Aldarc
Legend
As an aside, I'm a big believer in transparency as a GM, especially when it comes to DCs. I don't see the need for the smoke and mirrors to make myself, the GM, out to be the great and terrible Oz.It doesn't sound like there are DCs at all based on what you're describing. Perhaps there are when it's not an opposed roll, but I don't know. My guess is that most FKR games will handle this differently. But in some of the blog posts I've read, and in some of your posts and others, it seems like the GM may just decide how things go, or may call for a roll to determine it, using some kind of factors and decision making process that players may or may not know. And even if they know the general process, they may or may not be privy to the factors the GM has decided to deem relevant in any specific instance.
But when it is a 2d6 highest wins, does the GM roll in front of the player? If not, why not? If so, why?
Many of my games share a similar philosophy. Cortex advocates open rolls. In both the Cypher System and Fate, I generally tell players the difficulty rating. In ICRPG, I follow the creator's practice of placing a d20 in front of the players to establish the base DC of the encounter/room/NPCs.* I have occasionally ported this practice over to other games. Obviously, this isn't really a deal in PbtA or BitD or even Black Hack (roll under attribute).
As counterintuitive as it may seem to FKR assumptions and principles, this practice of rules transparency has led to greater trust between my players and me that has enabled them to focus more on the fiction and make more informed decisions in-character. I think that it's because it removes some of the adversarial conditions between the players and GM. This also fosters the illusion of my neutrality as well. (In truth, I'm pulling hard for the PCs.)
* For example, I could place a d20 with the 13 facing up on the table for the players to see. That means it's a base DC 13 room. The challenges in that room, including monsters, will generally follow that difficulty. The hobgoblins in that room? 13 AC. The DC to open the lock? 13 DC. However, there may be things as part of that encounter that are Easy (-3 DC or 10 DC) or Hard (+3 DC or 16 DC).