to screen or not to screen do you roll in front of your players?

[Sir ThornCrest]

Players just dont know how many times I have killed them in combat with a crit or a series of good rolls. I can pull my punches from behind a screen and control the game. But I have found rolling in front of the players creates a lot more excitment as everyone stares at my dice, waiting for it to stop on a number.....its a lot more exciting for me, because I am not in complete control.

Prime example: Lg party in service of a lord, the lords charisma followers. The party was escorting the lords family to a huge wedding. To make a long story short ambush, big fight, spells, horsemen, archers fight fight fight and the bad guy is flying away with the lords first born son for sacrifice, bad guy had 5 hit pionts left, and I even made him laugh at them taunting them. Only 1 party member was left with a range attack that could reach. It was the Ranger with his bow, he rolled a 4 at medium range followed by a 3 and a 7 at long range. After that he only had sheath arrows (thick heavy damaging close range arrows). He was so mad, the whole party was pulling their hair out. Soooo I rolled his defensive roll and ruled "you barely hit his leg" roll damage....he rolled a one!!!! I again ruled " you force him to land"............and they got the bad guy.

The thing is if I were to roll that in front of the players it would have been even more intense!!!

whats your groups method "to screen or not to screen" and what have you found as the contributing factor to your decision?

Thorncrest

 

[Crothian]

I use a screen but not to hide rolls. I use it to hide notes. I don't roll in front of the players, but even if I did it is not like they would be watching my rolls like a hawk. And at the same time I don't watch theirs. I trust them and they trust me, watching peoples rolls isn't even an issue. If I want to fudge dice as a DM, they are all fine with it because they've fudged dice too when they DM.

 

[Arnwyn]

Screen.

Reasons:
Logistics - due to how we set up the table, it isn't practical to roll in front of everyone.
Metagame reasons - it's easy to calculate the opponent's statistics when the rolls are in view of everyone. Some people can't help themselves - they just do it.
Fudging - in case it's necessary. However, because of how smooth our group finds 3e to run, fudging by the DM is very rare if nonexistent.
History - we've always done it this way. Changing for no reason and no clear benefits doesn't help anyone.

But that's just us.

 

[der_kluge]

I'm torn with this one. I used to exclusively use a screen and do that. But, that last campaign I didn't. So, I'm kind of against using a screen now. As a player, I'd prefer the GM to roll in the open, but I can certainly understand the reasonings for using one.

 

[the Jester]

I do a little of both, but mostly roll in front of the players. I am mostly a let the dice fall where they may kind of dm, so hey, there we go.

 

[Numion]

I don't use a screen, but we don't play on a central gaming table so its not needed for hiding notes. Most of the time the DM is sitting on his own desk with the players scattered around the room. Dice rolls and notes are generally invisible due to the DM obscuring the view, distance and players sofa or couches generally being on lower elevation.

Really important rolls the DM usually makes in front of the players, however. Just to maximize excitement. I usually do it when a PC tries an instakill on the BBEG or tries to avoid a grapple by some big monster. "Ok, you cast Disintegrate on the vampire lord? Lets see .." I might even tell what the Vampire Lord in question needs to roll

Pulling punches or fudging rolls hasn't been for a while 'in' in our group. Chips fall where they may. Our current, first time, DM has proven especially bloodthirsty. He's got some kind of knack for finding wacky CRs in the MM :\ I'm just happy my character has survived this far, but I've also started to feel the urge to DM again .. if nothing else, at least to pay back in kind

 

[Von Ether]

I don't use a screen, but we don't play on a central gaming table so its not needed for hiding notes. Most of the time the DM is sitting on his own desk with the players scattered around the room. Dice rolls and notes are generally invisible due to the DM obscuring the view, distance and players sofa or couches generally being on lower elevation.

Really important rolls the DM usually makes in front of the players, however. Just to maximize excitement. I usually do it when a PC tries an instakill on the BBEG or tries to avoid a grapple by some big monster. "Ok, you cast Disintegrate on the vampire lord? Lets see .." I might even tell what the Vampire Lord in question needs to roll

Pulling punches or fudging rolls hasn't been for a while 'in' in our group. Chips fall where they may. Our current, first time, DM has proven especially bloodthirsty. He's got some kind of knack for finding wacky CRs in the MM :\ I'm just happy my character has survived this far, but I've also started to feel the urge to DM again .. if nothing else, at least to pay back in kind

The groups that I have availble for play here are very game orientated as compared to role-playing. If a PC dies, time to roll up a new one and get back into the thick of it.

They love to "beat the dice" with their luck and tactics. One clue about the encounter's spells or BAB and they have it all figured out. The big compromise for me is Action Points. With these, a really bad die roll at the wrong time is mitigated. So we have the thrill of Vegas, the danger of combat and the last minute save of Action Movies in action dice.

 

[Desdichado]

I use a screen but not to hide rolls. I use it to hide notes. I don't roll in front of the players, but even if I did it is not like they would be watching my rolls like a hawk. And at the same time I don't watch theirs. I trust them and they trust me, watching peoples rolls isn't even an issue. If I want to fudge dice as a DM, they are all fine with it because they've fudged dice too when they DM.

That's pretty much me. I don't give a lot of thought to where I roll, to be honest. It's not like my players know what the modifiers are to the roll anyway.

I do like to roll behind a screen if I'm making secret Spot or Listen checks on the PC's behalf, though.

 

[TerraDave]

I have moved to an "open" roll for a new campaign to prevent fudging. However, I haven't gotten any big hits yet on the PCs, so I don't think they have quite realized the implications. But I think they will.

Note, there is also the "players roll all the dice" option in UA, takes it out of the DMs hand entirely...

 

[Jdvn1]

I'm with the 'little bit of both' camp. Sometimes you want a screen, maybe so you can fudge rolls, maybe so you don't have people calculating what your modifier is. But rolling some rolls -- especially important rolls -- out in the open can be good for suspense.