Who throws the dice in your game? Do you want to see/know the numerical results? Does it impact your roleplaying? Personally, unless I'm in a formal tournament, I prefer not throwing dice and not knowing their results (i.e. the DM throws them behind the screen for me and then tells me in a "wordy" way what happens) as this helps my roleplaying, but I know other players that like to openly roll the dice. What are the pros and cons of players not rolling the dice and especially the impact on fun through roleplaying?
[RPG] Who should roll the dice
diceroleplaying
Related Solutions
OK, I don't have time to answer this as I want to. My background is in psychology, and I fell into role playing games when I turned 10 in 1976. So by the time I was in college, understanding where the term Roleplaying game really came from, I understood the critical nature of immersion, how it is the most important ingredient for game success.
And to be clear, the definition of immersion is to "Immerse oneself into the identity and Role of the part one is playing. To respond, as much as possible, as the person one is playing, not as oneself."
And before getting into the smaller details, I will dive right into the fact that the very system/game one chooses has a huge amount to do with the amount of Immersion.
Metagaming is the opposite of immersion. You use both terms, but I need to make that absolute definition from the beginning. This also means rules that encourage metagaming decrease the immersion in a game and therefore, decrease the main ingredient of a roleplaying game. The mechanics are called "Dissociated Mechanics", a term coined by Justin Alexander. This is very worth reading, because it gets into many of the larger picture issues with players being able to use in-game logic to see the world around them, as opposed to the rules forcing dissociation from in-game logic.
Once the players assume that rules are going to determine the content of an encounter or treasure (based on EL, or whatever) instead of what the environment or history of the area dictate, verisimilitude is lost.
Vreeg's Rules of Setting design are also heavily immersion related. My current campaign is 26 or so years old (started in '83). Building verisimilitude is a huge part of this.
Vreeg's first Rule of Setting Design
Make sure the ruleset you are using matches the setting and game you want to play, because the setting and game WILL eventually match the system.Corollary to Vreeg's First Rule
The proportion of rules given to a certain dimension of an RPG partially dictate what kind of game the rules will create. If 80% of the rulebook is written about thieves and the underworld, the game that is meant for is thieving. If 80% of the mechanics are based on combat, the game will revolve around combat.- Multiply this by 10 if the reward system is based in the same area as the preponderance of rules.
2nd Corollary
Character growth is the greatest reinforcer. The synthesis of pride in achievement with improvement in the character provides over 50% of the reinforcement in playing the game. Rules that involve these factors are the most powerful in the game.
Vreeg’s Second Rule of Setting Design
Consistency is the Handmaiden of Immersion and Verisimilitude. Keep good notes, and spend a little time after every creation to ‘connect the dots’. If you create a foodstuff or drink, make sure you note whether the bars or inns the players frequent stock it. Is it made locally, or is it imported? If so, where from? If locally made, is it exported?Vreeg's Third Rule of Setting Design
The World In Motion is critical for Immersion, so create 'event chains' that happen at all levels of design. The players need to feel like things will happen with or without them; they need to feel like they can affect the outcome, but event-chains need velocity, not just speed.Vreeg's Fourth Rule of Setting Design
Create motivated events and NPCs, this will invariably create motivated PCs. Things are not just happening, they happen because they matter to people (NPCs). There is no need to overact, just make sure that the settings and event-chains are motivated and that the PCs feel this.Vreeg's Fifth Rule of Setting Design
The Illusion of Preparedness is critical for immersion; allowing the players to see where things are improvised or changed reminds them to think outside the setting, removing them forcibly from immersion. Whenever the players can see the hand of the GM - even when the GM needs to change things in their favor - it removes them from the immersed position. (Cole, of the RPGsite, gets credit for the term).
Remember that part of immersion is the lack of feeling walls around and rails under the characters. This means that the players should not feel that there are things that their character cannot do solely because of the rules or the GM's mindset. The job of the GM is to enable roleplay, not to inhibit it. This also means the GM must be as immersed as the players, or more.
Another big-picture thing that may irk some folk who sell stuff is that published settings can hurt immersion. They don't destroy it; but when the players have a lot of knowledge about a setting that their character would not have, this increases the opportunity to use it, consciously or unconsciously. Similarly, if your setting has its own bestiary that the characters learn as they go along, or at least a lot of homebrew tweaks, the players get used to working with the in-house data and not trusting the published sources.
If you have done all of this larger-scope stuff, the smaller scope stuff becomes easier. As a GM with miles on the tires, I find that playing up the level of knowledge my NPCs might have and do not have helps keep the players in the same mindset. Players key heavily off the way the GM plays their NPCs. They won't do the funny voices or the mannerisms if the GM does not, and if the GM is particularly careful about what their NPCs know and don't know, especially verbally, the players emulate this.
"Natural" means an unmodified roll.
The number you see printed on the die when you just throw it. Not adding or subtracting bonuses, penalties or rerolling. Just the number you see.
Terms will differ in individual games and groups, but usually the total result (natural roll plus any modifiers) is just called your "roll," or we'll say "I got a 25." In some systems (sounds like you're reading a D&D book), your natural roll has implications regardless of the modifiers you can add to it, so it's important to have a way to talk about the difference.
"I rolled a 25 on a natural 1! My modifiers are awesome! ...but I still missed, because natural 1s always miss in our game."
"Man, I got a -2 on a natural 5. I need to get this curse removed as soon as possible or I'm gonna die of a stubbed toe."
Best Answer
In my experience, the driving factors in this choice are less about fun and roleplaying, and more about practicality.
Specifically, having players make their own rolls takes some of the pressure off the DM, and gives him some time to think about the consequences of the roll, the probability involved, and generally not be actively doing something for a couple seconds. It spreads the responsibility for maintaining the game (which normally tends to pool on the DM) around the table a bit.
This will vary from system to system and DM to DM, of course. D6 and roll and keep would be nightmares (so... much... counting), while old-school D&D wouldn't be a huge deal. Individual DMs will have varying tolerances as well...
Roleplaying
Regarding your actual question, let's talk about roleplaying. In my opinion, hidden rolls are a useful tool for perception, stealth, and knowledge related checks. Not knowing the result takes a lot of burden off of the player, and frees them to roleplay appropriately. I talk about this a bit in another question. Note that there are some strong dissenting opinions on this... You can find them in the comments and other answers to that question.
For more procedural rolls (attacks, damage, climbing checks, and so on) it doesn't really matter one way of the other. Knowing the roll ahead of time can help you add a bit of description before the DM starts, but this isn't a make or break kind of thing.
Fun
Ah, fun. This is where things get complicated, because everyone has a different idea of what fun is. Roleplaying in particular appeals to different people for very different reasons.
Some people show up to be told a story (that they somewhat participate in). For them, it doesn't really matter if they roll or not as long as they trust the DM to tell a good story. The ups and downs of their character, even the rules of the game themselves, aren't as important as a good narrative. In fact, having to think about numbers and rolls in general only serves to pull them out of the mood.
Some people show up to tell their story. They want to have an active part in the storytelling process, and want power to shape the narrative. They're more likely to want to roll the dice themselves, so that they know that their character isn't being "cheated" for the sake of the DM's story.
Finally, some people show up to play the game. They're more actively interested in the mechanics of the system and their characters. They'll definitely enjoy things more if they can roll their own dice (most of the time), because it lets them see the gears of the system turning in front of them.
Of course, these are broad strokes... Most people will draw from several categories, or jump from category to category over the course of a night.