How often do you cheat?

[airwalkrr]

I voted very rarely. I am a referee style DM and I see my job as enforcing the rules of the game as opposed to creating a story. Creating the story is the purview of the players. I am there to present the challenge. Consequently, I let the dice fall where they may 99.9% of the time. On occassion, I have made a slip-up, but this is usually an unconscious decision, as I often do not realize I did it until well after the fact. I'm not talking about making mistakes, but rather I have been known to simply eyeball my rolls once the fate of an encounter is practically known. For instance, if the PCs are just mopping up a bad guy, I do not care so much if the creature saves or fails, as it will probably die anyway, so I don't sweat the small stuff like making sure I have every little modifier.

 

[Darklone]

I tell the players at the beginning of a campaign whether I'll do the "I cheat once per PC per evening to help him" rule or whether I roll openly.

I did the cheating campaign thing only twice... and the PCs needed it. Usually I love how the dice fall. See sig.

Crazy dice rolls make the best stories.

 

[ha-gieden]

We have two DMs who reguarly do D&D, and neither of them roll behind the screen, but I am sure that they fudge now and then. They usually do this by having the villians not act as effectively as they could if we are starting to be trounced by them, or by giving us access to an unusual amount of healing or time after an encounter.

I don't think this is cheating. A good DM is supposed to consider the strength of the party when setting up an encounter. If they realize halfway through that they misjudged, then taking a small, discreet action to fix that problem is warranted.


I personally GM Mage. Mage is a storytelling game, so yeah, occasionally story overules the dice. But only occasionally. I have a rep to maintain

 

[Crothian]

How do you cheat Crothian?

When I craft adventures, NPCs, magic items, spells, etc I never follow the rules.

 

[Rykion]

I "cheat" at most once a session, per player, as long as they're playing smartly, and/or when I roll some incredibly improbable crit. The second time in a session the player faces what I rolled. If the system being played includes some sort of fate/karma/save-character points, I won't do any "cheating."

 

[Rothe]

Never. Combat rolls are usually in the open.

 

[Nellisir]

I never cheat. I engage in contingent risk mitigation behaviours so as to facilitate positive outcomes for all participants in the shared enterprise.

Ditto. I don't cheat either. The given hit points of monsters are an average, and I sometimes experience an epiphany during a game and realize that -this- monster's hp vary from the average.

I also believe that anything is possible, and ergo a "1" is not always a "1".

 

[Olaf the Stout]

As for the dice, the last few sessions I must have rolled an average of 15 or higher, where as one of my players (the ranger at -9) must have rolled an average of 3 or 4 on a d20. It was amazing. At one time, he does his two weapon fighting thing and rolls... 3 and 3! And then the zombies rolled something like 15, 17, 19, 19, 16. It was all out in the open and terrible to behold.

In the last session we played, 2 baddies were hitting a couple of the PC's, who had managed to get +8 to their AC due to their cover, with surprising regularity. Another PC, the Cleric, decided to charge the 2 baddies, giving them a few rounds of clear shots at him. In the first round, 1 baddie, with 3 attacks per round managed to roll a 1 followed by a 3, breaking his bowstring. The other baddie continued to roll low, hitting the Cleric with maybe 2 or 3 out of 10 attacks. Even then the damage rolls were very low.

When the Cleric did make it into melee with the 2 baddies, he killed one within 2 rounds thanks to almost maximum damage rolls. At this point the other one fled.

Sometimes the dice love the PC's, other times they hate them. This encounter seemed to be an example of the fortune favouring the brave.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Aust Diamondew]

PS: I'd admire the machismo of those who claim to NEVER cheat if i didn't believe many of them were possibly liars.

lol
I was tempted to lie and say I never cheat.

 

[Mark CMG]

By the rules, it isn't cheating for a DM to decide not to accept a particular roll of the dice. Nevertheless, I prefer to roll battle dice in the open and often randomize who might be attacked if there is a choice. I prefer not to foster an adversarial tone between the DM and players.