PbP and Dice Rolling

[Adapt]

I have a couple questions regarding how dice rolls are handled in PbP and PbEmail games. Here's some context:

1. I am currently playing in Thakazum's Mutant Future PbP game here on the Goblinoid forums. In his game, players roll their own dice using an offsite dice roller that keeps track of every roll made. The game currently has 3 players and I haven't noticed this dice rolls being an issue when it comes to the pace of the game.

2. I am currently GMing a PbEmail FATE game set in the Old West. Because this is my first time GMing FATE and I am "test driving" the rules, this campaign currently has only one player. I have him make all his own dice rolls. Again, this method doesn't seem to hinder the flow of play.

3. I am in the process of planning a PbP Labyrinth Lord game. As part of my preparation, I have been reading through some of the other PbP games hosted here and I noticed that everyone else seems to use the "GM makes all the rolls" method. This threw me off at first. As a player, I really like rolling dice, even if it is just me clicking a button on a website. The more I thought about it, the more I started to see the logic in this method when you are GMing for a larger group. Having to wait for 6+ people to declare their actions, then having to ask each of them for whatever rolls are appropriate.... I can see how that would seriously slow down a PbP game.

Essentially, I see pros and cons to each method, and I am not sure which route I want to take with my PbP Labyrinth Lord game. I would love to hear some feedback from you guys on this issue, especially those of you who have experience with PbP games. What have you tried? What worked? What difference, if any, do you feel it makes to the game from a GM's or player's point of view?

[sonofotho]

I have to say that making all rolls as a DM really speeds up the pace of pbp and pbem games. In my current pbp we haven't done that much rolling yet, but this has been my experience from games past.

When recruiting players for the game I asked if anyone had a real burning desire to make their own rolls, but no one came back with a strong need to make their own rolls, (during character creation, for example). This may change when combat starts.

[kipper]

I've run many PbP games over the years (and played in many more as well). When I was running d20Modern games (based on 3.0 D&D) the players made their own rolls on an external dice roller. Later when I was running a LL game, I did the rolls myself (at home) and just wrote down the rolls I made at the bottom of my game posts. For that LL game I gave the players the option of doing their own rolls on an external dice roller if they wanted, not one player ever took me up on the offer. I'm currently running a Bunnies & Burrows game where I do the rolls myself and don't even tell the players the rolls themselves, just the in-game results of the rolls.

As a player, I've played in games using all of the above rolling-methods as well, and I have to say I prefer NOT having to do my own rolls, as it saves *me* time having to figure out the mods I need for a particular roll, go do it on a dice roller, then cut-and-paste the link into my post. I like just being able to post my actions and let the DM resolve what happens from there. I find it's actually much more immersive because I'm not constantly looking at mods and rules. In some games where I play I can check the DM's rolls (it's on RPOL where there is a built-in dice roller, but the DM still does all the rolls) I've found that I actually NEVER bother checking the DM's rolls in any case.

As a DM, I prefer to do the rolls myself because it saves me time. For one thing, I don't have to double-check the PC's rolls to make sure they're using the correct mods. I've also found that I actually prefer to not even give the players the actual die-roll results, because it saves me a lot of time as well (time on an external dice-roller, typing in the rolls then pasting the links, or alternately typing out the rolls if I roll my own dice at home). DMing a PbP game is actually very time-intensive, so anything which saves me time is a boon.

In summary, as a DM I prefer any method which will save me time, and not having to post actual die-rolls is an immense time-saver. As a player I've come to appreciate that "rolling the dice" is not important to my enjoyment of the game as a player, and knowing the DM's actual rolls is equally unimportant. So not posting dice-rolls is a win/win .

PS: I don't find that having players do their own rolls slows down the GAME as a whole, because the DM still needs to wait for the players to post their actions in any case even if there is no roll linked. As a general rule (and this is a little off-topic) the way I keep a game moving as a DM is that I *don't* necessarily wait for all players to post before going ahead and making my next post, I simply tell players the rule that they have 24hrs between my posts to post their actions. After that time period, I feel fully justified as DM in moving the game forward in fairness to the other players. If a player hasn't posted, I usually have their character just continue their previous action or stand quietly in the background as may be appropriate.