What do you do when you catch a player cheating...

[drakhe]

I never realy had a problem with cheating so far (either my players don't or they're very good at it ) But I wondered how people (DM's that is) deal with cheating players.

If I should ever catch a player cheating, if it's obvious (like when everybody arround the table notices he cheated) I'll immediatly rule any relative action void and probably skip to the next player, basicaly taken away the action for/in which the cheating occured.

In any other case I'll make shure that the cheating does NOT give that player an advantage.
e.g.:

if an attack roll is cheated I'll ignore that attacks damage and probably have that monster turn its attention to the player in question.

if I notice players using out game info or info from the module/source books I'm using, I'll simply swap in monsters and encounters from other sources

if the cheating is frquent or disrupts the good spirit of the group, he's out of there!

 

[Pseudonym]

I'm going to go with the "Kick him to the curb" option.

I run a quality game, and I've got no time for that nonsense. Luckily it's never come up with my group, or at least I've never caught on to it. I'd like to think that they are more mature than to cheat at a RPG.

I find much more cheating in miniature games than I do RPGs. I've gotten people kicked out of convention games for cheating, but it was in Battletech and Warzone.

Perhaps because in a RPG, there is less opportunity to cheat.

 

[Cedric]

Depends enormously on if I catch him...or if the players catch him. If the players catch him, it will depend a lot, but I'll most likely open it up to a vote to see if he/she stays in the group.

If I catch him, I'll let the player know in email or with a phone call that I saw what was going on...that I'm not 100% sure, but am still pretty certain it was cheating that I saw. I would make it clear that behavior like that will get your removed from the game, especially if the other players notice it. If he/she talks back or doesn't seem to care, I might boot them from the game.

There are a lot of environmental circumstances too. If the whole party has been paralyzed by the ghast and this guy fudges a save to make his and saves the party...I'll let it go.

If he does something or takes some action that screws other parties members or gains benefit for his character and not for the party...I'll be much less tolerant.

Cedric

 

[D'karr]

I say chop off his right hand on the first infraction. It makes it hard to cheat on die rolling when you lose one hand.

Chop the left one off on the second infraction.

Off course that leaves him with the option of shoving the dice in his mouth and spitting them out when he needs to roll. But I've found that by the second infraction most cheaters leave of their own free will.

 

[Painfully]

The game needs to be fair for all the players. If a player cheats, it is usually insignificant the first time. But, if I ever found a chronic cheater, it would be grounds for dropping him from the game in order to remain fair to the other players and the DM. Chronic cheaters are bad for any game. Address it with the individual, or the group if necessary, and just go from there. However, I wouldn't boot anybody without the full consensus of the group (though I might consider leaving the group myself if it offended me enough and not everyone objected).


**RANT BELOW**

Kids these days seem to have grown up with cheating. The competitive marketplace is what helps make it happen. They know cheating is the "edge" they need to win, succeed, or get what they want. It's no different than an athlete who takes steroids to get what they want with less effort. The problem reveals itself once that steroid-using athlete competes with others who do not use steroids--fairness no longer exists. Even the modern business environment has caught up into this cheater's mentality. I'm not trying to say it is the norm, but it is much more common these days in American schools and business than before (or perhaps it is just more obvious).

In a word, cheating is selfish. It takes away value from others with whom you play or work. Cheaters devalue whatever social group they are part of.

 

[Buttercup]

If you cheat at my table, you won't be welcome at it anymore. That being said, I've never had a cheating player. I've been lucky.

 

[Darkness]

If the player prefers to use a more free-form style instead of rolling dice, I'll oblige him for a while. That is, I'll interpret all enemy attack and damage rolls, etc., against his character "creatively" - i.e., mostly critical hits for maximum damage.

Repeat offenders are sent away to play computer games that have built-in cheat modes.

 

[Severion]

Quikcling sniper with poisoned arrows. No one cheats in my games ( well there was that one guy with the D20 with two 20s, he suddenly started fumbling 50% of his rolls, left the group)

 

[drakhe]

< snip >
**RANT BELOW**

Kids these days seem to have grown up with cheating. The competitive marketplace is what helps make it happen.

< snip >

Another thing I have noticed myself is that this same competitive marketplace and the computer RPG (mainly because of the possibility to cheat and the ease with which you restore a savegame if an encounter goes foul) has twisted kids perception of gaming.

I was asked to demo DnD3E at a small local game fair. I got 4 kids (12-ish) at my table. I was using the adventure game box. After running through the basics of the rules and skimming the character sheets. We proceded to play. I took the first adventure (save the unicorn) with some embelishement. At one time they meet a halfling merchant on a wagon. One of the kids asks "Can I shoot the halfling" I thought them asked because they wanted to know if the rules allowed, but no sooner I said "The rules dont stop you, BUT..." they all started to shoot the halfling. Whedn I finished the adventure, all 4 kids started shouting we want more, we want to kill the dragon, we want to kill troll's, ... They didn't even pay attention to my explkanation about loot and XP, the only thing they wanted to do is KILL KILL KILL .... Sad indeed !

 

[Crothian]

I tend to have bad things happen to cheaters.