Masquerade
First Post
I fudge rolls from time to time as a DM, certainly. As a player? Can't say I've ever done it, but I can't say that I wouldn't if my character's life was on the line.
Cheating at the Game Table
- Thread starter Severson
- Start date
Kheti sa-Menik
First Post
As a DM, absolutely. If the players have fought a long, dramatic, cool battle against a very tough opponent, players are low on resources and HPs, as is the opponent, and the 1-HP baddie who can't escape lucks out on a crit with a x3 crit multiplier weapon, the crit didn't happen. He hits, PC takes normal damage, maybe knocked down into low negs, but he'll live long enough for his fellow PCs to settle the bad guy's hash and apply some kind of healing to the PC.
Unless, the player wants his PC to die in a dramatic way. Then I'll allow some flavor speech on the PC's part and then roll my crit damage.
As a player, no. Well, let me amend: I try not to. I try to have complex arithmatic done ahead of time, like attack rolls in light of Combat Reflexes or Power Attack. But sometimes, I make a mistake. I'll own up to it and the DM can backtrack if he wishes.
Unless, the player wants his PC to die in a dramatic way. Then I'll allow some flavor speech on the PC's part and then roll my crit damage.
As a player, no. Well, let me amend: I try not to. I try to have complex arithmatic done ahead of time, like attack rolls in light of Combat Reflexes or Power Attack. But sometimes, I make a mistake. I'll own up to it and the DM can backtrack if he wishes.
Squire James
Explorer
I have a player who I suspect cheats on his initiative rolls. He already has a +9 bonus, but it's strange that I can count the number of sub-20 results in the entire campaign (over 100 initiative checks) on one hand. He doesn't appear to cheat about anything else, so I let it slide, but it bothers me sometimes. There's a small sliver of a chance he is not cheating, and he's a good enough friend that falsely calling him on it would make me feel like a real heel.
kamicosmos
First Post
One group I was in bought those Giant D20's, and required everyone to roll out on the table where everyone could see. Even the DM would roll out there occasionally. I think it helped, cause no one could cheat, and the entertainment of seeing that nat 1 or 20 was an added bonus!
In my current group, I am DM'ing, and I'm pretty certain of a player or two that is fudging numbers. The other players give them grief about it, and I joked about hitting the casinos later to bank roll them if their rolls were honestly that good and consistiant! But, I have yet to enforce a 'roll in the open' rule, because for now, it's not really hurting the rest of the party, and as DM, I roll behind the screen anyway. (I believe the DM has to fudge occasionally for story purposes and 'scare tactics'. Nothing better than seeing the looks of horror on your player's faces when you suddenly roll several dice, and start grabbing various books.
)
In my current group, I am DM'ing, and I'm pretty certain of a player or two that is fudging numbers. The other players give them grief about it, and I joked about hitting the casinos later to bank roll them if their rolls were honestly that good and consistiant! But, I have yet to enforce a 'roll in the open' rule, because for now, it's not really hurting the rest of the party, and as DM, I roll behind the screen anyway. (I believe the DM has to fudge occasionally for story purposes and 'scare tactics'. Nothing better than seeing the looks of horror on your player's faces when you suddenly roll several dice, and start grabbing various books.
)
Olaf the Stout
Legend
I "cheat" from time to time as a DM. This has normally been by reducing the amount of damage I've done to a PC or making a crit just a normal hit. There have been a few times that I have cheated and given the BBEG more hit points in the middle of the fight when it looked like the PC's were just going to walk all over him in 1-2 rounds. It didn't change the outcome, but it did extend the fight a little longer, which is all I was hoping to do. Overall, I would cheat more in favour of the PC's than against them.
As a player, I think I did cheat a little in my mid-teens when I first started playing. It probably happened when my 17th level Rogue (that I was rather attached to, having been my very first PC) could have possibly died on a bad roll. Now though I would never cheat as a player. If my character dies due to a series of bad rolls, he dies. There are ways to bring him back. If there aren't I can just roll up a new character.
