Fudging good, bad, or what?

VengerSatanis · Apr 14, 2017

There's been argument over if you should fudge rolls, when to fudge them and everything from calls of cheating to saving the story. My latest blog post states that fudging doesn't actually exist and implores GMs not to be enslaved by their dice:

http://vengersatanis.blogspot.com/2017/04/theres-no-such-thing-as-fudging.html

Thanks for reading, sharing, and commenting!

VS

ccs · Apr 14, 2017

I'm the DM. I roll the dice, or request the players to, when I desire a variable outcome.
If I wanted x to occur? I wouldn't have rolled the dice....

I'm fine with whatever outcome the dice provide. Even the unexpected TPK via random non-plot related encounter.

And I roll my bright yellow dice in the open.
There's no fudging those #s.

cmad1977 · Apr 14, 2017

Either. Neither. Both.

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Nagol · Apr 14, 2017

Fudging is turning to a determination system and then overruling the result -- typically covertly. As a player and as a DM I avoid the mechanism. As a DM, if I call for a roll it's because I want random arbitration; overriding the result I get seems antithetical to the purpose of asking for the random determination in the first place.

VengerSatanis · Apr 15, 2017

Nagol said:
Fudging is turning to a determination system and then overruling the result -- typically covertly. As a player and as a DM I avoid the mechanism. As a DM, if I call for a roll it's because I want random arbitration; overriding the result I get seems antithetical to the purpose of asking for the random determination in the first place.

Not necessarily. What about asking for a 2nd opinion? What if an idea occurs to you moments after the dice are rolled? What if you realize there's only 5 minutes left in the game and the random determination would be anti-climactic? I'm sure there's a half-dozen other reasons I haven't thought of. The point is that just because a GM rolls, that doesn't mean his hands are tied.

VS

Nagol · Apr 15, 2017

VengerSatanis said:
Not necessarily. What about asking for a 2nd opinion? What if an idea occurs to you moments after the dice are rolled? What if you realize there's only 5 minutes left in the game and the random determination would be anti-climactic? I'm sure there's a half-dozen other reasons I haven't thought of. The point is that just because a GM rolls, that doesn't mean his hands are tied.

VS

The die roll is a second opinion. The idea can be filed under "next time". If the result can be anti-climatic and there is limited time left don't call for a roll. Ultimately, these and any other outliers you want to come up with suffer from the same problem; the DM shouldn't have turned to the dice in the first place. And I suppose that might happen once or twice a decade or so. So turn back to the group, say you shouldn't have rolled and here's what actually happens...

This way the group is not deceived and understands the result isn't being governed by random determination.

VengerSatanis · Apr 19, 2017

Nagol said:
The die roll is a second opinion. The idea can be filed under "next time". If the result can be anti-climatic and there is limited time left don't call for a roll. Ultimately, these and any other outliers you want to come up with suffer from the same problem; the DM shouldn't have turned to the dice in the first place. And I suppose that might happen once or twice a decade or so. So turn back to the group, say you shouldn't have rolled and here's what actually happens...

This way the group is not deceived and understands the result isn't being governed by random determination.

We're light-years apart on this topic. It's late, I'm tired, and I think I'm just going to agree to disagree with you.

VS