Cheating at the Game Table

[Severson]

I'd like to get some thoughts on cheating on die rolls in D&D.

I play in a 3E game and sit next to a player who will roll a 4 and report a 15 and I know based on his class and level that this is unlikely at best. He hesitates before reporting the roll as well even though his sheet is a clean, organized printout. It is something I have noticed in the last few sessions and it seems like he doing it with some regularity.

I think it is fair to say that in all of the games I've played in, there has been 1 player who routinely reports inflated numbers. Usually I feel that this person, in real life, needs something from the game that perhaps s/he is not getting in real life and that is why they cheat.

Also, are they harming anybody? Devil's Advocate: if it helps them have a better time at the game and if they are not using their inflated rolls to self-aggrandize or be a star at the table, then is it so bad?

In fairness, when looking at my own cheating, I have done it at times when I am within 1 or 2 points away from what I think I need to succeed AND when the consequences for failure are high (like character death and subsequent loss of level). So, please understand that I am not holier than thou here. Sometimes it has been too tempting not to do.

I have another friend who respectfully "averts her eyes" when knowing a comrade is making a key roll, to give them room around the issue. This makes me laugh but also I think there is some wisdom in this.

I would love to know whether you yourselves cheat or have cheated and why you think you have needed to do it. I would also love to hear from someone who can honestly say they have NEVER done it and why they have not done it! If you were a fellow player, what would you do? If you are a GM who rolls the numbers secretly, do you "cheat?" Or is the GM immune to the rules because s/he makes them?

This is a great community you have here and I am enjoying it.

Cheers.

 

[Will]

I have never cheated, as a player. I used to fudge rolls now and again as a GM, but I stopped and figured out other ways to adjust encounters. One thing I really like are action point mechanics, so in those times you feel the pressure of ', I really need luck here' you have an approved mechanic to do so.

That said, I'd be very pissed to find my friends have been cheating.

 

[Festivus]

As a player, I don't intentionally cheat. I let the dice fall where they may. As a GM, I may fudge numbers for story purposes or if we are just at the beginning of a session and it's a save or die sort of deal (I don't want someone who drove a long ways to sit there rolling up a character sheet all session). Later in the game, I tend to fudge less. There, now my secret is out as to why my dice get hot at the end of sessions.

 

[Grymar]

When I first played (jr. high age), we all cheated non-stop.

These days I can only remember cheating in one game....the DM was so railroady that nothing we did mattered. He seemed to change the AC of a monster on the fly to fit if he thought you should hit him or not...he would declare that you lost a grapple check before he bothered to roll the dice...on and on. I'm ok with a DM fudging the occasional roll, but there gets to a point where it stops being a game and starts being a story. I looked at one of the other players that night and we both just started making up rolls. One fight we refused to hit the guy, just to see if the DM would kill us...nope. The npc that was along with us had a series of crits that killed the foe. Another fight, that we were obviously not supposed to win (we were expected to surrender), we started rolling only 19s and 20s.

Yes it was childish and passive agressive....but we had fun in our own sick way.

 

[roguerouge]

DMs very occasionally fudging rolls is okay with me, as is a limited amount of railroading to provide narrative structure that's sorely needed.. A couple of times a year is fine.

I find that my opinion is that it cheats the other players in the group from one chance to be heroes. One common way to be a hero is when the unlikely or plucky PC steps up when all seems lost. The PCs who cheat are making it less likely for genuine player heroics and less necessary for there to be creative risky thinking when the usual strategies don't work.

 

[Dragonbait]

I don't believe someone when they say that they've never cheated on a single roll in any role-playing game. It does not mean that they cheat regularly or cheat any more, but If they have played in more than 5 sessions, they have cheated at LEAST once.

Since I started playing in high school, I've seen cheating, cheated, and caught cheating. I GM 90% of the time and will fudge a die roll here and there (its usually down to 1 a session or so). When I play (thankfully a regular thing now) I'll now only cheat on a skill roll if I know that the GM has some absolute-need-to-know-information-that-we-can-NOT-get-anywhere-else and yet decided to have someone make a skill roll simply because the skill exists and it's in the book.

DM: "Well you know that the only way to defeat the demon is to.. Oh.. Huh, I guess I should have you roll a Knowledge the Planes roll.. "
Player: rolls "5"
DM: "Oh.. Huh.. Well you don't know how to harm the demon I guess.. Shoot."

Based on a true story. An NPC had to swing in and save us in the fight..

On the flip side, I experienced a time when the rampant cheating of 1 player ruined a campaign. He would lie regularly on his attack rolls, roll behind books, roll a d20 then pick it up once it stops to declare a number, and so on. The other players purchaes a jumbo-sized d20 for him so everyone could see his rolls. As far as I've seen, he has stopped cheating like that.

 

[PapersAndPaychecks]

I don't believe someone when they say that they've never cheated on a single roll in any role-playing game. It does not mean that they cheat regularly or cheat any more, but If they have played in more than 5 sessions, they have cheated at LEAST once.

Not necessarily.

 

[EricNoah]

As a DM, I don't care if they occasionally cheat. I would rather not know, however!

 

[krissbeth]

The only time I've "cheated" was due to poor arithmetic.

I find intentional cheating sad.

 

[Haffrung Helleyes]

cheating

I remember cheating on a few die rolls back when I was 12-14. But now that I'm an old grognard, I'm not the least bit interested in cheating as a player.

And I don't like it as a DM either.

Ken