Do you trust the people you game with?

[Goddess FallenAngel]

Most of the people I game with, I trust for their die rolls. There was one individual I used to game with who would roll the die, cup it with his hand, tip his hand up so he could see the number on the die, announce "I hit" and pick up the die before anyone else could see it.

He was so amusing in his lame attempts to cheat that we pretty much let him get away with it. He only did it when the roll 'really mattered', and he fumbled when he rolled in the open (this was 2nd edition AD&D) as much as he "hit", so it really didn't matter.

On the other hand, I now game with someone whose die rolls I trust - but his math skills I do not. He'll roll a 5 on a skill check and end up with a total of 20 when we are 7th level. When it's pointed out, he'll look at his sheet and spend 15 minutes adding things, then announce, "Oh, I added this and this wrong".... It's quite frustrating. We also recently discovered that he had built his character on 10 more points then the rest of us - and then tried to argue with the DM when the DM said that was too many. He let it go after I and the other player pointed out the number of points that WE were told, which happened to be the same as the DM was saying.

(And before you ask, I game with him because he's one of my roommates, and a good enough roleplayer that it makes his game-mechanic cheating bearable.)

 

[JoeGKushner]

A few guys were cheating so bad in one of my old groups that we bought a dice bowl and declared that no rolls outside the bowl counted and that the dice had to be readable by everyone.

Personally, I'm not one to get too worked up about it, but at the point where the player picks up the die before anyone sees it and has to add up the numbers on his sheet, it's annoying and time wasting. Cheat smart or better or something not so obvious.

 

[freebfrost]

Do you trust them? If they rolled a nat 20 for the seventh time straight, do you question that? Do you beleive them when they say they rolled 18's for their character's attributes? Do you demand they roll in front of you for hit points? Do you have to visually confirm all rolls?

What level of trust to you have with the people you game with?

I have absolute trust in my group, but there have been exceptions. The times I've run games and had a notorious dice-cheat in the group, well... then I keep an eye on things. But otherwise, I never bother.

As far as rolling natural 20's in a row, I've had one party member roll a 20 on a threat, a 20 on the crit, a 20 on the next crit (house rule allows you to keep increasing the critical on subsequent natural 20s), and another 20. He was attacking a skeleton... but I allowed the quadruple crit anyways, because that deserved a reward!

Best character I ever rolled up was a 1st edition thief - S 18, I 17, W 18, D 18, C 18, Ch 17 --I can only easily remember his old-school array.

Rolled it up in front of others too, so, if a player comes to me with a similar array, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

[lukelightning]

Here's my confession: Waaay back when I first started playing D&D (first edition) I would occassionally cheat. I don't know why, maybe because I wanted to "win" all the time (or maybe it was just because I was 14 years old..).

Now that I am more mature, I would never dream of cheating; It Is Just Wrong. It errodes the basis of the game. I am sure my fellow players agree.

 

[Ruined]

My group is awesome; I trust 'em complicitly. We're even to the point where we revel in our bad rolls just as much as the good ones. The natural 1s are always a point of interest. I still use point-buy for stat generation, though. It's not trust, but instead not trusting probablility. I'd rather everyone have the same shot at a decent character instead of date determining who has mostly 17s and 18s versus the poor guy with 11s and 12s.

Oh and lukelightning, don't sweat it. When I was younger I would occasionally cheat too. I reformed and am glad of it - now I can better appreciate the tough strings of luck my characters goes through.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

My current group is definitely trustworthy. But I've had experiences with more than enough cheaters that I roll all dice behind the screen. Normally, all character creation must be done in front of me, but I'd be willing to let someone create a character on their own as long as they understood that they will be subjected to review.

I had a player who gave himself infinite wand charges and more than a few that imported characters of dubious validity (One even insisted that he had naturally rolled all 18s for his character).

 

[Rel]

My players are my best friends in the world. I love them and I trust them. I also look at many of their die rolls for the same reason that the players look at my die rolls: I'm interested and excited about the outcome.

 

[the Jester]

I trust my players, but I still keep an eye out. I know there was one who, several years ago, had a tendency to "exaggerate" his rolls. He seems mostly cured now, though.

 

[Cedric]

Years ago, the DM of the game was having us make new characters for a new game, but I wasn't there that night.

So later in the week, I rolled up my stats in front of another player and got pretty decent stats, one 18, one 17 and a smattering of 10-14s.

The DM said they 'looked a bit too good' to him and wanted me to roll them again while he watched.

I rolled 18, 18, 18, 16, 15, 17...with his dice, I insisited on using his dice. I don't know if you believe in the ability for anger or emotion to affect your die rolls, but they did that day.

Cedric

 

[Arnwyn]

I trust all my players in their fairness and honesty.

However, I do not trust all my players in being competent. 'Cause they're not.