I just joined this Forum today because I had a curious conversation with a few players that were surprised with my DM style in rolling attack, damage, saving throw and skill check results openly and in front of the players.  I have been running as a DM since 1978 and have always played this way.  The only thing I roll behind the screen is if a monster / opponent to the gamers takes a healing potion...I would roll the HP recovered behind the screen.   I have also had the players roll a D20 just to keep them off balance and for no other reason. 

Who as a DM agrees or dis-agrees with this style and if you disagree...please share why ? 

NoctissStealth

There's no right or wrong here, it's a matter of style. I roll privately because there's a fair amount of information leakage. (For instance: Did they save, or burn a legendary resist?)

Also because I've done it that way since time immemorial. It was probably the way advocated in the Basic Set, but I can't be sure about that without devoting way more time than I care to to finding out.

Unless your table plays with an adversarial stance between the players and the GM (which is unusual in this day and age, but not a wrong way to play), I really don't think it matters one way or the other. 

Live I prefer rolling behind the screen. Simpler and keeps some of the mystery in my opinion.

On a play-by-post I've come around to preferring open rolling. I tried doing behind-the-screen the first time but it ended up, for me, feeling a bit off since unlike a live session where you can have a rapport with the fellow players (and since we meet online, for practicality's sake they're rolling "behind the screen" too) but for play-by-post I feel like it helps with, "I'm letting the dice fall where they may." to build credibility.

Just my 2cp.

I usually roll behind the screen just to give myself decision flexibility.. unless it is a really monumental roll that might kill someone then I roll it in public just for dramatic effect

I roll publicly unless it's something where doing so would give the players information that they shouldn't know and would affect their actions (for example, if an NPC is rolling deception).

I roll behind the screen just because that's how my first DM did it and that's what I learned. Plus it makes fudging rolls easy, which I have to do on occasion. Also it gets intense when I'm rolling massive seamounts of dice and my players don't know exactly how many I'm rolling. 

I tend to roll in private behind the screen, largely because most of the groups I run are for children so I like to have to option to fudge the occasional roll in their favour or the ability to end a fight at exactly the end time of the session before their parents pick them up

I like to roll in private for simple ability checks and saving throws. However, when its regarding something super important, I like to make it big to really get my players hyped! Set the stage. Tell my players what the bonus and DC are, and therefore how high the roll has to be for it to succeed

Players in my extended group have had DMs that treated the game more like 'DM vs Players', and modified die rolls in their favor to the detriment of the Players and their characters which created a lot of distrust. As such, I do all my rolls out in the open. I make sure to build into the adventures "what ifs" in case those rolls should start to go horribly for the characters, but the rolls themselves stand.

I dislike dice shenanigans, so I always roll in the open. If you play a PbP game on these forums all of your roll are in the open. Not seeing why you would do so in one format and not the other.

There is no arguing if the party sees I roll a 1 or a 20. I don't have to make anything up.

It's actually really dramatic when I roll low and say the monster still hits the really high AC PC. It freaks out the players a little bit. Which I see as a good thing.

When i play online, all my rolls are public unless i specifically want to keep one secret from the player.

When i play in person, i usually roll  wherever i am at the moment, wether sitting at the table behind a DM screen or where i happen to stand, having a tendency to walk around a lot when DMing. Players could always check one of my roll if they want.

Also forgot to mention that a screen would block my view of the player rolls as well - forcing me to stand all the time, or sit stand sit stand silly dance.

I roll in public almost every single time and state that in my session zero chat.

I only roll behind the screen if I need to resolve something the players aren't aware of at all or am rolling to make them nervous. :D

I like letting the dice have their say via randomness and resolve the narrative around them.

I usually roll behind the screen when I do roll with physical dice, but I call out the numbers. I also might just narrate the outcome rather than say the number. Personally, I like using the hidden rolls for building tension. Anecdotally, I seem to hold the attention more of the players when those rolls are behind a screen, as people seem to be wondering what will happen. That works for me, but I have absolutely no issue with rolling in public and have played at tables where that is done.

Plaguescarred stated in another thread on dice rolling that they sometimes walk around the table and roll wherever they are and I think that sounds pretty neat. Rolls like that would be public and the DM style seems very dynamic.

