll secretly (Spot checks, unknown saves, etc.). Otherwise, when it need not be secret, he rolls the dice.

I will often do this. Or, I find myself rolling a d20 for no real reason, just so the players cannot guess when the roll will be meanignful and when it won't.

 

[Arnwyn]

So here are my questions - do you ever do this as a DM?

No.

If not, would you consider doing it,

No.

and if not, why not?

I prefer to roll during the game. Whatever weird psychological reason explains it, there's more tension for us when we roll when we need to.

 

[iwatt]

Or, I find myself rolling a d20 for no real reason, just so the players cannot guess when the roll will be meanignful and when it won't.

I try to do this .

But it's a hard habit to pick up, and when i have a lot on my mind it distracts me. So now I'm going to use the d20-for-secret-rolls method.