Search results

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...

Thanks for clarifying! I had understood your statement about being confused how people could simultaneously value open and honest communication while not wanting to know about fudging as being more generally applicable. To clarify: as a player, if there's going to be fudging I strongly prefer...

My response to @Charlaquin was intended to be limited to the idea that not wanting to discuss how the sausage is made during play does not inherently conflict with a desire for open and honest communication. My personal preference is to have an open and honest discussion up front regarding...

Part of open and honest conversation is discussing (ahead of time) when is the right time for open and honest conversation. Adhering to such an agreement and refraining from discussing certain topics at certain times isn't a failure to be open and honest, it's just respecting anothers' wishes...

I'm not talking about the players underestimating the opponents based on accurately understood information, I'm referring specifically to miscommunication between the DM and the players. For example, let's say the DM and players have different understandings of how far sound travels in a...

If a DM fudges to force a predetermined outcome, then I absolutely agree that doing so reduces/removes the challenge faced by the players. But there are other reasons to fudge that don't involve forcing a predetermined outcome to a challenge. In some situations, fudging can actually honor the...

I'm fine with the DM fudging, and I'd rather not know about it. It therefore wouldn't in any way be disrespectful of my preferences for the DM to fudge and hide it from me.

As a player I'd prefer that the DM hide fudging from me, even though I'm totally fine with the DM fudging. In other words, I'm fine knowing that the DM fudges in the abstract, but I'd prefer not to know which specific things were fudged, just as I prefer not to know which content was improvised...

In my campaigns I don't tailor encounter difficulty to the party. Instead I rely on a combination of telegraphing and PC-driven scouting/observation/research/etc to communicate threat levels so that the players can make an informed choice regarding whether and how to have their characters...

I don't agree that the conclusion necessarily follows. One problem I see is that the argument doesn't take into account immediacy. The ability of an unspecified off-page explanation to satisfy "realism" preferences in an RPG can (and in my opinion usually will) depend on the extent to which the...