Should the GM hide their rolls behind a GM screen or should they roll openly where the players can see the results?
A lot of people actually think that hiding their dice rolls is the primary or even ONLY reason for a GM to use a screen, and this can even mire discussions about using GM screens in a debate about whether or not the GM should be hiding their rolls. And the debate about whether or not a GM should be hiding their rolls can often be entirely swallowed up in an argument about whether or not a GM should be fudging their rolls. (Which is, according to these debates, the only possible reason a GM would have for hiding their rolls.)
At this point, as you can see, the argument is already several layers deep in largely unexamined premises.
Let’s see if we can unpack things a bit.
First, I discuss a bunch of great reasons for using a GM screen in On the Use of GM Screens, and hiding your dice rolls doesn’t even make the list. In fact, it’s fully possibly to use a GM screen and NOT hide your dice rolls. So let’s lay aside the idea that these are intrinsically linked.
Second, for the purposes of this post, let’s take it as a given that the GM should never fudge their rolls.
Having discarded fudging as a motivation, why would a GM want to hide their rolls? In my experience, there are three factors:
Convenience. As I mentioned, there are a lot of great reasons for using a GM screen. Therefore, although I don’t always us a screen, I do often use a screen. And while it’s possible to use a screen without hiding your dice rolls, it’s frequently inconvenient.
So when I’m using a screen, I mostly roll behind the screen because it’s easier. In most systems, it would be a huge pain in the ass to stand up and roll the dice on the far side of the screen every time I needed t roll.
Secrecy. There’s a wide variety of situations in which a dice roll is generating information which the players’ characters don’t have access to. (Or, at least, not immediately.) Therefore, it often makes sense also hide that information form the players.
Examples of this includes Stealth checks, random encounter checks, saving throws against illusions, and any number of other possibilities.
Dramatic Effect. When properly framed so that everyone at the table knows what number needs to be rolled on the dice — without doing any additional math; just “I need a 17 or better” — there can be an immense amount of suspense placed on the die roll and a hugely effective and emotional moment that happens when the dice are rolled and the result is immediately seen!
When a dramatic moment like this is happening, you certainly don’t want to under cut it by rolling the dice in secret! And you may even want to make a special effort to make sure the dramatic moment can happen (e.g., precalculating the die result needed even in a system where you typically don’t do that)!
D&D generally doesn’t frame rolls like this, but critical hits are an exception — everyone knows immediately what a natural 20 means! — and can give a little taste of what it can be like. On the other hand, Monte Cook’s Cypher System, if you run it properly, is set up so that almost every die roll works like this unless there’s a reason for secrecy (which, of course, provides its own dramatic impetus).
IN CONCLUSION
On that note, we can see how these three factors can be weighed for each roll to determine how we want to handle it.
So, for example, if I’m not using a GM screen, then I generally don’t care and just roll the dice, unless there’s a specific reason why secrecy is significant for a particular roll.
On the other hand, when I am using a screen, then I’ll generally roll behind the screen for convenience, unless the stakes are high enough that dramatic effect makes it worth the bother of standing up and rolling on the far side of the screen.
Other GMs, groups, or even game systems can easily have different opinions on the relative importance of these factors.
For example, maybe you’re playing a game with very few rolls and, therefore, every roll is a big, dramatic moment:
On the other hand, a GM might feel strongly about not giving their players the metagame knowledge that “there’s a reason this roll should be hidden, and therefore I’m hiding it,” and therefore they’d prefer to hide as many of their rolls as possible. (And this might be something that the GM only cares about because this particular group is prone to metagaming that knowledge. Or they may have had one of the players ask them to mask the metagame information because that will help them enjoy the game more.)
The point is that there’s not really a One True Way™ here. But hopefully a clear understanding of these factors will help you think clearly about when and why you’re hiding your dice rolls, and find the right solution for you, your group, and your game!
BONUS PLAYER TIP: GET DRAMATIC!
If you’re a player, you can set up your own dramatic dice rolls!
Remember that the basic concept is that (a) the stakes of the dice roll are clear, (b) everyone at the table knows what number you need to roll on the dice (with no additional modifiers); and (c) the roll is made in the open so that everyone can immediately see the result!
The stakes of the check put pressure on the roll; and the result of the roll being immediately known provides an instantaneous release of that pressure, regardless of whether the result is jubilant or catastrophic!
It is not, of course, unusual for the stakes of a roll to be known before the roll is made. Assuming you have access to all the other numbers involved, all you need to do to create your own dramatic dice roll is precalculate the result, announce it to the table, and then roll!
In some systems, as we’ve discussed, this will basically be done for you automatically. But in others, including D&D, you’ll need to jump through a couple extra hoops. (You might also need to ask the GM to give you an additional piece of information, like the DC of the check in D&D.)
The other thing to note, of course, is that if you try to make every single roll ultra-dramatic, the net effect will often be to make nothing dramatic. Excitement and emphasis can all too easily turn into tedium.
But if you choose your moments well, you can enhance the game for everyone at the table!
Love the Dramatic Dice Rolls you spelled out above, pretty similar to the technique I use called “Announcing the Stakes”. It’s so powerful and really does amp up hype moments. And its really only a tool you can have if you do roll quite a bit behind the screen. As rolling in front of the screen now becomes an indicator that this is a “very big and key moment”.