There is one player in my current group that I suspect may cheat from time to time. He always seems to roll quite high for his attack rolls. His d20 is also very hard to read so I can't really tell at a glance whether he is cheating or not. His last character was 20 Dex Fighter specialising in Archery (with most of the Archery-based feats) so he was quite good at what he did. That may explain why he seemed to hit such high AC's so often. He's playing a Wizard in the current campaign so there will be less rolls for me to worry about if he is cheating now.
Olaf the Stout
As a player, I think I did cheat a little in my mid-teens when I first started playing. It probably happened when my 17th level Rogue (that I was rather attached to, having been my very first PC) could have possibly died on a bad roll. Now though I would never cheat as a player. If my character dies due to a series of bad rolls, he dies. There are ways to bring him back. If there aren't I can just roll up a new character.
There is one player in my current group that I suspect may cheat from time to time. He always seems to roll quite high for his attack rolls. His d20 is also very hard to read so I can't really tell at a glance whether he is cheating or not. His last character was 20 Dex Fighter specialising in Archery (with most of the Archery-based feats) so he was quite good at what he did. That may explain why he seemed to hit such high AC's so often. He's playing a Wizard in the current campaign so there will be less rolls for me to worry about if he is cheating now.
Olaf the Stout
Primitive Screwhead
First Post
My biggest issue with cheating, outside of the trust issues that come with it, is how it impacts those who are not cheating. I have seen the gamut of cheating players, from the guy who never rolled less than a 12 on any D20 dice to the convienant forgetting to track spell usage.
Of course, from the DM side of the screen I often us minor 'tweaks' to encounters to encourage a more enjoyable combat encounter...but my dice rolls are all in the open. I consider this as proper GM technique rather than 'cheating'. Examples of this adding 10 or less hit points or granting a GM's freind circumstance bonus of +2.
However, when faced with open and massive cheating, I try to address it OOC first with a polite chat about table dynamics, and if that doesn't work... I set up encounters to minimize the impact of the players cheating, while maximizing the impact of the non-cheating players.
Actually had one campaign last quite a while with one openly cheating player...he never overshadowed the group and had fun...so everyone one
Of course, from the DM side of the screen I often us minor 'tweaks' to encounters to encourage a more enjoyable combat encounter...but my dice rolls are all in the open. I consider this as proper GM technique rather than 'cheating'. Examples of this adding 10 or less hit points or granting a GM's freind circumstance bonus of +2.
However, when faced with open and massive cheating, I try to address it OOC first with a polite chat about table dynamics, and if that doesn't work... I set up encounters to minimize the impact of the players cheating, while maximizing the impact of the non-cheating players.
Actually had one campaign last quite a while with one openly cheating player...he never overshadowed the group and had fun...so everyone one
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Has anyone ever catch another gamer using 'cheaters dice'? Basically a number result that comes up that really should be a nother number (rolling a 20 in a 1 spot)?
Oryan77
Adventurer
I wouldn't want to play with a player that cheated on die rolls. I think it's wrong and it's pretty lame.
As a DM though, I occasionally cheat on the die roll and I wouldn't mind if another DM did that also. It needs to be for a good reason though. Sometimes I might have made an encounter that was just way too difficult and I misjudged it. So I'll fudge a couple rolls to be more fair to the players. Or sometimes I meant for an encounter to be much more difficult so the players fear it rather than laugh at how easy it was. Then I might fudge a couple rolls to make it seem more difficult.
But I'll never fudge rolls just to kill or save a PC. I rarely need to fudge rolls though so it's not much of an issue at our table.
As a DM though, I occasionally cheat on the die roll and I wouldn't mind if another DM did that also. It needs to be for a good reason though. Sometimes I might have made an encounter that was just way too difficult and I misjudged it. So I'll fudge a couple rolls to be more fair to the players. Or sometimes I meant for an encounter to be much more difficult so the players fear it rather than laugh at how easy it was. Then I might fudge a couple rolls to make it seem more difficult.
But I'll never fudge rolls just to kill or save a PC. I rarely need to fudge rolls though so it's not much of an issue at our table.
