This is something I’ve learned from the Star Wars and Legend of the Five Rings RPGs, both from Fantasy Flight Games. Due to the weird dice in both of those games, the players always know the difficulty of any roll they make. In Star Wars, it’s because the difficulty is defined by the “bad dice” that are part of the roll, while in L5R, it’s because after rolling, the player has to choose which dice to keep. Does he want lots of bonus successes, or does he want to get a special effect using Opportunities? Is he willing to suffer a lot of Strife to succeed?
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| Is it not a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt for so small a thing? |
Obviously most games don’t have these fiddly bits, but I’ve noticed a few interesting things happen when the player knows the Difficulty before the roll. First of all, it’s faster. When looking at the weird dice in these games, most people assume it will slow down play. It does a little for the first session or two, while people learn the symbols and how to use them. But after that, things speed up. A lot. The way many of us play games like D&D, a simple skill or attack roll goes like this:
“Okay, I’m attacking the Orc Chief.”
“Ok, roll it.”
“22?”
“That’s a hit.”
“Okay, for 12 damage. How’s he looking?”
“He’s pretty hurt.”
That’s a lot of back-and-forth that doesn’t need to be there. If the player knows the Armor Class of the Orc Chief, it goes a lot faster (and if he knows how many Hit Points it has, it goes even faster than that).
“Okay, I’m attacking the Orc Chief (rolls a 22 against AC 16, doing 12 damage). I lunge at him with my sword, which bites into his shoulder painfully for 12 damage! Not much out of 93, but it’s something!”
See that? The player rolls and tells you what happens. It also leads into my next point, which is that it makes the game more narrative. One of the most common complaints I hear from GMs is that their players don’t get into the narrative aspect of combat and die rolls. Well, this is the easiest way to change that. When you throw out that needless back and forth, the player can narrate the results much more easily.
It also allows the players to make more informed decisions, including realizing when they’re overmatched. Another of the most common complaints is that PCs never run from combat until it’s too late. Of course they don’t! They’ve been kicking ass all day, why should they run when you tell them “This guy seems tough”? Then the fighter drops, and then the cleric who tries to heal him, and soon you have a dead party on your hands. They players are pissed at you for throwing such a nasty monster at them, and you’re irritated that they didn’t pick up on your lame clues that they were out of their league. If they know the creature’s AC, they know exactly their odds of hitting it, and if they know its HP, they have a rough idea of how many attacks it will take to kill it.
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| "So, what, like 100 Hit Points?" |
Side bonus: It helps eliminate fudging the results. We all know fudging is bad, but we do it anyway, usually in the Players’ favor. If they know the AC and HP, they ave to earn all that damage. Hell, roll your dice in the open, and they’ll know exactly how much trouble they’re in.
Okay, let me cut off your counter-arguments right here.
“It breaks the sense of mystery!”
A couple of numbers are not a mystery. We’re talking basic stats every creature in the game has. Things like mind control or curses can be surprise mysteries, and you don’t have to tell the players every ability their adversaries have.
“It’s unrealistic for them to know exactly how much health a monster has.”
It’s unrealistic to represent health with a number, but we’ve all accepted that. I’m not a very good Martial Artist, but when I’m sparing or grappling, I know immediately if I’m at a significant advantage or disadvantage. Most RPG characters are professional warriors of one sort or another. They’re going to know what’s what pretty damn fast.
“It breaks the immersion.”
It does the opposite. Remember my first point? The player tells you what happens. They make their own roll and immediately describe the results. Not everyone is going to be descriptive with it, but that’s more about the player. Those who are inclined will do so. if they know the enemy’s HP, they can even say, “I cleave the goblin’s head clean from his body.” That’s much more fun and immersive.
I focus on Dungeons and Dragons here because it's the most popular, but I think this is a good change for basically any game. If you want to hold back a little, you can hide repetitive target numbers like Armor Class until the first attack is made, or Hit Points until the first bit of damage is dealt, but I wouldn't hide it any longer than that. Simple targets like leaping a chasm or climbing a wall should be told up front. The more informed the players are, they more fun they'll have, and the less work you have to do to feed them numerical information hidden in conversational terms.
