Making Module: Question for the community.

For those who don't know me I'm the guy who made Heroes of Belfum and am currently working on HoB 2. It has tons of features blah blah and I've come to a point where my collaborator and I need to make a decision and I want community input. Do you want your GM attack rolls visible or no? I've seen it done both ways. It has its pros/cons. I personally prefer the suspense of my poor players waiting for me to tell them but it definitely makes things faster if they can see. This vs. Let us know what you want!

Personally, I prefer to let my players see all rolls. It doesn't take much to figure out the target numbers, even if you're not told what they are. (As an example, the most recent encounter in the 4e game I'm in had an enemy with 24 reflex. We knew that within the first round, despite it being a game where the GM hides that sort of information.) For systems like D&D, it's also pretty easy to get a copy of the Monster Manual and be able to look up the stats on Team Monster. Some GMs change the attributes of the enemies they throw at the party, but many don't. On the other hand, if my rolls are all shown to the players, it keeps things honest. The players know they're hit or if they miss. Further, it's possible for the players to notice a mistake in the calculation for bonuses and such if they can see the roll.

I prefer to do open combat rolls, and most skill checks are open as well in my campaign, for many of the same reasons as Brian mentioned. I do keep a handful of skill rolls hidden.

I keep most of my rolls public, no chance for players to cry foul play that way (and oh how players love to moan). The only rolls i hide are moral checks for my monsters and the occasional wandering monster check... and even then i have an emote saying that i'm making a 'secret' roll just to unnerve the players ;)

That reminds me to queue a sinister laugh in the Jukebox to play should I need a secret roll in play.

Personally, I roll all my GM rolls secretly.

I have made the players do the rolls for me without telling them what the roll was for. It solved the problem of them claiming I cheated the roll when they made the roll.

I do most rolls in the open, only certain ones are done in secret. Checks for traps or secret doors, for example.

Yes this is good information. Also I've been asking the guys in the campaigns I am involved in and it seems to be the prominent preference to show the rolls. Thank you for the feedback!

I allow my players to see the combat (to hit and damage) rolls and the saving throws for the monsters. I hide some rolls, like when I use dice to determine a target for an enemy when multiple choices are available and there is no clear RP reason for why one target would be chosen over another.