I tend to minimal concealment, though not quite zero concealment. I have players make their own dice rolls, and I tell them what the modifiers are, at least as a total. I even do this for perception rolls; if the roll is a failure, I expect the player to act as if their character were unaware that anything was going on, and even that they might have reason to be alert—and you know what, they do. In fact, they call each other on failures to separate player knowledge from character knowledge.
Similarly, I make most dice rolls openly, and announce the results. I don't fudge dice rolls; I've never found it necessary. I hear all sorts of people worrying about having a character die through bad dice luck without a good dramatic point—but, you know, in over a decade of running games at least a couple of times a month, I've only had two PCs die. And both of those were sufficiently dramatic deaths to justify themselves, even though they came about by chance.
When I take a player aside for a private discussion, it's to make a dramatic point, and, often, to make the other players nervous. I don't usually do it. I've run entire campaigns where the PCs were not all on stage together until the final episode, and others where some of them were actively hostile to each other—but I mostly have everything take place out in the open, and count on the players to firewall.
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Date: 2008-03-08 03:47 am (UTC)Similarly, I make most dice rolls openly, and announce the results. I don't fudge dice rolls; I've never found it necessary. I hear all sorts of people worrying about having a character die through bad dice luck without a good dramatic point—but, you know, in over a decade of running games at least a couple of times a month, I've only had two PCs die. And both of those were sufficiently dramatic deaths to justify themselves, even though they came about by chance.
When I take a player aside for a private discussion, it's to make a dramatic point, and, often, to make the other players nervous. I don't usually do it. I've run entire campaigns where the PCs were not all on stage together until the final episode, and others where some of them were actively hostile to each other—but I mostly have everything take place out in the open, and count on the players to firewall.
Everyone to their own methods. Those are mine.