D&D General If they thought they could get away with it...

[niklinna]

My players would definitely cheat if they thought they could get away with it. Heck, one of them was fiddling around with macros during the game, trying to design a display card that would make keyboard input look like a dice roll. It didn't work, and we all saw what he was trying to do.

There's clever cheating, and then there's stupid cheating. Did you all shame him by typing, "Perhaps you should do that in your own game instance so we can't see you trying to figure out how to cheat"?

 

[LordEntrails]

It depends on the players.

I've had players that will cheat if they can. And as a player or GM I will not continue to play with them. I don't tolerate cheating.

Exploiting the rules... I currently have players that will do so, openly and with the whole tables' agreement. Effectively we make a ruling together so that the Rule of Cool is present. But, we don't hide it from each other.

 

[Scribe]

I think most wont openly/knowingly cheat.

I think most will (by various definitions) exploit.

 

[Lanefan]

And the definition of "exploit" is too vague. For some people, if I decide that I want my character to be very good with swords and therefore choose the Very Good with Swords feat, that's exploitation and powergaming.

The boundary between exploit and creative play is very fuzzy. Here's an example that came up in my game:

Situation: a few characters hit a teleport trap and found themselves inside a small cell with transparent walls of force, in the middle of an otherwise big open area. They could see there were no immediate threats outside the cell, but had no way to escape (it's intended as a pure death trap; you get stuck in there and unless you've got some sort of dimension door or teleport or similar available, you eventually starve).

Nobody has any of those effects available but a caster does have Rope Trick. So, she casts Rope Trick and everyone climbs in. Rope is pulled up and then (and here's the creative bit) because there's nothing saying the rope always has to be lowered out of the middle of the "floor" of the little demi-plane it's instead lowered out of a corner, outside the cell wall! Everyone climbs down, and then they just have to worry about getting back to where they came from.

Exploit, or creative play?

 

[CleverNickName]

There's clever cheating, and then there's stupid cheating. Did you all shame him by typing, "Perhaps you should do that in your own game instance so we can't see you trying to figure out how to cheat"?

Oh yeah. People who get caught cheating at the table will never hear the end of it. We guilt-tripped him so hard he's an Italian Grandma now.

I guess we could have made a big deal about it, stopped the game and have The Talk about honesty and expectations and how the game suffers when people cheat, etc. But it rarely comes to that. Ususally the cheater knows he's been caught, and is quick to fess up and course-correct. We just have a good laugh about it and move on because we're all friends.

 

[Clint_L]

The boundary between exploit and creative play is very fuzzy. Here's an example that came up in my game:

Situation: a few characters hit a teleport trap and found themselves inside a small cell with transparent walls of force, in the middle of an otherwise big open area. They could see there were no immediate threats outside the cell, but had no way to escape (it's intended as a pure death trap; you get stuck in there and unless you've got some sort of dimension door or teleport or similar available, you eventually starve).

Nobody has any of those effects available but a caster does have Rope Trick. So, she casts Rope Trick and everyone climbs in. Rope is pulled up and then (and here's the creative bit) because there's nothing saying the rope always has to be lowered out of the middle of the "floor" of the little demi-plane it's instead lowered out of a corner, outside the cell wall! Everyone climbs down, and then they just have to worry about getting back to where they came from.

Exploit, or creative play?

Creative play and I love it!

Edit: for me exploits are usually pre-planned. They come from players parsing the rules and the internet and then coming up with some ungodly combination that was pretty clearly not the intent of the designers, and also likely wreaks havoc with the story.

I have a Grade 12 student who has at least one new one every week. They're entertaining, but when he asks if I would allow it I'm always a big "NOPE".

 

[Vaalingrade]

I never expected they would cheat, but this weekend...

...This weekend I caught my players seeing another DM.

Obviously, I threw my drink in their faces and tackled the DM into the pool.

 

[MarkB]

I never expected they would cheat, but this weekend...

...This weekend I caught my players seeing another DM.

Obviously, I threw my drink in their faces and tackled the DM into the pool.

"It didn't mean anything honey, it was just a one-shot."

 

[Mad_Jack]

I never expected they would cheat, but this weekend...

...This weekend I caught my players seeing another DM.

Obviously, I threw my drink in their faces and tackled the DM into the pool.

That's even worse than walking in on one of them playing a game by themselves on their tablet.

 

[bloodtide]

Exploit, or creative play?

Creative Play.

An export would be: Player:"I cast the Tiny hut Sideways so the open floor faces the dragon and when the dragon breathes it's breath weapon gets all absorbed into the Tiny Hut!"