Handling Cheating

[Mishihari Lord]

I've only had to deal with this once.

First, all rolls need to be made in the open, on the table, on a flat surface. Then I watch the rolls. If I see a cheat then I call it on the spot: "dude, that wasn't a 17 that was a 5, you miss."

If I have to do that more than a few times we have a private talk. "I want to play a fair game and watching all the dice rolls is more hassle than I'm willing to deal with. Can you just call what's on the die?" If the answer is no then he's out of the game. If the answer's yes and I catch him cheating again he's out.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

#1 1st offense:
"No cheating in this game."

#2 2nd offense:
"You're out."

In serious cases I might go straight to #2.

Edit: I expect all rolls to be witnessed; an unwitnessed roll doesn't count. I guess I have a zero-tolerance policy; I don't want players tempted to cheat. So I don't recall it ever being an issue.

This. I might give you one chance, but do it again and you're gone.

I've never had a confirmed cheater in my game. I did go through a period where I thought that the resident powergamer of my group was cheating. It is hard to tell though whether he just had a really effective character or if he was fudging his rolls. It didn't help that his dice were hard to read so I couldn't see what his rolls were.

In the end I asked the other players if they had noticed anything and to keep an eye on him for me, but nothing was ever confirmed. He's still in my group now, so if he has been cheating all this time, he has mangaged to avoid being caught.

Olaf the Stout

 

[The Red King]

I have a player like that now.

Sticky situation....

We play with my 2 sons, my wife, and a friend of ours and his 2 sons. His youngest cheats. He hates the idea of ever missing, being hit, or not preforming the best out of the entire group.

When he starts fudging his numbers, the monsters tend to gang up on him "because he is the obvious threat".

Thats kept him in check for a while now.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

I have a player like that now.

Sticky situation....

We play with my 2 sons, my wife, and a friend of ours and his 2 sons. His youngest cheats. He hates the idea of ever missing, being hit, or not preforming the best out of the entire group.

When he starts fudging his numbers, the monsters tend to gang up on him "because he is the obvious threat".

Thats kept him in check for a while now.

That is a sticky situation especially if you call him out at the table or kick him out of the group, then you potentially lose 3 people instead of one. I'd personally have a chat with his father about it and have his father handle it outside of the group (unless his dad cheats too...). This way it isn't perceived wrongly by his father and his brother. If it continues after you've had a chat with his father about it, then you need to talk to him directly about it giving him one more shot to play nice and get rid of him if he doesn't.

 

[The Red King]

That is a sticky situation especially if you call him out at the table or kick him out of the group, then you potentially lose 3 people instead of one. I'd personally have a chat with his father about it and have his father handle it outside of the group (unless his dad cheats too...). This way it isn't perceived wrongly by his father and his brother. If it continues after you've had a chat with his father about it, then you need to talk to him directly about it giving him one more shot to play nice and get rid of him if he doesn't.

I think I'm going to re-adjust seating and see how that goes. I'm probably going to call him on it, half jokingly next time to see how he reacts.

 

[GSHamster]

Somewhat tangential, but sometimes people deal with randomness better if each random event is *not* independent.

For example, take a deck of 60 cards with the cards labelled 1 to 20 three times. So there are three 20s, three 19s, etc. Shuffle that deck and draw from the top every time you would roll a d20.

What this does is prevent improbable streaks. You can only ever draw a 1 three times, and you will only draw a 20 three times. While there are some card-counting tricks you could pull, over the long run the results from the card deck will match the results from rolling the dice.

Some people like this type of randomness better. It seems more controllable, more logical. There might be less frustration with the dice and less urge to cheat. Plus cheating is a lot more obvious.

 

[The Red King]

Somewhat tangential, but sometimes people deal with randomness better if each random event is *not* independent.

For example, take a deck of 60 cards with the cards labelled 1 to 20 three times. So there are three 20s, three 19s, etc. Shuffle that deck and draw from the top every time you would roll a d20.

What this does is prevent improbable streaks. You can only ever draw a 1 three times, and you will only draw a 20 three times. While there are some card-counting tricks you could pull, over the long run the results from the card deck will match the results from rolling the dice.

Some people like this type of randomness better. It seems more controllable, more logical. There might be less frustration with the dice and less urge to cheat. Plus cheating is a lot more obvious.

If the kids all hadent just spent lots of $$$ on making sure they they each had their own cool, individual dice, down to ones with special pictures on the faces, I'd go for that.

 

[Traveon Wyvernspur]

Somewhat tangential, but sometimes people deal with randomness better if each random event is *not* independent.

For example, take a deck of 60 cards with the cards labelled 1 to 20 three times. So there are three 20s, three 19s, etc. Shuffle that deck and draw from the top every time you would roll a d20.

What this does is prevent improbable streaks. You can only ever draw a 1 three times, and you will only draw a 20 three times. While there are some card-counting tricks you could pull, over the long run the results from the card deck will match the results from rolling the dice.

Some people like this type of randomness better. It seems more controllable, more logical. There might be less frustration with the dice and less urge to cheat. Plus cheating is a lot more obvious.

In theory this sounds good, but to an old time grognard like myself, I like the feel of the dice in my hand and the actual rolling of them - the suspense as it rolls of the table clinking and ricocheting off of glasses and minis... I even go so far as to put away "bad dice" when they misbehave on me and roll too low too often. Having a deck of cards other than for a deck of many things at my table just wouldn't give me the same feel. If it works in your game - great! It's all about having fun!

 

[GSHamster]

In theory this sounds good, but to an old time grognard like myself, I like the feel of the dice in my hand and the actual rolling of them - the suspense as it rolls of the table clinking and ricocheting off of glasses and minis... I even go so far as to put away "bad dice" when they misbehave on me and roll too low too often. Having a deck of cards other than for a deck of many things at my table just wouldn't give me the same feel. If it works in your game - great! It's all about having fun!

Oh, I prefer dice too. But one of the things I've learned over the years is that a lot of people's perception of probability matches "draw without replacement" (cards) rather than "draw with replacement" (dice). And that mental mismatch can cause issues.

 

[EmbraCraig]

In one of my regular games, the guy who GMs most often suspected that a player might be fudging some of his important rolls. He pointed it out to the other players when the culprit wasn't around, and in response we relentlessly took the mick out of the player for a few sessions whenever he apparently rolled high and no one else saw it. Now he rolls the dice on the table in front of everyone.