to show or not to show

That is the question. I’ve noticed lately a lot of videos and comments about whether or not to hide your die rolls as a GM. There are a plethora of reasons to do it either way, and you can find support with whichever way you choose to go. Personally, I hide my dice.

I am a notoriously poor roller when it comes to dice. I lose at Risk, Mousetrap, and any other game that requires me to have decent outcomes at least 50% of the time. When I build characters, I usually do a spellcaster and make sure the spells will still do half damage if I do not succeed. If I build something else, I look for ways to get enough bonuses that it is nearly impossible to fail (I will still find a way, trust me). So as a GM, I hide my rolls.

Hiding my rolls allows me to manipulate the outcomes to keep a story flowing and combat challenging. Do I fudge my rolls? YES! Not all the time, but sometimes. If my players do not receive some kind of challenge, they get bored. My combats are usually easy enough as it is, I don’t need to allow my poor rolling to give the players success after one hit.

So, if I fudge my rolls, what’s the point of rolling to begin with? The illusion of randomness. I want my players to be immersed in a story. If we are in combat, I want my players to be on the edge of their seats and without rolling, my players will start to feel like their rolls don’t matter either. They will think, “The GM already has the story and outcomes determined, so why bother.”
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That’s not why I fudge my rolls.

I do not pre-determine any outcomes (the only pre-determination I do is try not to kill the party). I like to reward creativity in combat by making the BBEG miss after their maneuver. I like to make my BBEGs hit after a particular taunting or monologue by a player. If I have a player that seems to consistently miss one night, I’ll hold up on actually hitting them until they have a success.

Most importantly, I like my players to walk away saying, “That was a good game, I had fun.” I don’t have to put them in a life/death situation to make that happen. I give them puzzles, conspiracies, or unique abilities of a BBEG. They don’t have to survive a combat to have fun, just put some clues together, find a new piece to the puzzle, or intimidate someone into cooperation. Hide or show? Do what makes it fun for your table.