Sometimes it is tempting, for a variety of reasons, for a DM to want to roll the dice for the players.

Shocking?

Absurd?

A good idea?

In general players love to roll dice.  It is part of what makes the game fun.  Watching those little bits of plastic roll across the table give the game a tactile sensation that is just plain lacking in a computer RPG.  It really enhances the suspense.  Shaking those dice, hoping, wishing, praying that it isn’t a 1 or that you may get that desperately needed 20.

But then you have people cheating or completely incompetent or who just seem to never have their own dice.  It would be so much easier just to do it for them.

This is probably not a good idea.  Cheaters generally get caught by other players and players have ways of enforcing rules.  Those who lack the interest in the game to get (or remember) their own dice will eventually quit anyway.  Bide your time and they will disappear all on their own.

The one situation in which you may wish to consider rolling dice for players is when it doesn’t make sense for the character to know the result.  If they are searching, you may not want the players to know if anything can be found or not.  If a character rolls high and the search result is that they found nothing then they will quit because the player knows that a high roll means there was nothing to be found.  Likewise if they roll a 2 they may metagame a bit and decide to have thier buddy go over the area again because they know the die result.

You may wish to consider making a house rule to make these rolls yourself.  You may wish to consider search, listen and sneak attempts under these rules, but certainly nothing which has an obvious result like jumping or opening a door.  If you do decide to implement such a rule, be consistent.  Make the rolls all the time, not just when there is something to be found.

Like all house rules this is something to be implemented with care and thought or perhaps not implemented at all.

Have fun gaming!

Welcome to Dungeons and Dragons Corner.

You can find Character Sheets Here.

You can enjoy more of my work by subscribing to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Feel free to make a Paypal Donation to support Dungeons and Dragons Corner!

Did you like this post? Want More? Then subscribe to my RSS feed!