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Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;739260Your difficulty number is the target number then? Is the target number always calculated for each PC's roll? Or is it already known and the difficulty is added?

Target number is known difficulty.... maybe.

Depends on which game. MtAs has an easier difficulty with thresholds while MtAw has a harder difficulty with factors.

Quote from: FASERIP;739100When I was running OD&D, I would always tell the players the armor class because

a) I was using one-minute combat rounds and figured their characters would discern how difficult landing a blow was

That's probably the most decent argument I've ever heard in favor of telling people the AC.

Mind you, my players tend to guess based on the description I give them of the monster or opponent.  Even in cases where they're not precisely sure, they'll figure it out in the first couple of rounds of combat.

I'll reveal the DC for stuff like jumping over a pit. Last but one 4e game a player needed it explained that his 18th level dwarf fighter (at least +15 on jumping, assuming no Athletics skilll) wasn't going to have any trouble jumping over the 10' wide pool (DC 10!) that looked scary to him on the map.

I'll typically reveal DCs if the PC should logically know how hard the task is. I'll conceal them where they would not. With combat I'll typically reveal it after the first roll vs that defence - in 4e choosing which of 4 defences to target (AC Reflex Fort Will) is part of the game, so I won't reveal them up front.

Edit: With 1e AD&D likewise I'll typically reveal the AC as soon as the monster is attacked, but not before. If I apply mods to a Thief d% roll, a d20 attribute check etc, I'll usually reveal that up front, before the roll.

A lot depends on what is going on in play and who the Player is. There will be circumstances where the PC will have no idea what the difficulty number is for the roll and others where it will be obvious.

I've run games for people who were still learning the rules and I would just say, "Roll high", because the more numbers I'd mention the more confused they would get.