Trust is at the heart of most human relationships. The gaming table is no different. As the person at the head of the table, the referee is highlighted as being particularly important in establishing table trust. The players look to the referee to be just that, a referee, an impartial judge of events during the game. The players rightly expect the referee to apply the rules in a fair and consistent manner. If the rules include dice, and most do, the players expect the rolls to be fair and impartial. Survival is winning and risking the lives of our paper characters is the price of entry.
The referee has a reasonable expectation that the players can be trusted as well. Trusted to show up ready to play, keep accurate records during play regarding character hit points, treasure, and resources expenditure and to defer to the referee on all matters pertaining to the referee's game world. The referee in turn is expected to put forth a reasonable effort, to use rules that are agreeable to all, to be enthused, and to devise an interesting and entertaining setting for the adventure. Moving the game along, keeping track of experience points and improvising when needed are also reasonable expectations of a referee.
Occasionally dice need to be rolled. I say "occasionally" because it is my practice to keep dice rolls to a minimum. Why commit to chance anything that can be adjudicated through discussion? (It's a social game!) Why risk failure by rolling the dice if failure is an unacceptable outcome? As a general rule, the referee should seriously consider each situation and the possible outcomes and their effect on the campaign before committing the outcome to the randomness of the dice. In most games outside role-playing the dice roll is sacrosanct. One does not alter the outcome on a whim. Honor and trust the dice. Accept their "decision" when consulted.
The bell curve nature of rolling multiple dice should be used whenever possible to mitigate extreme outcomes, unless the extremes are relatively meaningless (or are occasionally desirable). Because of the flat nature of the range of possible d20 outcomes, I am leery of using critical successes and fumbles when using this die. The d20 system, which began as the "alternative combat system" in White Box has become prolific and almost universal. So common is the twenty sided polyhedron that it is essentially an icon of the hobby, but it has its disadvantages. The d20 is essentially a percentile die in 5% increments. Rolling a 1 or a 20 is just as probable as a 10 or 11 (or any other single number for that matter). Adding two or more dice together produces a normal distribution of random results and is therefore more predictable (and desirable in my estimation).
Regarding dice and the game, random tables are great for referee (and sometimes player) inspiration and many of these rolls need not be explained to the players except as regards an outcome that would be immediately evident to their characters. The same must be true of certain skill use or detection rolls where the character would be in the dark regarding how well or poorly the PC has performed. All other dice should be rolled in the open with the outcome narrated by the referee (or by the player if encouraged to do so by the referee). Dice rolls are a matter of trust.
The referee, referred to by whatever name is used in the particular system being played, must wear many hats - author, judge, director, story-teller, character actor, time keeper, accountant and many others. The referee's reward for all their hard work is to see one's creation, a personal world vision, brought to life by cooperative players. The referee's responsibility is to do one's best to provide a safe, fun and fair table. We play to find out what happens. We create as we play. The rules and dice may aid us, if we trust them, but first we must have trust in one another.
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