Search results

Nova fights can afford to last much longer than ordinary fights while still being fun, since the party has enough resources to last throughout the combat without resorting to basic attacks and cantrips. One can make longer fights without making them harder fights simply by making the battlefield...

I think there's an even simpler explanation that accounts for much of the difference. Unlike video games, TTRPGs have complicated logistics, meaning that TTRPG fans can't play on demand. Video games, by contrast are far more readily accessible. Accordingly, of the time fans spend on each hobby...

There are rarely explicit ticking clocks in my game, but there is always time pressure from the fact that the party always has multiple simultaneous priorities. The faster they accomplish any given priority, the sooner they can tackle the next one. For example, let's say the party is exploring...

Very true. And I'm all for shutting down the coffeelock exploit, although I personally think it's simpler to do so socially than mechanically. I just don't think that the normal interaction of Pact Magic and Flexible Casting rises to the level of an exploit without the resting shenanigans of...

True "Coffeelocks" address the first with Aspect of the Moon (or by sleeping for six hours and then deliberately breaking the Long Rest before it reaches the required 8 hours). For the second, they convert the Sorcery points to spell slots. (So I should have said arbitrarily large numbers of...

To my understanding, "Coffeelock" requires deliberately avoiding Long Rests (which is where the "coffee" comes from--drinking caffeine to avoid sleeping) in order to stack Sorcery point totals to arbitrarily high levels. Just using leftover Pact Magic slots to top up Sorcery points is just the...

(Emphasis added.) I think your post is a very concise and useful description of where fudging crops up, and why it crops up. I think your description also implicitly highlights where fudging has the most utility: when the DM is trying to balance multiple agendas of play.

Ability checks, like initiative, are only needed to resolve uncertainty. In a situation where only one character is trying to start combat, there's no uncertainty regarding who starts combat for an ability check to resolve. Accordingly, in the situation described I would have the initiator at...

Thanks for the detailed reply! I agree that correcting the miscommunication is the preferable response when it's quick and easy. If fixing the miscommunication involves winding back past decisions (as can be the case when the decision was a strategic one, rather than a tactical one), however, I...

How would you feel if the DM uses fudging (or techniques akin to fudging) to instead prevent an outcome that goes against the expectations and understanding of the players? Would you feel that validates or invalidate the decisions you make as a player? Also, does your answer change depending on...

While I agree that D&D isn't a show, I think showmanship is still a valuable DMing skill. From being able to read the players, to knowing how to keep and direct the players' interest and attention, the showman's art can be applied directly to the role of the DM. I think in many ways a DM is a...

Thanks for sharing! For whatever reason my experience is different, and I find myself regularly clarifying descriptions of events, NPCs, and the environment, especially when we're playing theatre of the mind. Almost always those clarifications can be made before the PCs act on a mistaken...

To my understanding, yes, at least a few posters have included revising notes after play starts as fudging. My intent was to be as inclusive and non-judgemental as possible, and hadn't considered that including the broadest definitions might be interpreted as deliberately presenting others'...

I'm sorry you feel my example is contrived. I had hoped a simple example would be more illustrative of my point that a more fleshed-out example would be, but apparently not. Stepping away from the example, do you always communicate intel to your players accurately, and do they always take away...

Sure, but those facts can be communicated inaccurately if (e.g.) the DM glances at the wrong section of their notes or the players' understanding of the conveyed facts doesn't match what the DM was trying to say. If a party of Wood Elves uses Druidcraft to determine that it's going to storm for...

(Emphasis added.) Similarly to you I don't balance encounters against the party's capabilities. But to make that work I think it's essential that the characters' intel-gathering efforts that you mention have meaningful results. If the PCs are basing their decisions on intel I intended to be...

I don't think fudging and improvisation are at all incompatible. It's entirely possible to use fudging as an improvisational tool, and for those who define on-the-fly revision of the DM's notes as fudging, fudging and improvisation are inherently linked. As an example of the former, consider...

Taking Guidance nicely complements the ability to Help as a bonus action, for out-of-combat actions. And it stacks with Historian.

I discuss my DMing style (either together or individually) with every new player before a campaign. I occasionally experiment with other styles, but in the usual case I'm discussing how I run improv-heavy sandboxes where the game rules are flexible and my notes are just potential material--until...

Do you understand how one can want open and honest communication outside of a game session and prefer limited information during the game session? If so, not wanting to know about fudging in the moment is no different from not wanting to know the DM's thought process about how and when they...