Contemplating a change to how I DM

[Greebo]

Right now, when I roll dice, I have a piece of paper printed from Excel with a list of die rolls on it for all the types of dice. While this is great for random number generation in secret, the downside is, in this fight particularly, it's affecting my tactics.

See I look down and I try not to notice the next rolls coming up, but when the next 4 rolls are 2 6 7 and 2, it's hard not to notice, and then I'm thinking, 'Well damn he's gonna miss, so do I burn his action point? Well damn, I'm seriously meta gaming this and I'm the freaking DM! Sheesh!'

So I'm thinking about making my rolls public.

The con to this is it means you'll learn what the bonuses to hit are. Big deal, really.

The pro is it means I can DM like I normally DM - try my best to kick your ass and let the die determine the outcome.

Does anyone object if I start doing that?

Oh - group 7 - don't get your hopes up. This is for group 5 only.

I'm TRYING to kill group 7...after all.

[attriel]

I wrote a little script for my linux prompt and i just type "dx 1 20" to get a d20 roll. Rolling for everything in-post is slow and tedious. And as you say, shows off the mods.

I'm sure I've seen excel scripts that do the same thing. basically you just enter "=d20()" (or however you do that in excel) and it puts in a rand from the function ...

gets real time roll w/o the clatter of dice to alert your boss ;)

[EricStratton]

I just use http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm

I have it open in a tab on my Safari "DND" window. When I need to roll I go there I hit the correct button and manage the modifier in my head (cuts down on keystrokes). So far so good.

[DinbinFanfoom]

I think it's an interesting and overall good idea. Thinking about how I'd DM a group (if I did, not that I will, too busy as-is) and I kinda was leaning towards doing that too... there of course could be no fudging of the dice (good or bad) which would be incredibly "fair" but might be... dangerous for the players. :D Still, the idea intrigues me, even as an experiment. Kudos to you.

I don't think the mods are a big deal... we're used to seeing "OK, this guy has 32 initiative and rolls 29 vs your AC..." so we KNOW their mods are high. Knowing they're +15 vs +11 doesn't make a diff to me, at least. NPC's and PC's are different beasties. As mentioned, though, it might slow you down, but you'd never feel guilty about a fudge. :D

[attriel]

I think it's an interesting and overall good idea. Thinking about how I'd DM a group (if I did, not that I will, too busy as-is) and I kinda was leaning towards doing that too... there of course could be no fudging of the dice (good or bad) which would be incredibly "fair" but might be... dangerous for the players. :D Still, the idea intrigues me, even as an experiment. Kudos to you.

from my previous PbP experience, it's downright deadly to always play them where they fall :o

[DinbinFanfoom]

from my previous PbP experience, it's downright deadly to always play them where they fall :oI know, but that might be what makes it interesting... KNOWING that a DM can fudge a roll ("Aww... don't want to kill you off yet...") takes away a lot of the danger. Life is... cruel. It'd be neat to try, at least.

[Greebo]

from my previous PbP experience, it's downright deadly to always play them where they fall :o

And that *would* be a con.

You guys had a really rough couple of early fights. Urvi has NOT died on no less than two separate occasions where I left her 1 point from negative bloodied. (On both occasions, Kiir was out of town and Urvi was run by someone else, or I'd have been less kind)

[DinbinFanfoom]

I guess another "problem" with doing it this way would be when the GM underestimates the power of the NPC's he sets up for an encounter... once the action starts... it's harder to "fix" an imbalance. GM would really have to make sure the encounters were reasonable, which might be hard to do.

[EricStratton]

I don't think the mods are a big deal... we're used to seeing "OK, this guy has 32 initiative and rolls 29 vs your AC..." so we KNOW their mods are high. Knowing they're +15 vs +11 doesn't make a diff to me, at least. NPC's and PC's are different beasties. As mentioned, though, it might slow you down, but you'd never feel guilty about a fudge. :D
I know you've seen some PMs from Shiz in which he meta games in excruciating detail. So it means something to some ppl.

[Moonshadow]

Oh - group 7 - don't get your hopes up. This is for group 5 only.

I'm TRYING to kill group 7...after all.

*kicks the dirt* Curse you!

[DinbinFanfoom]

I know you've seen some PMs from Shiz in which he meta games in excruciating detail. So it means something to some ppl.LOL, OK, maybe, but I guess to me, personally, it doesn't matter. I just assume their mods are great anyway. I mean, we figure out their AC and stuff fairly quickly, finding their ATK doesn't take too much longer.

[Greebo]

Hmm.

Free-Action At-Will
DM Only, Godlike ability

The DM has the power to re-roll any die for any reason he likes.
Too overpowering, ya think? ;)

[Sagar]

Not overpowering.. but terribly obvious. DM's, after all, have an obligation to be subtle.

[Greebo]

Yeah, I'm still on the fence. I think I will go to using a hidden roller on demand, however, and stop with the pre-rolled number list. It's too hard to not see what's coming and then that affects my actions unfairly.

[Sagar]

To be honest, I've struggled at times with this too. Now, I don't turn the sheet over until I've decided actions.

And, if the mob is just taking it completely in the shorts, I'm not adverse to skipping to the next decent number and using it :p

[Greebo]

Yeah, I already keep it turned over, but when you look down to find the next number, you can't help but see what its next to.