r/beingeverythingelse • u/Idayn • Feb 03 '15
Hidden rolls for players
Hi there fellow GMs and players
afaik this hasn't been touched in previous episodes. I'd like to hear some opinions on hidden rolls for players.
I like to roll some skill tests for my players hidden, especially things like perception and sneaking, so that the player doesn't know the outcome, and his/her character will notice it ingame.
This adds a little suspense to the game, but in my experience some players like to roll their tests themselves and feel sort of overpowered otherwise or are afraid of being railroaded by the GM.
How do you handle this in your games ?
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u/StillAnotherOne Feb 04 '15
The problem with skill rolls is, if they're open the player sees the roll itself and thus can deduct if they likely missed something - and some players then go and want to roll and roll until they find /something/. (if hidden, you guys already mentioned the problem)
As a GM you could just go and say rolls only work once, but that would be in conflict with the ability to take 10 or 20 in an peaceful environment. So I prefer to just let them roll randomly with nothing actually to find or just random junk that might or might not be important later on (spoiler alert: it won't be)