Help implementing spotting feints

[ErhnamDJ]

That's the reason why I make all of these rolls in secret. My players only want the knowledge that their characters would have. When I'm a player, I don't want knowledge my character doesn't have. I'm not able to segregate that different knowledge when I have to do decision making later on.

The extreme example would be some kind of whodunit where halfway through the campaign the GM accidentally reveals who the who is. It wouldn't be as enjoyable going through the rest of the campaign already knowing it was the maid. Not only that, but I couldn't help but be biased in my character's actions. I would end up second guessing myself. Am I Googling the maid's father because I know it was the maid, or is that something my character would really be doing under these circumstances?

I don't want those kinds of conflicts, even when it's something that's going to happen over the course of one turn in combat. Combat's just as important. This is life and death! Characters are living and dying based on this.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

I mean if you say "Roll Vision (or Hearing or whatever)", you roll Stealth or Camouflage or whatever in the open, and they roll high, you roll low, then they at least know that their characters failed to detect something contested, by which they ought to reasonably suspect an ambush.

I don't think they normally know what I've rolled. I'm sitting across the room from them, and not rolling the dice on a tabletop that everyone can easily see. I often can't see their rolls, for that matter.

Bill Stoddard

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by ErhnamDJ

The extreme example would be some kind of whodunit where halfway through the campaign the GM accidentally reveals who the who is. It wouldn't be as enjoyable going through the rest of the campaign already knowing it was the maid. Not only that, but I couldn't help but be biased in my character's actions. I would end up second guessing myself. Am I Googling the maid's father because I know it was the maid, or is that something my character would really be doing under these circumstances?

So if you've watched a mystery once you can never watch it again?

Bill Stoddard

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by whswhs

I don't think they normally know what I've rolled. I'm sitting across the room from them, and not rolling the dice on a tabletop that everyone can easily see.

How does that differ from a hidden roll?

[ErhnamDJ]

Originally Posted by whswhs

So if you've watched a mystery once you can never watch it again?

I can watch it again, but I can't get myself all worked up over who shot J.R. the second time through.

Originally Posted by whswhs

So if you've watched a mystery once you can never watch it again?

Bill Stoddard

I think you might have a false equvalency there, Bill. Most viewers aren't being the folks in the story, they're watching the characters do their thing. So when I watch Clue! I still watch all of the alternative endings, even though I know what'll happen, because the characters in the movie don't have a clue, if you will.

As someone who really appreciates being able to immerse myself in my character, I'm totally okay with a GM who makes rolls for me, behind the screen.

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

How does that differ from a hidden roll?

How did "hidden rolls" even come up? We were talking about whether they get to make their own Per rolls or the GM makes those rolls for them; not about whether they get to see what the GM rolled for the NPCs, which is what "hidden roll" means to me.

Bill Stoddard