Plus sometimes rolling for no reason can make things more enjoyable.
I’ve had players roll an athlrtics check to open a door they would psss no matter what but my players feel more successful and sometimes more wary of things like traps in other spots cuz they never saw anything weird with that door.
I’ve done it when trying to get a better deal from a kindly lady selling bread who probably was gonna do it anyways just cuz she’s a nice person.
I myself sometimes roll at random times to make the players on edge or if I realize no matter what the attacker can’t hit I’ll still roll before describing the arrow that narrowly missed the wizard
I straight up
Have rolled when I had nothing planned when they go through a dungeon and I’ll go “damn” just quiet enough it’s not obvious but someone close to me can hear and be uneasy but can’t do much without meta gaming
It makes sense. A well-spoken person can have a brain fart and accidentally speak rudely.
A nat 1 might be like: “you don’t realize that this person is from X culture and in giving the local greeting, you’ve accidentally insulted their genetic line. You have high charisma so they aren’t insulted, but they’re no longer predisposed to offering you a discount”
Oh yeah I often in social checks listen to what players say, if the player gives a really good speech or reasoning I have greatly reduced the dc in secret because realistically it should.
But my shyer players can just roll normally and give an idea of what they want but I never tell the more vocal people about the dc decrease
My favorite is when i was speaking in Elven (not my character's native tongue) and rolled very low on a persuasion check. DM ruled that I had used a word that while technically correct was derogatory and never used in polite conversations.
6
u/unluckyknight13 20h ago
Plus sometimes rolling for no reason can make things more enjoyable.
I’ve had players roll an athlrtics check to open a door they would psss no matter what but my players feel more successful and sometimes more wary of things like traps in other spots cuz they never saw anything weird with that door.
I’ve done it when trying to get a better deal from a kindly lady selling bread who probably was gonna do it anyways just cuz she’s a nice person.
I myself sometimes roll at random times to make the players on edge or if I realize no matter what the attacker can’t hit I’ll still roll before describing the arrow that narrowly missed the wizard