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<blockquote data-quote="the Jester" data-source="post: 6599885" data-attributes="member: 1210"><p>Interesting topic. It doesn't surprise me a bit that it's contentious and full of strongly-held opinions. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>I used to fudge a lot more than I do these days. Hell, these days, I almost never fudge- I can only recall one instance since 5e came out, and that was an example of me mis-reading a monster ability before the encounter started, realizing how it actually worked and sort of backing off of it. Generally, these days, I just plain don't fudge. There have probably been less than a dozen exceptions (on single rolls) in the last five years. I nearly always roll all dice in the open except for those that the pcs shouldn't get to see, like Stealth or Perception checks, although I don't always tell the players what a given die is for (and I still do the thing where you roll dice just to do it, to keep the players on their toes). </p><p></p><p>I don't think there's anything wrong with fudging, per se; it's a matter of playstyle choice. It doesn't suit my current playstyle, but for the first, oh, 20 years? of my DMing career, I was more than willing to fudge when I felt it was called for. Unlike most people in this thread, who seem to feel that fudging should almost always favor the pcs, I always had a policy that if I fudged for you now, I was going to fudge against you later- it would even out in the end. </p><p></p><p>Some years ago- after my style had changed to a much lower amount of fudging- I was running my 3.5 epic game, and one pc had split off to go do something solo. He encountered a shator demodand, who was guarding a portal the pc wanted to go through. The pc destroyed him with a single save or die spell, and the shator never even got to act. Later, a number of the players approached me separately and told me how cool they thought it was- because they'd been in many games where the bad guy would NEVER die on a failed save in round 1, and the fact that it had happened really drove home how impartial I was- how I really did let the dice fall where they may. Those conversations really reinforced my dedication to a nearly no-fudging style of DMing. But that doesn't make it the right style for everyone- just for me and my group.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="the Jester, post: 6599885, member: 1210"] Interesting topic. It doesn't surprise me a bit that it's contentious and full of strongly-held opinions. ;) I used to fudge a lot more than I do these days. Hell, these days, I almost never fudge- I can only recall one instance since 5e came out, and that was an example of me mis-reading a monster ability before the encounter started, realizing how it actually worked and sort of backing off of it. Generally, these days, I just plain don't fudge. There have probably been less than a dozen exceptions (on single rolls) in the last five years. I nearly always roll all dice in the open except for those that the pcs shouldn't get to see, like Stealth or Perception checks, although I don't always tell the players what a given die is for (and I still do the thing where you roll dice just to do it, to keep the players on their toes). I don't think there's anything wrong with fudging, per se; it's a matter of playstyle choice. It doesn't suit my current playstyle, but for the first, oh, 20 years? of my DMing career, I was more than willing to fudge when I felt it was called for. Unlike most people in this thread, who seem to feel that fudging should almost always favor the pcs, I always had a policy that if I fudged for you now, I was going to fudge against you later- it would even out in the end. Some years ago- after my style had changed to a much lower amount of fudging- I was running my 3.5 epic game, and one pc had split off to go do something solo. He encountered a shator demodand, who was guarding a portal the pc wanted to go through. The pc destroyed him with a single save or die spell, and the shator never even got to act. Later, a number of the players approached me separately and told me how cool they thought it was- because they'd been in many games where the bad guy would NEVER die on a failed save in round 1, and the fact that it had happened really drove home how impartial I was- how I really did let the dice fall where they may. Those conversations really reinforced my dedication to a nearly no-fudging style of DMing. But that doesn't make it the right style for everyone- just for me and my group. [/QUOTE]
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