An age old question came up in the 4e rules forum about DM's hiding their rolls and reminded me of a topic I've been meaning to start for awhile and kept forgetting about.
Do you fudge the dice rolls?
I'm a pretty stalwart proponent of letting the dice fall where they may. To me, a big part of the fun and excitement of the game is overcoming the challenges put in front of me. A DM who cheats in my favour is, I feel, cheating me out of the thrill of success or failure at the hand of fate.
Sure, skill, roleplaying, character abilities, all that should have an impact, but one of the big attractions to me of rolling a d20 is hoping against hope that I roll that mystical, magical, wonderful 20.
And then rolling a 1.
I used to get into arguments about granularity and bell curves on usenet gamer groups. I tried to create the perfect d33 system. But at the end of the day, there is nothing quite as satisfying as rolling a 20 and critting the dragon for it's last 20 hit points when the party has no healing surges left and everyone is bloodied.
Translate that into whatever edition preference you have. It's ultimately the same thrill. To me, taking away the element of character death at the whim of fate turns the game into little more than a story-book fiction or computer game where you can just go back to your last saved game.
So how about you? Do you fudge for fun or profit?
Do you fudge the dice rolls?
I'm a pretty stalwart proponent of letting the dice fall where they may. To me, a big part of the fun and excitement of the game is overcoming the challenges put in front of me. A DM who cheats in my favour is, I feel, cheating me out of the thrill of success or failure at the hand of fate.
Sure, skill, roleplaying, character abilities, all that should have an impact, but one of the big attractions to me of rolling a d20 is hoping against hope that I roll that mystical, magical, wonderful 20.
And then rolling a 1.
I used to get into arguments about granularity and bell curves on usenet gamer groups. I tried to create the perfect d33 system. But at the end of the day, there is nothing quite as satisfying as rolling a 20 and critting the dragon for it's last 20 hit points when the party has no healing surges left and everyone is bloodied.
Translate that into whatever edition preference you have. It's ultimately the same thrill. To me, taking away the element of character death at the whim of fate turns the game into little more than a story-book fiction or computer game where you can just go back to your last saved game.
So how about you? Do you fudge for fun or profit?