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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Iron Sheep" data-source="post: 477169" data-attributes="member: 4965">One suggestion I have is to try running a published adventure, rather than creating one yourself, at least at first.  (And if you're already doing that, you can ignore this comment!)  Many published adventures have detailed comments about how to run encounters, which can cut down on some of the pressure.  It's much easier to stand up to someone if you have an authority to fall back on.Another thing to do is to try using his experience to your advantage!  If you trust him enough to be impartial, ask him how he'd handle a certain situation, or whether you got the ruling right.  Get him to help out the other player with rules questions.The way I'd personally handle this would be  fairly abstractly: the D20 system is fairly forgiving if you just make up a DC for a situation and run with it.  In the grand scheme of things, it's probably good enough to get within 5 of the correct DC for anything non-essential like gambling.Faced with this sort of situation, the first thing I'd do is throw it back at the player: "Where do you go looking for loaded dice?" or something like that.  They might give a detailed answer like "Well, you mentioned that Steward's Lane was a wretched hive of scum and villainy, so I'll start there." or they might just appeal to character knowledge, "Well, my character has lived in this town his entire life, and she's a member of the thieve's guild, so she should have a fair idea of where to buy loaded dice." which is also fine.Maybe get them to role-play it out a bit more, and then pick a reasonable DC and skill.  If they were relying on their background knowledge of the town, use Knowledge (local) (or default to an Int check).  If they were asking people, use Gather Information.  If they were just wandering around town looking, use Search.As far as determining DCs goes:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the task should be easy, the DC might be 5 or 10;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> if it's moderately hard, the DC might be 15 or 20;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> if it's difficult, then 25 or 30 might be appropriate;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> and for something that is really only in the reach of real experts, and then only with a bit of luck, you're looking at DCs of 35 or higher.</li> </ul>In the above example, if the town is unfamiliar, a DC 15 or 20 is probably OK; if is familiar, a DC 5 or 10 is good.And so on through the other stages of finding a game and sneaking the dice into it.For resolving a gambling game, I'd suggest something like a Profession (gambling) or Int check (since most gambling games have at least a little strategy) against a DC of somewhere in the 10-15 range (10 for a game against novices, and about 15 would be right against professional gamblers or a casino), and maybe give a +2 circumstance bonus for having weighted dice in the game.  Then say that they win or lose 5-10% of their stake for every point that they made or failed the roll by.  You could do this for each game, or just once for an entire evening's gambling, depending on how much fun your players are having: they may really enjoy role-playing out the ups and downs of each game, or they might just be wanting to know if they can get a little bit more money for the evening.This sort of ready-reckoning of skill checks works pretty well for me when I'm DM-ing.  Let the player's know what the DC is that you're suggesting, and listen to them if they think it's really unreasonable, as they may have thought of something that you didn't, but be prepared to stick to your guns and not make everything too easy.  Keep the game moving, and your players having fun, and you shouldn't have too much to worry about.</blockquote>

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