Cheating at the Game Table

[the Jester]

I used to fudge some rolls as a GM here and there; always in the players' favor, but I still did it. I'll admit to that. And, from a certain point of view, I can accept that as a valid GM tool in some games - all in all, you make the rules, so it's your call if you want to decide a blow hits or doesn't hit. But I went cold-turkey when I switched to HackMaster, and never looked back (no matter what system I run, now)...

Not anymore. Now, I let the dice fall where they may. I've even started rolling out in the open as often as not (although some things are still behind the screen, to preserve precious player ignorance). And my players know two things: a) That I'll stick to the results the dice give me, and nothing will save them short of playing hard and smart, and b) that when they succeed? They actually earned it. I'd never take that knowledge away from them again; my guys don't deserve anything less.

And this has freed me like I can't even tell you. I'm FAR from a killer GM - quite the opposite, I plan my games with the sure knowledge that my PCs' fate is in my hands, and that if I pit them against foes they simply can't beat, with no way to escape the encounter, if I don't make sure that the players have adequate information to avoid an otherwise deadly threat, or if I place them in a situation that is absolutely unwinnable IMC, than I dropped the ball - they deserve better than that. It's my responsibility to walk that fine line between challenge and deathtrap, and I take that seriously. Because once we're playing, the gloves are off - once I've determined what I have to work with, I'm coming at them with everything I have. And the dice determine whether I (in one of my many guises as the PCs' mortal foes, legion as they are) can pull it off - once it gets to that point, you're damn straight I'm out to kill a PC. Maybe two, maybe I score a TPK (and a new sticker for my screen). And I'm rooting for the players the whole time. No conflict there, none whatsoever - I set'em up, I trust them to knock'em down.

This is a beautiful, erudite statement that sums up my attitude very well. The part in bold is especially important in my book- even some of my own players have sometimes have a hard time wrapping their heads around the idea that I can be out to kill them and out to see them succeed at the same time. The adversarial relationship is with the adversaries, not the dm.

Especially in higher-level games, I set up problems (even crazy epic problems) for the pcs with no solutions in mind. It's their job to come up with the solutions, not mine! And almost always, they do.

I'm a little more willing to fudge than you are, but it's very, very rare that I do so- once every month or so (and I think the last four or five fudges were on random encounter checks, because I wanted to either speed up or slow down the game).