Ugh, I remember years ago my players threw an absolute fit when I tried rolling behind the screen for their checks without telling them. I appreciate that it’s actually baked into the rules in PF2e
While I like my system, there are situations where I would really like to have rolled behind the screen because the thing they rolled for is a secret door or something and now they are asking questions why I called for a roll but nothing special happened in my narrative pertaining to it.
I’m not a DM, but I think the common advice is “randomly roll dice for no reason occasionally so the players can’t rely on dice rolls being significant.”
Unfortunately, if a trap goes off or they do spot one, players will tend to question why they didn’t get to roll anything and you have to explain that you were rolling for them behind the screen. Less the fact I’m rolling and more that they didn’t get to roll at all.
My players took great offense to that when it happened, unfortunately, as the rules at the time didn’t really support the DM having that authority.
So, I’m happy PF2e now has it baked in so that DMs are officially able to utilize that method of secret rolls.
Traps are puzzles. Even if they didn’t roll high enough, you should still describe enough about their environment that they could reasonably deduce that a trap was there.
Who advocated for removing dice rolls? There’s still plenty of room for dice rolls here, but it makes traps more interesting and engaging instead of a boring save-or-suck you blindside players with.
I like how pathfinder 2 has the concept of secret roles baked into the rules.
I have my players character sheets open at all times and roll for them when they search a room.
Keeps everyone in their toes and eliminates meta gaming
Ugh, I remember years ago my players threw an absolute fit when I tried rolling behind the screen for their checks without telling them. I appreciate that it’s actually baked into the rules in PF2e
While I like my system, there are situations where I would really like to have rolled behind the screen because the thing they rolled for is a secret door or something and now they are asking questions why I called for a roll but nothing special happened in my narrative pertaining to it.
I’m not a DM, but I think the common advice is “randomly roll dice for no reason occasionally so the players can’t rely on dice rolls being significant.”
Unfortunately, if a trap goes off or they do spot one, players will tend to question why they didn’t get to roll anything and you have to explain that you were rolling for them behind the screen. Less the fact I’m rolling and more that they didn’t get to roll at all.
My players took great offense to that when it happened, unfortunately, as the rules at the time didn’t really support the DM having that authority.
So, I’m happy PF2e now has it baked in so that DMs are officially able to utilize that method of secret rolls.
Traps are puzzles. Even if they didn’t roll high enough, you should still describe enough about their environment that they could reasonably deduce that a trap was there.
https://theangrygm.com/traps-suck/
(I don’t always agree with everything this guy says - especially when he strays away from the topic of games - but he’s absolutely right about traps.)
Disagree. that just erases the point of using dice and having consequences for missing the checks.
I’ll continue to use my system as described above for traps.
Who advocated for removing dice rolls? There’s still plenty of room for dice rolls here, but it makes traps more interesting and engaging instead of a boring save-or-suck you blindside players with.