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Message: <blockquote data-quote="doctorhook" data-source="post: 7672327" data-attributes="member: 58401">I've gotta fundamentally disagree with you here, as a big proponent of this variant (when implemented with correct math).I DM, and I've been using this variant weekly for a couple years now to free myself from the mental sluggishness that comes from a long, late night of doing arithmetic while my friends look at me and wait for my judgements. I reasoned that by shifting the burden of randomly generating numbers over to my players, I'd have more mental energy to devote to roleplaying, ruling on the fly, and generally facilitating a fun game. After trying it in practice, I was pretty surprised at the results: not only did it deliver my expectations for reducing my workload as DM, it actually kept my players more engaged than they had been.We all know how D&Ders tend to be about dice rolls: even when we understand probability, many are superstitious when a beloved character's life is on the line. By letting my players roll defense (rather than monsters rolling attacks), my players feel like they have "control" of their defense; they picked they die and they rolled the number. It's been a long time since anyone has felt like I, the DM, was their antagonist at my table. Moreover, my players don't spend nearly as much time on their phones looking bored--they're too busy watching to see if they need to roll a defense against some hobgoblin's sword. At the end of the night, the players say they've had more fun than they used to...and I have less of a headache.Some people argue that this variant means the DM can't fudge rolls. In my experience, that's not true. I'm still the one to decide if an attack hits or misses (because I'm the one who knows the monster's attack score, and because I can lie if I really don't like the result). Additionally, if things really go badly--a couple weeks ago, one player rolled a row of three critical failures on defense (i.e.: critical hits against his character by the monsters)--I still have the ability as DM to interject and change the outcome by fiat for the purpose of the narrative.I'm not gonna say Players Roll All the Dice is going to be ideal for everybody's game, but I and my group are entirely 100% committed to it, because it's had a universally positive impact on our game. I absolutely think everyone should give it an honest try sometime.</blockquote>

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