One other thing i have found about rolling behind the screen, is that it can help move the battle and narrative along much more quickly. I have players that can be highly analytical, and if i were to roll everything in front of the screen i know they’d be tempted to calculate bonuses, double-check math, etc of every roll and take their attention away from whats happening in the story.
For me, it’s meta gaming. Some members of my group are better at avoiding that than others. I hide rolls for saving throws so the players don’t automatically, immediately know if their spell lands. (The effect is not always immediately apparent) Also, sometimes (for example) magic resistance can affect the number of dice rolled and when they see me roll two D20’s to save against a fireball, they’d be like, must have magic resistance, maybe we need to change tactics.
Also, to-hit rolls (especially early in an encounter with a new NPC) if they see the to-hit rolls, it could give them a feel for how effective the attacker is. I just say hit or describe a miss depending on how much they miss. (Scrapes down your armor or you can feel the air as the swing passes you by.). If they have +9 to hit and I roll a 9 and announce a hit, they know right away that this might be a bigger threat. After several attacks that hit with a relatively high percentage, they’ll get there eventually, but I want to let them discover that.
I generally roll everything behind the screen. That way, secret rolls are always hidden, and I don’t call attention to them. But most of all, when the rare occasion where I need to fudge a roll comes along (usually once every couple sessions), I can do it quietly without losing any drama.
I think there’s another reason to roll in the open that’s tangentially related to fudging rolls, even though I strenuously agree with everything in your essay on why not to fudge rolls.
Many players have experienced GMs fudging rolls before or might assume that there’s no other reason to roll behind a screen (as you note). The first thing to do there is have an out of game chat about expectations, but that only goes so far. I would suggest making an additional effort to roll in the open, for example lowering the bar of Dramatic Effect, to show that player that in the important moments* you really are letting the dice fall where they may.
Most of the time, I prefer to roll out in front of the screen, not just so that the players know for a fact that I’m not fudging, but as a guard against the ever-present temptation to fudge. It’s quite effective at that.
Still, some rolls have to be kept hidden, to keep information from players that they can’t have. The stealth and searching rolls are the obvious ones; another one that comes up frequently for me is crafting rolls when the outcome might be a cursed magical item or a glitchy piece of technology.
But for wandering monster checks and random encounter rolls? The best thing in the word is to hide those rolls from the players and from myself. Put the dice in a cup, shake the cup, turn the cup down onto the table… but don’t look at the results until it’s time see if a random encounter was actually triggered. To the players, it’s a dramatic time-bomb waiting to go off; and to me, it’s hidden information that won’t influence how I’m judging matters until a possible wandering monster turn comes up.
Brennan Lee Mulligan of Dimension 20 makes excellent use of the Dramatic Effect dice rolls by having “Box of Doom” rolls when the outcome will have a huge impact on the narrative. Like you mention, he calls out what is needed on the die so nobody has to do any mental math. It’s also done in the special skull dice tray/tower/whatever you want to call that thing.
I don’t use a GM screen and up until recently I made nearly all my rolls in front of everybody. Now I use a dice tower/tray (see below) as a pseudo GM screen for when I do want to make private rolls. I make a lot of rolls to make snap decisions on things about the world that players ask me or that pop up naturally. Stuff like “Is so-and-so in the location the players are heading to right now?” or “Does this scholar have an academic rival the PCs could go talk to?” or “How well is this person holding their alcohol while the PCs are trying to get them completely sloshed?” It’s not knowledge the PCs would know or is not super relevant to the players so I feel it helps immersion for them to not see those results. Combat rolls are always in front of the table because I think it’s more fun for everybody. We all get to collectively groan together when the enemies get a crit or celebrate when they whiff.
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I hate feeling like I’m separated from the group, I’ve never used a screen. Reference material and cheat sheets, yes. Stand up barrier, no.
I really can’t think up any dice rolls that I would need to hide from the players. I may not exclaim the reason I am rolling to them but the rolls themselves are meaningless until information is delivered due to them. Like if I roll for weather change and encounters during travel I just do that in the open, it’s not like the players having a mental map of what the dice rolls produce is going to help them. I frequently use oracle rolls to determine things in the world so my players are already used to this. If I really need to hide a roll, maybe something that requires secrecy, I just do it behind my hand or a notebook, briefly stood up, but that’s a very rare situation.
After three decades without a screen I still can’t imagine using one.
I really like the idea of doing Illusion saves in secret. Are there other major rolls you like to do secretly, other than the few examples you listed?
Also, what rolls do you do secretly in a hexcrawl? I’ve started a 3.5 campaign based on your hexcrawl rules and I’ve been wondering if Navigation checks or anything should be done secretly.
If I need a secret roll I have two techniques I use depending on the situation. If I have a complex battle or stealth I will do typically 20 rolls of a d20 and record them in order and if secret roll is needed I go with top number make any adjustments and cross it off.
The other is a gamemaster aid a series of playing cards that has random numbers for each type of die and use those and discard the card until I’ve gone through the deck and shuffle it up and start again.