DM rolls in the open for one of my games and behind the screen for two others. The DM’s that roll behind the screen are the ones with less experience and who embrace a more adversarial approach to the game than the DM who rolls in the open. The DM who rolls in the open has been running games for over forty years now so has developed great skills when it comes to massaging the numbers and fudging things on the sly to keep the game moving along. I would compare rolling in secret to using a box-cutter to remove an appendix; it’s sharp and will get the job done but is clumsy and will leave a heck of an obvious scar whereas open rolling is the skilled surgeon doing the job artfully and leaving such a small scar that most people won’t even notice.  

The group the open roller DM’s for gets great enjoyment from seeing the rolls. There’s a sense of anticipation and reward that simply doesn’t exist when players don’t get to see the natural 1 or natural 20 that turns the tide of battle or when the DC is 15 and the mob rolls exactly that at just the right time, that sort of thing. As well, there have been a number of incredible rolls that we all witnessed where there’s no way we would have believed such luck if the DM rolled in secret. Like a crazy string of natural 20’s that defied the odds. Even the most credulous players would have called BS by the third one had we not seen the dice fall ourselves. 

I just realized that you posted the same thing here Plague. I should have read the whole thread looking for your post. I was going off of memory. :p

Quote from Erik_Soong >>

I just realized that you posted the same thing here Plague. I should have read the whole thread looking for your post. I was going off of memory. :p

 No worries it's cool Erik that you remembered.

My experience has been that it is down to the individual DM's style. There are a lot of claims by both sides on this debate - most of which are spurious in my experience. I've been GMing a whole host of games for decades at this this point. I've seen some great GMs, some awful GMs, and I've been both myself to different groups. Both sides have pros and cons.

What I will say is that when it comes to friends and people you know - you're free to choose whichever you feel best suits you.

However, when running a game for people you don't know (in a game shop, or community space, online etc) then rolling in the open does have a major disadvantage and it can often be that it enhances player entitlement. New players will very, very frequently fail to understand that the DM/GM is not a player themselves in the same way that they are. When we call for a saving throw, or when creatures do certain things they're frequently over and above what the players are capable of doing (legendary and lair actions for example). I've seen former play by post players come to in person games and be all sorts of offended that DMs are rolling behind the screen. Guess what though: that's what the majority of game systems out there suggest that the GM should be doing. Now, of course as a GM you're free to choose to ignore that of course, but I've seen it be a slippery slope where you have players who've only seen rolls in front of the screen become unhappy with things like environmental effects, or lair actions, or NPCs acting in particular ways. I've seen those same players then also get annoyed that there are wandering monsters who've interrupted a much needed short rest on the basis that 'we wouldn't have rested if you had told us monsters were roaming around'.

None of those are issues of player vs. GM. Neither are they necessarily easy to explain in the abstract before they occur in actual gameplay for all GMs and players.

In the whole I roll as best fits the group and situation. Sometimes that's in the open, sometimes that's concealed. With my longer running campaigns I will frequently lift the DM screen, or screengrab the roll if online, in order to highlight that I'm really not trying to kill your characters it is just real bad luck.

Ultimately, my experience has been though that the key objection to rolling behind the screen is trust. My answer to that is the same as always: I trust everyone at the table unless or until they prove otherwise. If a player rolls a 19 I'm going to believe them. I always include a section in session zero where I reinforce that rolling can be done in the way the player is most comfortable with - their own dice, a dice app, D&D Beyond rolling - whatever. However, I have seen cheating players before. I've seen players whose rolls are seemingly always successful. And when that happens, they lose the trust of their fellow players it can destroy a group. If that trust in fellow players is lost the answer is removing the player from the group. Dishonesty can happen in a multitude of ways far, far beyond just the rolls on the dice. We trust that players aren't going to fudge the number of potions in their inventory, that they are going to be marking off their spell slots. Just like players have to trust that we're running the monsters well, and dropping the 'correct' treasure, and that we aren't actively attempting to kill their characters.

Trust is the key in my opinion - not dice rolls. If you don't trust that the dice rolls will be honest, that's a symptom of a larger issue at play. 

That said, I genuinely do believe that it is a matter of GM style. You do what works for you as a GM.