Hiding or Revealing the DC
Header Art: Fantasy Landscape by David Edwards
There is a question that every Game Master must decide on. Do they reveal the DC, the Difficulty Challenge, to their players… or keep it hidden behind the screen? Do you keep the players in suspense, hide how close they were to succeeding or failing? Is it just a nod and a wink when you ask for a roll? Do you even have a DC in your mind, or do you just like to hear dice roll across a table?
There is a lot to be said about having an open discussion with the party about the DC of an ability check or the AC of a monster. Then again, how can you build suspense when the party is aware of how difficult something is? It can be tricky to decide where you should fall down on this debate, but let’s go ahead and talk about both sides.
Hiding the DC
When you hide the DC from the players, the world becomes just a bit unknowable. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t eventually tell them the DC, like after they roll and they have no other way of accomplishing the feat, but rather that it is harder for them to judge the difficulty of something themselves. Since we can’t experience every sensation that our characters can; until we get access to Virtual RPGs like Sword Art Online, then we are stuck with just our imagination and words from a GM.
Cons
In a player’s mind, they could ‘see’ an obstacle that is a large boulder as being easy to climb over or to pry loose and send over the cliff. The GM ‘sees’ that same boulder, except they have different ideas about how hard it is to roll it down the hill and just exactly how big they think a boulder is. They could describe the boulder as 10 feet across and weighs several tons, but a player could still take that to mean that it’ll just be difficult, not impossible which is what the GM is trying to get across.
Of course, this all relies on communication, and if the GM keeps beating around the boulder by describing its size, weight, heaviness, and taste to the player - the player is still going to have their own idea as to the difficulty of moving it. The GM has tried everything except telling the player the DC of rolling the boulder, using words like very hard and you are an 8 strength wizard - all the while they are thinking of a DC of 25. The player is thinking of a DC of 15, 18, or even 20 because they still have their own ideas of the boulder. Since the DC is hidden, the player still thinks they have a chance with a lucky roll while the GM is pretty sure that the player doesn’t have a high enough modifier, even with a 20 on the die, but isn’t sure.
The player then rolls their die, ends up getting a 19 on the die and having a final score of 22. They are ecstatic, they obviously pushed that boulder except the GM shakes their head and informs them that the boulder does not move. Disappointment sets in at the table and the player wonders why the GM doesn’t want them to move this boulder.
In this example, there are two people with very different ideas about what ‘very hard’ or ‘almost impossible’ means. When the GM says something like that, they mean for the world at large and not specifically for a single player’s character. When a player hears those phrases, they hear it in regards to their character, meaning they think they have a chance if they can just roll high enough.
Pros
In a situation where the GM wants the party to find certain key items or has a hidden door, it makes sense to keep your DCs hidden. When the party announces they want to search the room, the GM responding it’s a DC 15 to find the hidden door can be rather… anti-climatic. Especially, if everyone fails the check but now they know there is a hidden door - but their characters don’t. Instead, they just keep trying to make checks until they hit the DC or the GM gets tired of them rolling and failing over and over and just gives them the hidden door or the items that they want the party to find.
With a hidden DC, the GM can go ahead and pick the character with the highest check and just give them the information they need, a hint to solve the puzzle, or allow just them to clamber up to the top without ever having to come up with a DC. They have greater freedom and are not bound to a specific number when they just want the session to run smoothly and not get stuck and derailed by a locked door. They can adjust the difficulty of puzzles, stealth checks, and more to better reflect the narrative tension of their session or to simply give someone who has had a bad roll after bad roll a small reprieve from bad RNG.
Revealed DC
With a revealed DC, the players and GM are on even footing. They each understand what the difficulty of a challenge is, and the chances a character might have. This provides a different ‘experience’ than a GM simply describing the terrain, the sights and sounds, and even the smell of a boulder. This ‘experience’ helps informs how you see the problem that your character can see, that the boulder is oddly shaped and isn’t as useful for rolling with a DC 25 instead of a DC 15 or 18 that you were hoping for. It’s easier to realize that something is outside a character’s limitations because you have the rough data, something that your character could immediately recognize as they live that world, but something harder for you to recognize because you are only getting a facsimile of it.
