D&D General "When I DM, I Try to Make Sure to Lay Eyes on Every Roll My Players Make to Confirm It" (a poll)

[jgsugden]

I roll (every important roll) in front of my players so that they know I don't fudge.

I don't ask to see my players roll so that they know I trust them. However, I have, over the years, noticed players that 'roll lucky' and I've leaned over to watch important rolls from them, or said something, "Ohhh... big roll. Let's see it!"

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I play with a table of friends, of course I trust them with dice rolls. I might add that they are very adept at making suboptimal but interesting characters and anti-metagaming, and if anyone fudge rolls it's me as DM.

 

[Andvari]

I have never once used a screen in 35 years of DMing. I don't like a wall between me and my players. It makes me feel disconnected to them. They can see my dice if they like. Most don't care to look, and I don't look at theirs either. Though we both sometimes point to crits.

I usually roll in the open anyway, but without a screen, where do you keep maps and area descriptions so the player’s won’t see them?

 

[James Gasik]

I usually roll in the open anyway, but without a screen, where do you keep maps and area descriptions so the player’s won’t see them?

On my laptop.

 

[Andvari]

On my laptop.

That makes sense.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I usually roll in the open anyway, but without a screen, where do you keep maps and area descriptions so the player’s won’t see them?

Honestly? In my head. I don't usually bring anything to the table but a pencil and piece of scrap paper to scribble on.

Occasionally I'll have the adventure, but I don't like to open books during the game. I'll try to reread the part I'm going to run the night before so I get the gist of the story straight in my head, but I want the players to be able to influence what's going on as much as possible, so I don't want to be slave to the details. If I forget anything, I make it up.

If I'm running a particularly complicated monster, I might print the stat-block and keep it folded (then it becomes my scrap paper too). The rest I memorize.

It's true that all of that is getting harder to do as I age (and life produces distractions and reduces prep-time). Now sometimes I bring my laptop. But I try to leave it closed.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Honestly? In my head. I don't usually bring anything to the table but a pencil and piece of scrap paper to scribble on.

Occasionally I'll have the adventure, but I don't like to open books during the game. I'll try to reread the part I'm going to run the night before so I get the gist of the story straight in my head, but I want the players to be able to influence what's going on as much as possible, so I don't want to be slave to the details. If I forget anything, I make it up.

If I'm running a particularly complicated monster, I might print the stat-block and keep it folded (then it becomes my scrap paper too). The rest I memorize.

It's true that all of that is getting harder to do as I age (and life produces distractions and reduces prep-time). Now sometimes I bring my laptop. But I try to leave it closed.

Impressive!

I do like me some monster stat blocks on hand and probably won't ever abandon those but our table could very likely gain by me learning to let go of the details a bit more for the adventures I'm running. Thanks for the inspiration!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Impressive!

I do like me some monster stat blocks on hand and probably won't ever abandon those but our table could very likely gain by me learning to let go of the details a bit more for the adventures I'm running. Thanks for the inspiration!

You're welcome! (And thanks for the compliment - I kind of expected everyone to act like I was insane).

I generally think that DMs are "better off making it up than looking it up."

If you feel that you missed something, you can review what you "should have done" later and if you feel it was important, work it back into next session. But I've found that most of the time, if something gets missed, it was probably not important anyhow.

I fell into doing things that way a long time ago because I felt it was more important to think-on-my-feet (with less distractions, even the act of flipping pages slows the game down and distracts me) than it is to get everything "perfect". Usually the session comes off better for it, I find.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

That's the thing that cheating players so frequently miss - failure can be even more entertaining and memorable than success. It's possible to fail forward, or just create a hilarious narrative that would've never otherwise happened.

And if you always succeed, even those successes start to lose their savor. I've never seen anyone report a nat 20 with so little fanfare as this guy. Whether he actually rolled it or just made them up as well, I've no idea. But if you contrast it to the excitement usually seen when announcing a critical hit, the difference was striking.

I love when my players roll a Nat 1. And they always laugh, tell me then hilarity ensues. We played this Tuesday and the PCs were travelling down a river with Tiggly the Gnome on a flat bottom boat, So a Wereshark jumps out of the water in sharkform. lands on the deck in human form, He then commences to drink a hand keg of Old Swift Water 89. So the Paladin decides to attack him. H rolls "really naughty word". Even with the bad roll I ruled that he hit him with Brody the wereshark just blowing it off. he says "With the lake choppy waters I see how you sword could accidently cut me.

 

[R_J_K75]

That's the thing that cheating players so frequently miss - failure can be even more entertaining and memorable than success. It's possible to fail forward, or just create a hilarious narrative that would've never otherwise happened.

It really was a funny scenario and played out as I would have never thought. The Paladin has a 7 INT and hes really been playing that aspect of his character up. I think the Wereshark is going to make quite a few more future appearances. Sure, the Paladin will attack him again, and I can foresee the Wereshark ending up like Eric Idles character in European Vacation. I did next to no prep for the session aside from 5 bullet points I scribbled on a half sheet of paper in about 3 minutes and honestly it was more fun than times I spent hours and days prepping.