|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 11:58AM
#1
|
|
|
This was brought up in the 'whats a player to do' forum as someone was complaining about the way his DM rolls his dice. Fudging isn't even a topic I really ever thought about, but apparently everyone has an opnion on the matter. It made me curious what DM's thoughts on the matter were.
Do you Fudge? Do your players know you fudge (hide the rolls and such)? How do you keep it balanced?
I never really thought about it too much but I do fudge occassionally. I will do it under some circumstances, those usually being to cast surprise over them, or for a plot/rp setup. Its not something I do often. Tabletop wise I will roll behind a DM screen, not always telling them why I am rolling. Online it is much harder to fudge, and when they notice I assured them I have an rp reason for it. Happily I have a good crowd and they trust me when I do that. Like I said, it doesn't happen often.
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 12:00PM
#2
|
|
|
I don't fudge die rolls; every die roll when I'm running is made in plain sight of at least one other player. However, if a battle is starting to go a bit south, I'll fudge by having the opponents make poor tactical decisions, which I think is more entertaining than just changing a hit to a miss.
This is probably an overreaction from an old player-DM who would constantly cheat on his own die rolls, consistently rolling high as a player on everything, and always rolling low as a DM ... so, not only was he a cheating player, he was a total powderpuff of a DM.
Another day, another three or four entries to my Ignore List.
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 12:12PM
#3
|
Date Joined:
May 19, 2011
|
I've acctually commited the cardinal sin of fudging against my player's on occasion. Ever since in one of our first sessions when the completly locked down a dragon at lvl 1 and in the following session defeted a lvl 8 ogre not by blowing up the cart full of explosive barrels he was carrying but just by burning him down with some very lucky rolls. I'll only do it when im pretty sure they have the fight well wrapped up and just to add a little tension to a fight that had been fairly underwhelming up untill then.
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 12:16PM
#4
|
Date Joined:
Mar 10, 2011
|
I don't remember ever fudging dice rolls myself, but I reserve the right to do so in the name of keeping things fun and interesting for everyone involved.
I have fudged monster hitpoints before, mostly to eliminate monsters faster and to get the occasional fight that was running longer than I liked over with.
New DM Tips
Show
- Trying to solve out-of-game problems (like cheating, bad attitudes, or poor sportsmanship) with in-game solutions will almost always result in failure, and will probably make matters worse.
- Gun Safety Rule #5: Never point the gun at anything you don't intend to destroy. (Never introduce a character, PC, NPC, Villain, or fate of the world into even the possibility of a deadly combat or other dangerous situation, unless you are prepared to destroy it instantly and completely forever.)
- Know your group's character sheets, and check them over carefully. You don't want surprises, but, more importantly, they are a gold mine of ideas!
- "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." It's a problem if the players aren't having fun and it interferes with a DM's ability to run the game effectively; if it's not a problem, 'fixing' at best does little to help, and at worst causes problems that didn't exist before.
- "Hulk Smash" characters are a bad match for open-ended exploration in crowds of civilians; get them out of civilization where they can break things and kill monsters in peace.
- Success is not necessarily the same thing as killing an opponent. Failure is not necessarily the same thing as dying.
- Failure is always an option. And it's a fine option, too, as long as failure is interesting, entertaining, and fun!
"Broken or not, unbalanced or not, if something seems to be preventing the game from being enjoyable, something has to give: either that thing, or other aspects of the game, or your idea of what's enjoyable." - Centauri
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 12:23PM
#5
|
Date Joined:
Jul 21, 2004
|
I do not fudge dice rolls. If there is something that I think should or should not happen, then it does or does not. Things that I think should happen are usually player ideas; I tend not to forego appropriate dice rolls when they involve something bad for the players. That is, I will set up bad things to happen, but if the party should have a chance to avoid those bad things I will give them that chance. On the other hand, sometimes I just think it would be more interesting for, say, an ambush to come out of nowhere, and then it does.
Things that I think should not happen are things like bad NPC reactions or missed clues. I don't like to leave those up to dice rolls, but if I do I'll stick by the roll.
I do not roll Perception checks or any other checks for the players. I'm a rotten liar and I trust them to roleplay appropriately and to enhance the experience with their ideas.
I do my best not to "throw" fights, but I also try not to make fights about killing the PCs. Whenever possible, I give the monsters an alternate goal, so that if things go bad for the PCs they still fail, but aren't killed.
[N]o difference is less easily overcome than the difference of opinion about semi-abstract questions. - L. Tolstoy
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 12:29PM
#6
|
|
|
I roll in the open and let the dice fall where they may. Some DMs do it as a stylistic approach as well. If your narrative and encounter/scene design are tight enough, you just don't need to.
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 12:30PM
#7
|
Date Joined:
Sep 26, 2011
|
I have been known to fudge rolls to keep players alive. I no longer do that. I try to keep a game balanced on encounters now but if a player does something dangerous then they now know it could cost them dearly. I got tired of players doing things and banking on the fact I would let them live.
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 1:01PM
#8
|
Date Joined:
Feb 20, 2011
|
I recently switched to public rolls. But before that, on the rare occasion that I fudged, it tended to be in the monsters favor to make the fight more interesting. If the players need help, I usually do the same as Salla and have the monsters make sub-optimal choices.
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 1:12PM
#9
|
Date Joined:
Apr 21, 2011
|
I fudged once...It was the first fight of a new quest and I was rolling like crazy!!! ( Nothing under 15 ) I said to myself:"I can't kill my players!" but normaly, I don't, I'm not really lucky with my dice. In fact, I happened to roll three 1s in a row more than once...But when I crit...Everyone in the neighborhood hear me, I'm like "BANG!!!! CRIT!!! TAKE THAT!!! 60 HP!!!"
I'm playing:
Abin Gadon, Halfling Bard
Winston "Slurphnose", Gnome Sorcerer
Pasiphaé, Minotaur Shaman
Eglerion, Elf Ellyrian Reaver (Ranger)
DMing:
Le Trésor du Fluide (Treasure from the Fluid)
Un Royaume d'une Grande Valeur (A Kingdom of Great Value)
La Légende de Persitaa (Persitaa's Legend)
Une Série de Petites Quêtes... (A serie of short quests)
Playtesting:
Caves of Chaos
We're building the greatest adventure ever known to DnD players!
Also playing Legend of the Five Rings and Warhammer Fantasy.
Sébastien, Beloeil, Qc.
I am Neutral Good and 32 years old.
|
|
|
|
2 years ago ::
Sep 30, 2011 - 1:23PM
#10
|
Date Joined:
Sep 26, 2011
|
I keep the rolls out of sight just to keep the focus on the roleplay. The group I used to play with could go from roleplay to hack and slash very quickly so I tried to control it as much as possible.
|
|
|
