Behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen - Dice Rolls

     What happens behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen?  The most obvious answer is dice rolls that the players can’t see.  Now some players may feel a certain way about this secretive matter.  Dungeon Masters sometimes roll their dice openly in full view of everyone at the table, while others do not.  Neither method is necessarily right or wrong.  Many will do both.

     Rolling the dice in view of all the players can lock in a result, often the timing of which might hinder either the flow of the game, or cause events to occur that complicate matters both for the Dungeon Master and the party.  For example, the only Cleric might have fallen, unconscious, bleeding out, and before anyone in the party can render aid, a non-player character just happens to roll a critical hit on the prone and unconscious player’s character.  In my world, a natural 20 causes a secondary roll, if the second roll scores high enough for a critical hit, a roll is made on a critical hits table, which could result in death.  This can be a crushing blow not only to the party, but for the player who’s invested their time and effort into creating and playing the Cleric.  Depending on the level and experience level of the party, sometimes the character has had years invested in it’s development.  All gone in the roll of a couple of dice.

     What options does the Dungeon Master have?  Devine intervention or kill off the valuable member of the party. Devine intervention can be over used, after all, how often do the Gods intervene in the lives of mortals?  This is a solution, but should be used sparingly.  Generally, the latter option is reserved for extreme circumstances, often after a player continuously makes poor choice after poor choice.  Sometimes it’s necessary to kill off a particularly horrendous character for the good of the party and the sanity of the Dungeon Master, but these circumstances are rare.  Sometimes, the player will do something so egregious the Dungeon Master has no choice but to allow death to happen.  Try to keep these instances to a minimum while ensuring a bit of reality in the game.  My house rules include a set of very deadly critical and fumble tables, used advisedly, they prevent a common hack and slash game and encourage more role playing and a bit more thought being put into drawing of deadly weapons or hurling of deadly spells.

     Keeping most of the dice rolls behind the Dungeon Master’s Screen allow the DM as he or she is commonly called, to maintain a good flow to the game.  Often, a non-player character will score a brutal hit, on a badly injured player character, sometimes dealing maximum damage.  By keeping the dice behind the screen the DM can fudge the roll, however they see fit.  The DM isn’t in a completion of players vs non-player characters or monsters, it’s the job of the DM to orchestrate the story line, in a manner that everyone has a good time, while ensuring the scenarios in the game aren’t easy for the players but not insurmountable either.  Sometimes, this requires the Ogre, who still has 50 hit points left to realize he’s outnumbered by a very badly wounded party and simply turn tail and run, when he may have been able to defeat the party and take their lives and their possessions.  This can happen regardless of the monster’s morale roll on the dice, unless it’s in plain view of everyone.

     Many players, will often come up with some impossible concept, or want to try a feat which is well beyond their skills, background or ability.  This is often met by the DM rolling some random die behind the screen and looking the player in the eye directly to tell them, “You failed.” Never even looking at the roll.  Sometimes if it’s a remotely plausible idea, and would enhance the game, give it a low percentage change of working, the players need never really know if the dice roll was successful or if it was simply allowed on a whim!