Keeping Difficulties Secret

[Clay]

Something I've realized since writing OVA is that very often RPGs encourage not openly stating the difficulty of a given task. Throughout the book, I consistently show the Game Master openly describing the DN, to the point that characters know exactly how many Drama Dice they need to spend to succeed.

To some degree, I don't think this is a bad idea. Usually it's obvious how difficult a task is from the outset, and giving a concrete number to shoot for is not exactly letting the cat out of the bag.

But what do you guys think? Should DNs always remain secret? Always stated? Or a mixture, where DN can be public in one task and secret in another? I'm pretty sure OVA follows the latter as it stands. (In the opening example, Karis is not given the DN for spotting the puddle, but does get one for trying to disarm the gunman)

[blaster219]

When I'm GMing, I don't give EXACT difficulty or target numbers, just vague descriptions of the difficulty: "You should be able to pull it off with little effort" or "That sounds a bit challenging" that sort of thing. Mainly so that if things are going badly for the player's (or if one player is just having a bad day with the dice) I can fudge things a little. Same goes if need to fudge things in the NPCs direction. Of course, its two-way street. If you fudge in favour of one side, the other side should get a similar break as well at some point to balance the karma scales.

[calibur1]

It's not that big a deal. I give the DN because it's OVA, and I want the player's to use Drama Dice. Drama Dice use Endurance and it allows characters to do fantastic things... just like in anime.

[Erinak]

Part of the fun for my players is knowing the odds, then beating them. Using vague terms are great for story telling - but when it comes down to rolling those dice, they like to know what they're shooting for.

Sometimes it gives too much an advantage though (example I can think of is someone deciding if they want to use the counterattack manuever - well the attacker customarily rolls first, in this case the defender would have an advantage seeing the 'DN' of the attacker and deciding to do a counterattack or not. One could say the defender should declare counterattack before rolls - but then the attacker then sees the defender's hand and maybe wants to kamikaze...gets rather complicated who declares what first.)

And I'm with the poster above - I want them to use drama dice as that gives them some more control (but not total) over pure luck.

[Clay]

Thanks for the input guys. Going to stick with "tell the DN!" being canon. Though I may put a footnote that in certain cases (like perception rolls where the difficulty cannot be realistically estimated by the player, no revealed by the GM without giving something away) that the DN can remain secret.