AD&D DMG, on fudging

ROLLING THE DICE AND CONTROL OF THE GAME
In many situations it is correct and fun to have the players dice such things
as melee hits or saving throws. However, it is your right to control the dice
at any time and to roll dice for the players. You might wish ta do this to
keep them from knowing some specific fact. You also might wish to give
them an edge in finding a particular clue, e.g. a secret door that leads to a
complex of monsters and treasures that will be especially entertaining.
You do have every right to overrule the dice at any time if there is a
particular course of events that you would like to have occur. In making
such a decision you should never seriously harm the party or a non-player
character with your actions. "ALWAYS GIVE A MONSTER AN EVEN BREAK!"

Examples of dice rolls which should always be made secretly are: listening,
hiding in shadows, detecting traps, moving silently, finding secret
doors, monster saving throws, and attacks made upon the party without
their possible knowledge.

There will be times in which the rules do not cover a specific action that a
player will attempt. In such situations, instead of being forced to make a
decision, take the option to allow the dice to control the situation. This can
be done by assigning a reasonable probability to an event and letting the
player dice to see if he or she can make that percentage. You can
weigh the dice in any way so as to give the advantage to either the player
or the non-player character, whichever seems more correct and logical to
you while being fair to bath sides.

Now and then a player will die through no fault of his own. He or she will
have done everything correctly, taken every reasonable precaution, but
still the freakish roll of the dice will kill the character. In the long run you
should let such things pass as the players will kill more than one opponent
with their own freakish rolls at some later time. Yet you do have the right
to arbitrate the situation. You can rule that the player, instead of dying, is
knocked unconscious, loses a limb, is blinded in one eye or invoke any
reasonably severe penalty that still takes into account what the monster
has done. It is very demoralizing to the players to lose a cared-for-player
character when they have played well. When they have done something
stupid or have not taken precautions, then let the dice fall where they
may! Again, if you have available ample means of raising characters from
the dead, even death is not too severe; remember, however, the
constitution-based limit to resurrections. Yet one die roll that you should
NEVER tamper with is the SYSTEM SHOCK ROLL to be raised from the dead.
If a character fails that roll, which he or she should make him or herself, he or
she is FOREVER DEAD. There MUST be some final death or immortality will
take over and again the game will become boring because the player
characters will have 9+ lives each!

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The final word, then, is the game. Read how and why the system is as it is, follow the parameters, and then cut portions as needed to maintain excitement. For example, the rules call for wandering monsters, but these can be not only irritating - if not deadly - but the appearance of such can actually spoil a game by interfering with an orderly expedition. You have set up an area full of clever tricks and traps, populated it with well thought-out creature complexes, given clues about it to pique players’ interest, and the group has worked hard to supply themselves with everything by way of information and equipment they will need to face and overcome the imagined perils. They are gathered together and eager to spend an enjoyable evening playing their favorite game, with the expectation of going to a new, strange area and doing their best to triumph. They are willing to accept the hazards of the dice, be it loss of items, wounding, insanity, disease, death, as long as the process is exciting.

But lo!, everytime you throw the ”monster die” a wandering nasty is indicated, and the party’s strength is spent trying to fight their way into the area. Spells expended, battered and wounded, the characters trek back to their base. Expectations have been dashed, and probably interest too, by random chance. Rather than spoil such an otherwise enjoyable time, omit the wandering monsters indicated by the die. No, don’t allow the party to kill them easily or escape unnaturally, for that goes contrary to the major precepts of the game. Wandering monsters, however, are included for two reasons, as is explained in the section about them. If a party deserves to have these beasties inflicted upon them, that is another matter, but in the example above it is assumed that they are doing everything possible to travel quickly and quietly to their planned destination. If your work as a DM has been sufficient, the players will have all they can handle upon arrival, so let them get there, give them a chance. The game is the thing, and certain rules can be distorted or disregarded altogether in favor of play.

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Piratecat said:

Before I merge threads, Pawsplay, why is this a separate thread and not part of the already existing thread on fudging? I wanted to check in case there's something I'm missing.

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Piratecat said:

Before I merge threads, Pawsplay, why is this a separate thread and not part of the already existing thread on fudging? I wanted to check in case there's something I'm missing.

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Fifth Element said:

Perhaps because this one is specific to the 1E DMG, or because the other thread is so long that I suspect most people would not even want try to to get caught up with what's been said there?

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Raven Crowking said:

Also, this seems to be about the advice given in the 1e DMG, not necessarily a "what would you do?" thread like the other.

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