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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Shaman" data-source="post: 2747063" data-attributes="member: 26473">You can call it pumpkin pie if you like, it doesn't make it one.A question: in the first example, what if the character rolled a 1, failing hugely instead just missing - would you have allowed the character to fall?Judging from this......I'm guessing the answer is no.Please correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you had no intention of allowing the characters to fail at getting across the chasm no matter what they rolled. In this case, missing by one or missing by twenty would have the same effect: end of journey, back to the elven village or whatever. And that's the part I don't get - miss by a little or a lot, the results are the same. If you're prepared for the adventurers to fail spectacularly, then failing by a narrow margin isn't a big deal, since the outcome is identical. In this case, it doesn't seem like you were prepared for them to fail at all, since that would end the storyline, end the journey, and "suck the life out of the session" - in this case fudging sounds like just an excuse for keeping your plot moving forward.To me that's just poor encounter design and perhaps a whiff of railroading.In the case of the second encounter, you wanted to offer a rip-roaring combat challenge...and you put all your eggs in one monster basket, ignoring the possibility of good tactics and good luck on the part of the players bringing a swift conclusion to the encounter.Had you planned the encounter to include multiple foes from the outset, you'd have a better chance of running a more extended combat session by virtue of the fact that there are more targets to choose from, at the very least. You can also use better tactics of your own with multiple opponents, which adds to the challenge to the players and their characters.Again, this sounds like poor encounter design.Thank you for providing these examples, DonTadow - you've reinforced why I think fudging detracts from the game.</blockquote>

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