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AD&D DMG, on fudging
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<blockquote data-quote="Votan" data-source="post: 5169994" data-attributes="member: 18680"><p>I agree that the dichotomy, itself, is false. If your social contract includes letting the dice fall where they may then fudging would destroy fun even more rapidly than anything else. When I DM such a group, I generally roll dice out in the open so that players may savor the anticipation of unexpected rolls. </p><p></p><p>The general case for fudging, as I have advocated it, is for when a die roll would actually damage the game. Now, a cogent argument is that a DM should never be in a position where a single die roll can do this. But it can happen.</p><p></p><p>In 1E, we once found the Ring of Gaxx on an Orc, as an extremely low level party, due to the random magic item table. In the end, we should have been smart and just left it (we were not high enough level to handle the side effects of the bad facets). Here, I would have understood, however, if the DM had rerolled the random magic item (as per Doug McCrae's quote).</p><p></p><p>I also want to make a distinction about fudging -- if it happens frequently then I think it is toxic no matter what. </p><p></p><p>I once played in another 1E game where they had a critical hit table inserted. I remember the fighter (or ranger) dying when a Gargoyle rolled 3 critical hits out of 4 attacks. We were already seeing about 50% of the hits being critical hits (despite them only being on a natural 20). This definitely made the game less fun, and in a way that was hard to fix (I dropped out of that campaign and it is possible that the lack of trust could have ultimately been fatal). </p><p></p><p>So my position is that I can see fudging used as an exceptional tool for the extremely rare die roll that could seriously impede play. I think routine fudging is bad and I will roll openly these days if the players wish it.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Votan, post: 5169994, member: 18680"] I agree that the dichotomy, itself, is false. If your social contract includes letting the dice fall where they may then fudging would destroy fun even more rapidly than anything else. When I DM such a group, I generally roll dice out in the open so that players may savor the anticipation of unexpected rolls. The general case for fudging, as I have advocated it, is for when a die roll would actually damage the game. Now, a cogent argument is that a DM should never be in a position where a single die roll can do this. But it can happen. In 1E, we once found the Ring of Gaxx on an Orc, as an extremely low level party, due to the random magic item table. In the end, we should have been smart and just left it (we were not high enough level to handle the side effects of the bad facets). Here, I would have understood, however, if the DM had rerolled the random magic item (as per Doug McCrae's quote). I also want to make a distinction about fudging -- if it happens frequently then I think it is toxic no matter what. I once played in another 1E game where they had a critical hit table inserted. I remember the fighter (or ranger) dying when a Gargoyle rolled 3 critical hits out of 4 attacks. We were already seeing about 50% of the hits being critical hits (despite them only being on a natural 20). This definitely made the game less fun, and in a way that was hard to fix (I dropped out of that campaign and it is possible that the lack of trust could have ultimately been fatal). So my position is that I can see fudging used as an exceptional tool for the extremely rare die roll that could seriously impede play. I think routine fudging is bad and I will roll openly these days if the players wish it. [/QUOTE]
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