Backtracking

[genshou]

If I made a rules mistake and it is discovered within one full round, I will go back. Otherwise, let the dice fall as they may, and all that. The game creates a story, not the other way around, so I don't go back to change what happened unless it's due to a glaring error on my part.

 

[Hypersmurf]

"Did I say 'sneak'? Obviously, as a master thief I would know when to be wary..."

-Hyp.

 

[ThirdWizard]

"Did I say 'sneak'? Obviously, as a master thief I would know when to be wary..."

My players were amazed at that point in the movie, never expecting a DM to be so nice!

I've seen one real retcon that I can think of. The DM took pity on one Player's horrible grasp of tactics and let him replay a solo battle. Lets just say, I would not have been so kind, but he was a new DM, so I won't fault him for his mistakes.

 

[Glyfair]

Very rarely, backtracking is justified. But very rarely. Cases for backtracking:
1. A bunch of rules errors caused the death
2. A new disruptive player joins and wrecks the campaign in his first game
3. I thought there was a third reason but now I can't think of one.

You missed the one I consider the most reasonable reason; the DM failed to communicate proper information that would have changed things.

The classic case:

"I walk across the room."

"You fall into the open pit and take... <dice rattle> 99 pts. of damage."

"I'm dead, how did I miss an open pit in the room?"

or, more reasonably...

"I walk into the room."

"You are attack by the horrible monster with his claw, claw & bite. All hit and the bit criticals, plus the rend damage....."

"How did I miss the monster?"

"He was invisible."

"You do remember that I had a permanent See Invisibility put on me after the last adventure?"

"Oops!"

 

[tzor]

Generally within the round "adjustments" are permitted, and I've seen a lot of other DM's do this. Sometimes the math can involve a lot of adjustments, and a player can forget to add a particular effect or bonus to the numbers. I rarely do it for actions unless it is clear that somehow important information that the character would have known was not given to the player.

Full scale backtracking I have never done and probably will never do. However I do reserve it as a potential plot device. It could be done as a one shot as some premonition of the future, or a recursion effect like the movie Groundhog's Day where you keep doing the scenario until an special condition is reached. In that case PC's and BBEG's would advance based on their previous encounters while the rest of the scenario resets each time.

 

[wmasters]

I've backtracked on occasion for one or two things. I've misheard a player when I asked for a Fort save before, and hit him with poison effects only to discover later (from all the players, not just him), that he said 17, not 7 on the Fort save.

We didn't change the combat at all, so didn't backtrack that much and he was still Str drained for that effectively, but there was no lasting effects of poison as a result.

Other than that sort of thing, I don't really backtrack. I'll allow a player to backtrack within his turn (so long as no dice have been rolled etc) but that's about it. Generally I think it's ok if we're talking about a mistake (such as the See Invisibility situation above) and it's that quick.

If you're three combats later then clearly it's inappropriate

 

[lukelightning]

I backtrack to aid the players, if something happens like "oh darn, I just realized my character has a +2 to save vs. illusions so the phantasmal killer two rounds ago might not have killed him..." In that case I'd just say the character fainted.

But if the PCs charge over some pits that I forgot about and killed the baddies, I don't say "oh, wait, back at the beginning of the combat you would have fallen in the concealed pit..." I just pretend they were never there.

 

[fusangite]

You missed the one I consider the most reasonable reason; the DM failed to communicate proper information that would have changed things.

Sold! Reason #3 it shall be!