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New GM: Hidden dice rolls, etc.

   
Quote:
If they are going to be private and not view-able by the majority of players, plus you can hide them from any possible readers, then why post them at all? Why not just use it to check their perception and delete the rolls and narrate what they do or don't see as a result.
You can also roll physical dice on your table, then.
Using private tags for hidden roll allows to remove those tags in case players ask for it - but that's personal preference, in the end.
There might be a situation where I as player ask the the GM to show the dice he rolled. If the GM then says he used the preview function to roll, it would leave a bad taste for me.

Also, there is no way to hide anything in a a game forum from a
meaning, a user accepted as 'reader' of a game, not someone just reading the forum
reader; readers can see private text and threads.

Quote:
Could you please explain? I've been using this method for my zombie game to make awareness tests for my players. I haven't gotten flagged for anything.
If the post has never been submitted with actual dice tags, it won't be flagged with the 'dice have been altered' message because - the post never had any dice in it.

Quote:
If you really want to be sneaky about it, you could roll dice in private tags until you get the result you want, then just unhide the results you want to hit the players with.
... and hope none of your players ever look at the game after it has been archived; archiving strips most private tags, IIRC.

what whisper said...

To actually post VS preview...

if you just use the preview and delete it, there is no actual record of the roll... meaning you are actually dictating as far as a reader is concerned, which of course, is fine, provided that is your style, but to be at all fair in your dealings with players and readers one must actually log the dice into the post. As dalar said, there are ways of cheating the players, but it's just not worth it and readers will see that anyway.

The only way to have logged dice on record without cheat tags is to actually roll them in the post.

Personally, I advise against even rolling on the table top. It looks way more pro to the players to roll everything they can see and for the readers to see that you roll other things as well. It also shows as a GM that you're far more concerned with running an interesting game than protecting your own plot, and even if the players don't see the rolls, it will come across in your GMing and they will get more of a feel that what they actually do as players will matter.

@Whisper, I rarely have physical dice on hand, but I do understand the concept.

Alright between Whisper and L_Tiene, that does make sense. PbP certainly seems to have a different flow than tabletop which is were most of my experience is in.

Perhaps, I just assume that my players trust me else they wouldn't keep playing.

Of course they do trust you to play in your game, but subtle psychologies like that have an impact on interpersonal reactions

Ever know someone you always have to take their word for it and then some other guy that always has proof? Which one do you feel more comfortable with?

It's not like a mandatory thing or anything like that. Some DMs don't even roll anything but combat, they just dictate everything else (and sometimes in very bad cases they even dictate that too).

Don't get me wrong, there is a whole world of freeform gaming that doesn't use any dice, but that has very different rules from classic gaming, and it does still very much have rules.

Quote:
Originally Posted by World of L_Tiene View Post
Don't get me wrong, there is a whole world of freeform gaming that doesn't use any dice, but that has very different rules from classic gaming, and it does still very much have rules.
Freeform gaming is what got me into roleplaying games as I was growing up.

You should deff. check out some of the freeform stuff around here then. The writers are on MW, while varying in quality, do have some amazing writers around.

I've had the pleasure to game with several of them and I'm sure there's a bunch I still havne't met given the population.

Whisper: Yep, two more excellent reasons not to go that route.

Personally, the only reason I roll stuff in private tags is to keep suspense high. If there's no reason to roll it in private, I roll it in the open.

Quote:
Originally Posted by World of L_Tiene View Post
To actually post VS preview...

if you just use the preview and delete it, there is no actual record of the roll...
That is the point.

Quote:
Originally Posted by World of L_Tiene View Post
meaning you are actually dictating as far as a reader is concerned
If you're rolling in private tags, the result is the same for a player. And there is no difference for a reader compared to a GM that rolls physical dice on his desk.

Come to think of it, rather than using preview, a better option would be to open another browser tab and roll in the vB Code Test Page. No risk of accidentally posting a roll in the game thread.

Personally, I don't mind how the GM wants to do his rolls: public, private, physical, using a random number generator running on another computer, whatever.

Of course transparency doesn't fix anything, but it lets everyone know they can keep you honest if a question should ever arise, and again, that's a psychological advantage for the game, not a mechanical one. Without transparency, the potential for such questions to arise becomes exponentially greater.

Personally I am a fan of the idea that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Best not to let things have the potential to devolve if you can reasonably help it.

Again though, we're branching into the philosophy of rolling dice rather than the pure mechanics the thread was intended to discuss, and worse, the philosophy doesn't allow for one "right" answer, just a bunch of different schools of thought.

Over all I think the public rolling system is the best balance, but ymmv.

http://dicelog.com/dice

If you still want to roll dice and can't do it in the 'physical' at work. For what its worth (as I am late into the convo)




 

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