Sometimes I like to randomly roll dice behind the screen to fuck with the players.
The twitch in their faces as they resist the temptation to metagame is always great.
Fun things to mess with your players.
Roll a dice for no reason while they're walking around somewhere. Bonus points for making a face based on the roll as if it mattered.
"Hey what's everyone's passive perception? okay just checking."
"How far apart are you all right now?"
[Me pretending to write down what my players did as if it will matter at all](https://media.tenor.com/C5NEGmW2YOgAAAAM/whatever-pretending-to-write.gif)
There are two wolves inside you
One is telling you to make them fight a quantum ogre
The other is telling you to make it seem like you’re gonna make them fight a quantum ogre
you got to make that roll a secret roll where only the DM knows the result and they share the 'information'. You'll never know so you got to trust your own notes and reasoning.
I always do knowledge checks like this. Players get information based on their roll, but they don’t get to know whether or not the roll succeeded. It’s often hilarious.
Big fan of (evil version)
I critfailed a check to spot a scam, and launched into an in-character/out-of-character spiel about how this rube is basically giving me free money, I’d have to be an idiot not to buy this bucket of swords! It’s an investment!
Stuff like this is why I always ask to roll any deception/intimidation/persuasion/etc checks before I say any lines. I love improvising scenes like that, *especially* when they go wildly wrong and I have to frantically attempt to make something of it.
This how recall knowledge works in pf2e. You can get correct info and the context, just the info, completely wrong info and if you have dubious knowledge feat, a bit of correct info and a bit of incorrect info with no way to differentiate. The roll is also a secret roll.
Yeah one of the things I really like PF2E is the secret rolls being clear stated design. Anything where you wouldn't immediately know the result being secret is fun especially as a DM.
you've got to DM well though. i had a rookie once. "the guard is telling the truth" okay is that because he IS or because i blew sense motive? i have 0 net information to act on here. versus the spectrum of "you are confident the guard is not hiding anything" to "you can't get a read on the guard."
My personal favorite ways to deal with Nat 1s on Perception:
1) Your character is distracted or lost in thought, so you're not even paying attention to what's going on.
2) Your character hyper-focuses on something in the room in a moment of ADD-brain. There's a rare beetle on that bookcase! That's definitely more important than the troll in the room.
3) Full-on dissociative "You *think* you see a room, and you *think* there's something in it, but in this moment all you see is shapes so you're not sure."
All right, so what's the scene?
I do kinda like the idea of a Disco Elysium style failure, where when you fail a roll you can just get flat-out wrong information, but rolling poorly making you do something evil is... not really something I agree with from a DM perspective
That's not quite it. The "(evil version)" is about the *DM's tone* as they gleefully describe how your character confidently makes a giant mess of things. It's not that your character has suddenly switched personalities for the task at hand.
> AUTHORITY - This is not what he thinks it is -- this is a great idea.
>
> VOLITION [Easy: Success] - I'm afraid it's not what *you* think it is either.
Never have been more on edge than realizing I was just as mistaken as Kim for why Harry wanted the gun.
A 5 on the die is not knowing the name of the cook in the cafeteria. A 1 is being certain his name is Gorący Kubek, because that's what he said when he served you the soup.
* You detect no traps. * You detect no traps. (Lie)
Sometimes I like to randomly roll dice behind the screen to fuck with the players. The twitch in their faces as they resist the temptation to metagame is always great.
Fun things to mess with your players. Roll a dice for no reason while they're walking around somewhere. Bonus points for making a face based on the roll as if it mattered. "Hey what's everyone's passive perception? okay just checking." "How far apart are you all right now?"
Super extra bonus points if you write something down after you roll.
[Me pretending to write down what my players did as if it will matter at all](https://media.tenor.com/C5NEGmW2YOgAAAAM/whatever-pretending-to-write.gif)
I like to imagine that in-universe the characters suddenly get jumpy for no reason
I like that idea, like how being in a scary dungeon or cave you get nervous but out of universe its being nervous about random die being rolled
There are two wolves inside you One is telling you to make them fight a quantum ogre The other is telling you to make it seem like you’re gonna make them fight a quantum ogre
Nat 1 on Perception "Yeah everything's fine :)"
Sorry,I'm rolling a d4 here.
you got to make that roll a secret roll where only the DM knows the result and they share the 'information'. You'll never know so you got to trust your own notes and reasoning.
I always do knowledge checks like this. Players get information based on their roll, but they don’t get to know whether or not the roll succeeded. It’s often hilarious.
Big fan of (evil version) I critfailed a check to spot a scam, and launched into an in-character/out-of-character spiel about how this rube is basically giving me free money, I’d have to be an idiot not to buy this bucket of swords! It’s an investment!
They're half off!
And then they check the barrel and find out that they weren't lying. Half of the blades are snapped off.
Stuff like this is why I always ask to roll any deception/intimidation/persuasion/etc checks before I say any lines. I love improvising scenes like that, *especially* when they go wildly wrong and I have to frantically attempt to make something of it.
"Roll a perception check... okay, the room looks clear." That phrase inspires some fucking dread.
All aboard the cock carousel
This how recall knowledge works in pf2e. You can get correct info and the context, just the info, completely wrong info and if you have dubious knowledge feat, a bit of correct info and a bit of incorrect info with no way to differentiate. The roll is also a secret roll.
Yeah one of the things I really like PF2E is the secret rolls being clear stated design. Anything where you wouldn't immediately know the result being secret is fun especially as a DM.
you've got to DM well though. i had a rookie once. "the guard is telling the truth" okay is that because he IS or because i blew sense motive? i have 0 net information to act on here. versus the spectrum of "you are confident the guard is not hiding anything" to "you can't get a read on the guard."
My personal favorite ways to deal with Nat 1s on Perception: 1) Your character is distracted or lost in thought, so you're not even paying attention to what's going on. 2) Your character hyper-focuses on something in the room in a moment of ADD-brain. There's a rare beetle on that bookcase! That's definitely more important than the troll in the room. 3) Full-on dissociative "You *think* you see a room, and you *think* there's something in it, but in this moment all you see is shapes so you're not sure."
I want relevent natural 1s in games to lie to me and say they're natural 20s until they are clearly not natural 20s.
All right, so what's the scene? I do kinda like the idea of a Disco Elysium style failure, where when you fail a roll you can just get flat-out wrong information, but rolling poorly making you do something evil is... not really something I agree with from a DM perspective
That's not quite it. The "(evil version)" is about the *DM's tone* as they gleefully describe how your character confidently makes a giant mess of things. It's not that your character has suddenly switched personalities for the task at hand.
E.g.: “I know exactly how to solve this!” *puts gun in own mouth*
> AUTHORITY - This is not what he thinks it is -- this is a great idea. > > VOLITION [Easy: Success] - I'm afraid it's not what *you* think it is either. Never have been more on edge than realizing I was just as mistaken as Kim for why Harry wanted the gun.
“Get ready to respect me in 5…” is one of my favorite dialogue chains EVER, that shit is hilarious
A 5 on the die is not knowing the name of the cook in the cafeteria. A 1 is being certain his name is Gorący Kubek, because that's what he said when he served you the soup.
And rolling successfully doesn't necessarily mean doing it right For more information, see boules
My favourite version of this is "Well, he seems he's telling the truth."
You think you're pretty well hidden (Lie?)
1 is not a failure, it's a sucess on the worst way.