Examples when you cheated, and why.

[Aberzanzorax]

In another thread regarding getting a player to stop cheating, there is a general cry of either "Boot him!" or "Talk to him once then boot him/allow it once then boot him!"

Franky, I agree with Umbran who stated:

Really, the absolutism is rather astonishing.

So I'm calling for people to out themselves. Provide an example of when you cheated (how often, how you did it, etc) and why.

Maybe if we understand the whys, we'll better understand the ways to stop it, or even <GASP> a reason to allow it on the rare occasion.


NOTE: THIS THREAD IS NOT THE PLACE FOR THE FOLLOWING:

1. "I never cheat." You can state this in any other thread you like...this thread is about examples where people DO cheat.

2. "Cheaters are the suxxors/bad/should be killed with a million paper cuts." This thread is about understanding why people do cheat, not a place to judge it.

Thankya!

 

[Aberzanzorax]

I did cheat (one time in college years ago...I normally am a very, some might say TOO, honest person). I had an initiative modifier of +5 and never had an initative above 10 for 3 gaming sessions. The dice were giving me what I percieved as a horrifically unfair disadvatage....heck, my character had improved initiative (or something special that improved initiative, this was second edition)...I was supposed to be good at initiative, not suck at it.

I bought different 20s, I borrowed others, etc. etc. Nothing worked. Finally, I just decided to lie about my rolls. I STILL rolled a string of 1 to 5s, but claimed initiatives between 10 and 20. It was the darndest thing....I think the dice gods hated me.


In any case, my dm noticed what I was doing and just simply said, "stop that"...and I did.


In my case, I was cheating because I was, in my mind (and on my sheet), supposed to be great at initiative, the dice were not behaving appropriately randomly, and it was ruining the fun for me. Add to that that I was a spellcaster and this usually led to me not getting to be a spellcaster (enemies would close and I couldn't get spells off).


So between being a spellcaster who was really fast and the dice deciding to disprove my character concept, I was weak, and I did cheat.

 

[Dioltach]

I've only ever cheated as a DM: very occasionally I've fudged a roll, and more often given an opponent more HP, if the PCs are having too easy a time in combat.

 

[Doug McCrae]

In my early teens I used to cheat. I recall giving myself an 18/99 strength (I thought it would be more believable than 18/00), a two-handed sword of giantslaying from the treasure tables in Dragon prior to playing G1-3, and using information from a White Dwarf scenario I'd read. It was because I wanted to win.

 

[Piratecat]

When I started playing D&D I understood very clearly that you had to roll your ability scores. But there wasn't anything in the rules against rolling multiple sets and then picking one, was there? No! So I wrote a program on our Apple II to churn out sets of ability scores, then I just hunted through them until I found the one with the highest stats. That's the one I used. 18 / 18 / 17 / 17 / 16 / 14 would not be an atypical set of scores (you needed one low score so that no one thought you were fudging your dice!)

Then, of course, I had the bad grace to call my friends on it when I was DMing and they tried this with me.

 

[UselessTriviaMan]

Behind the DM screen, I've fudged die rolls more times than I can possibly count. For years I used to think it was because I didn't want to be a dick, but I finally came to understand that killing off PCs doesn't make a DM/GM a bad guy, it just makes things more fair.

Nowadays I'll only rarely fudge die rolls behind the screen, and those are still only in the PCs' favor. I'll cut 'em some slack if I realize I've mistakenly run them into something that turns out to be WAY more powerful than I realized.

As a player, I can't say I've never fudged a die roll, but it's been so long I can't honestly remember when or why. But I've been totally guilty of failing to remind the DM mid-combat about important modifiers or rules (his monster should be immune to the critical hit we just laid down on it, or that roper should get six strength-draining tentacle attacks per round instead of just one - and the strength drains STACK). Since the DM in question is my padawan, I feel pretty guilty about doing that to him, though I usually do tell him about his mistakes the next day. To be fair, he's done it to me too.

Edited to add: Okay yeah, I think we've ALL rolled up those ridiculously powerful PCs when we first started out. I mean really, I was twelve. At one point my wizard took out Asmodeus all by himself in the most one-sided solo combat ever (I was both player and DM for that one), just because I wanted more XP.

 

[Raynor21]

I've only ever cheated as a DM: very occasionally I've fudged a roll, and more often given an opponent more HP, if the PCs are having too easy a time in combat.

This.

Although, I'm not going to lie, I've been known to turn a rolled 6 into a 16 once or twice....

Oooops! I read it wrong!

 

[Piratecat]

I mean really, I was twelve. At one point my wizard took out Asmodeus all by himself in the most one-sided solo combat ever (I was both player and DM for that one), just because I wanted more XP.

Oh, thank goodness I was not the only one. I started in the beginning of Deities and Demigods, running my own character through killing monsters in the book...

I mean, seriously. Lolth has 88 hp? Really?

 

[Storminator]

When I started playing D&D I understood very clearly that you had to roll your ability scores. But there wasn't anything in the rules against rolling multiple sets and then picking one, was there? No! So I wrote a program on our Apple II to churn out sets of ability scores, then I just hunted through them until I found the one with the highest stats. That's the one I used. 18 / 18 / 17 / 17 / 16 / 14 would not be an atypical set of scores (you needed one low score so that no one thought you were fudging your dice!)

Then, of course, I had the bad grace to call my friends on it when I was DMing and they tried this with me.

When my older son was 12, he rolled up a whole party of PCs. 4 characters. Not one stat below 12, everyone had at least one 18. I told him he cheated on his rolls. He denied it. I pulled out the binder of PCs I had made when I was 12. Not one stat below 12, everyone had at least one 18. . .

PS

 

[UselessTriviaMan]

Oh, thank goodness I was not the only one. I started in the beginning of Deities and Demigods, running my own character through killing monsters in the book...

I mean, seriously. Lolth has 88 hp? Really?

I KNOW, right??

I actually still have that wizard tucked away someplace in my old PC folder. Level 36, multiple 1st-Ed artifacts, massively impregnable home tower/fortress... Well, you get the idea.