Pros
When a player asks the GM to do something, be it insanely complicated or super easy, the GM can provide a number. This number tells the player just how likely they are able to accomplish this task, something their player would probably know based on their own mental or physical abilities. The player can then adjust and formulate a new plan, maybe with the GM’s help, and then hit a difficulty and a plan that they are confident in succeeding while still having a clear idea that if they fail, the GM isn’t just picking on them or moving goalposts so that their character can’t accomplish what they want.
With this clear information, hard feelings can be avoided - players know that it wasn’t the GM who stopped them from accomplishing something if they rolled poorly; they could still be in disagreement at the difficulty of doing an activity. The player has a better understanding of the world, and so they can make plans in character tin ways to lower the DC. If they hear to scale a wall, it is a DC 15 Athletics check, they might decide to grab crates and stack them in a pyramid shape to lower that to a DC 10 or change it to an Acrobatics check, something they are far more likely to succeed at with their abilities. This open conversation between player and GM can help the party realize that some ideas are just too off the wall instead of living in ignorance to how the GM constructs the world.
Cons
Arguments can and will come out about things being too difficult and the GM just not understanding the master plan, all to be resolved by an awful ability check that wouldn’t have succeeded anyway. The sense of mystery can be ruined, just as hidden objects are revealed by purely open DCs. When a GM says it’s a DC 15 to search a room, you have to wonder what’s in the room as there is obviously something there. It can be frustrating for the entire party to fail the check when they know had an excellent chance of succeeding - and they just know they are missing something. This might lead to trying to reroll checks over and over until they succeed or the GM just pushing the party past it, crushing the completionist heart that we all have.
What is the Solution?
We’ve looked at the options and maybe you are starting to question how you present DCs to the party. Maybe you regret telling your rogue that the DC to pickpocket was only 12 and you really rather they didn’t try so you could complete a one-shot in a single session instead of spending an hour talking about pickpocketing the bartender.
Well, the obvious solution to anyone, and I’m sure you had inklings and thoughts about this while you are reading, is to just do both. Provide DCs to the party when it makes sense and keep secret ones secret like your doors and traps. There is no one SINGLE way to do something, the same goes for revealed and hidden DCs. There are times when it makes sense and times when it doesn’t.
How I Implement It
I’m fairly open about ability checks and their DCs to my players. I tell them that their desire to slide down a steep incline will require a DC 15 acrobatics check, that firing two arrows in the air will mean that they can’t make a check to avoid falling damage. I even told them that to know what the esoteric lore is will require a DC 25 check, both as a way to show how rare such knowledge of the McGuffin is, as well as to show the players that it isn’t a given they just know about something but there is a chance they might.
In addition, I also keep DCs hidden. I keep the AC of monsters hidden until they hit it on the dot, though I offer plenty of context clues that we have developed over the years so they have a general idea. If I say that they just missed something, they know the AC is 1 or 2 points higher. If I say that they easily slam into the creature, they know they got it 5 or higher on their attack roll. If I say they just barely hit the creature, they know they have the AC. The same goes for saving throws, ability checks, and more. I describe to the players not only how they just barely break free of the mind control when they barely make the saving throw, but I also tell them before major rolls against magical effects that the DC to beat is 18 and have them roll in the middle of the table. If they make it, they make it, if not, well, there is that narrative tension that creates wonderful moments at the table.
What About You?
In this great debate, I, and many others, say why not do both? But what about you? How do you deal with DCs in your game? Do you keep things hidden and close to the chest? All the better to finaggle certain elements for your party as you root for them? Or do you offer DCs to the party out in the open, and if they don’t make it, well... not your problem? If you’re a player, how do you like DCs? COmpletely open? Hidden so you never see the inner workings of your GM’s mad mind? Let me know!
Like what we are doing here?
Support us on Patreon!
You’ll get early access to deep dives, our Homebrew Hoard, monster stat blocks and more!
Follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on everything we talk about!
