Problem - As a DM, What Would You Do?

Munin · Jul 17, 2003

Simple,

Form a circle and stand the cheater in the center. Then have all the other (honest) members of the party throw d20's at him a la Biblical stoning.
This will serve as a warning to the rest of the group that such actions will not be tolerated.

Take a picture of his mutilated, dice-riddled corpse, frame it, and hang it over the game table as a reminder for generations to come.

Seriously,
If you know this guy is cheating, you have to call him out on it. If he's done this, he's cheated before and will do so again. It's in his nature to cheat.
If you do nothing, you're allowing him to have an unfair advantage over his fellow players and destroying the integrity of your game.
If you're not sure he's cheating. Keep an eye on him. Like I said, if he's a cheater, he'll do it again.

Munin.

shoplifter · Jul 17, 2003

bloodymage said:
If you can change that "most likely" to "cravenly" or verify that he actually has a copy of the module, kill him. Early. Outright. With a grudge monster.

This sounds like what I'd do too. Either that or kill him with a nasty trap that he's 'sure how to disarm/avoid.' Something like...

"As you pick up the gem from the pedestal, two blocks from the wall shoot out and crush your head into so much pulpy goo!!!"

Actually write some of that stuff into the module/notes so you can make it look like you 'legit' did it.

Or don't.

Arnwyn · Jul 17, 2003

ThoughtBubble said:
I would first ask myself if I trust that player. If I trust him, well it's not an issue. If I don't trust him, then it starts getting more interesting.

The key here is to talk with him. Be honest about your feelings on the situation, but don't be accusitory. Just talk to him and say that you're worried he's looking for info on the module. See what he has to say in response.

Ignoring it will only lead to problems. Inevitably, something's going to come up, and it sounds like you've got some suspicious anyway. If you ignore it, it just leaves the potential for the problem to fester.

Does this player have a history of this sort of abuse?

I agree with everything ThoughtBubble said. It really depends on your group dynamics.

Have you made clear any policies about "cheating"? Has this come up before? Does this particular player have any sort of "history"? How much do you know and trust him? All these will help decide how you will handle this situation.

The trust issue is the biggest for me - you're absolutely right that the will affect the fun of everyone else; this is a foregone conclusion. For example, I've made very clear long ago to all my players what will happen if they cheat (leave the game), so your situation isn't a dilemma for me at all. (Though it's never happened to me. They're my friends, after all, who like to facilitate the game, not disrupt it.)

(Sometimes, changing things is an option, though sometimes it isn't. I certainly wouldn't appreciate a player dumping a bunch of extra work on me just because he wants to cheat.)

Vurt · Jul 17, 2003

Usually I end up cobbling things together from a variety of sources, and so making changes to published adventures is the norm. That said, I normally don't sit my group down and say: "OK, next week we'll be running Adventure X," as that's just inviting trouble. Rather, I would just slip it in over the normal course of play.

But by all means, make some changes and at the start of your next session warn your players with something like "I was flipping through a published adventure I plan on running, and it looked a little weak for this party, so I decided to make some changes."

And then I would invert a few of the encounters, but trying to keep it at approximately what I think the party as a whole could still handle. Traps have follow-up traps. Three trolls becomes two fiendish trolls. The red dragon is now a slightly larger white dragon painted red. That sort of thing; be inventive. But keep it fun, it's not supposed to be punishment, just a change from the (published) normal. That way the cheaters don't get rewarded for their behaviour and hopefully don't get the incentive to try again. At the same time, you're not picking on anybody.

Cheers,
Vurt

sithramir · Jul 17, 2003

I seriously think you should change certain things. Like if he KNOWS out-of-character that one of the BBEG's is somewhere in THAT tower, move it to a totally new spot so that he spends extra effort looking there and the other players will get mad and inform him to not try to "cheat" and he might realize that just cause you use a module doesn't mean its gonna be "by the book"

Pielorinho · Jul 17, 2003

Talk to him. Find out what's going on.

I personally have been not entirely successful at avoiding spoilers for RttToEE, which we've been playing through for nigh on two years now. I try really hard to avoidt hem, but every now and then, some goober pops out with a spoiler in a thread about a different subject.

When this happens, I tell my DM what I found out, tell him I will try not to act on the information, and leave it up to him whether he's going to change that aspect of the adventure.

Let your player know that if he sees spoilers, you expect to be informed; if you start suspecting that he's not telling you about spoilers he knows, you'll be very unhappy.

Daniel

WizarDru · Jul 17, 2003

If you trust him, verify what he's doing. You said:

One of the players finds out that you are going to be playing that module and starts posting on forums (you know his tag), most likely looking at spoilers and hell, for all I know he may of gone out and bought it as well to find out the information in the module.

This implies that you're not sure what he's doing, but I sense an undercurrent of distrust of his motives. From your description, he could merely be trying to find out how the module will play against his group, or if anyone had fun playing it. If one of my players created a thread called "I hear RttToEE is a real meatgrinder. Is it?", I wouldn't be that concerned.

On the other hand, if this is part of a pattern of behavior, it could be worrying. If he's trying to get spoilers or purchasing the module so he can read it...well, he's cheating himself and others out of the fun.

Personally, if you don't trust him, there's going to be problems, sooner or later. Depending on your social circumstance, options c and d are the best ones, as PC and d4 said. If you can't trust said player, he'll end up ruining the game or leaving eventually.

Tom Cashel · Jul 17, 2003

Alter the module.

If unfair knowledge rears its ugly head, alter the module so that everything the PC in question fights is more powerful.

Greatwyrm · Jul 17, 2003

Tom Cashel said:
Alter the module.

If unfair knowledge rears its ugly head, alter the module so that everything the PC in question fights is more powerful.

While I agree in spirit, I don't think more powerful is the way to go. As someone alluded to earlier, if the PC just happens to have the right preparations for a difficult encounter, then some tough opponent should just happen to have a very effective counter for the PCs favorite tactics.

If this guy is going to make you go to the trouble of doing more prep or thinking on your feet, make him do it too.

the Jester · Jul 17, 2003

You could take him aside and explain that he can't play til the module's finished, and why.

Problem - As a DM, What Would You Do?

Munin

First Post

shoplifter

First Post

Arnwyn

First Post

Vurt

First Post

sithramir

First Post

Pielorinho

Iron Fist of Pelor

WizarDru

Adventurer

Tom Cashel

First Post

Greatwyrm

Been here a while...

the Jester

Legend

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