Curbing Cheating

[ARandomGod]

So how do you curb cheating in your game?

Ignore it?

Talk with the player about it?

Have it so that all dice rolls are made in the open and if not, don't count?

I use a combination of the three. Along with a

"Don't look behind the GM screen" to help "prevent" GM "cheating".

IE sometimes I ignore it if it's minor. Someone felt that they needed to roll a little better that one time, if it's not a common occurance, I see that as unspoken "hero points". If the PC really, really needs to suceed at X enough to attempt to cheat, then he rolled that 20 because he said so and not because of any actual dice roll. Note that I really wouldn't expect this to happen often. But I can understand the psychology behind why it might happen on occasion.

The GM gets as many of these hero points as he feels is important to keep the storyline good, but also shouldn't do it very often. Of course, he also get's an equal number of "villian points" that lower rolls. So it should all even out.

I *might* talk with the player about it... depending on how well I know the player. However direct confrontation is often too confrontational. However I'm a big fan of communication, so I do think that communicating your feelings on cheating should be done if you feel someone needs to know something special (ie if they're bothering you or the other players).

"Have it so that all dice rolls are made in the open and if not, don't count?"

Well, except for the GM, that's always a given. It's just that all dice rolls aren't always confirmed by other players/the GM. However if a problem started cropping up it'd be pretty easy to start requiring confirmations.

 

[Xombie Master]

I don't think age is a factor.

I should have been clearer. I don't think the young are more prone to cheating. I do however think that grown men should know better. I have caught a player who was in his 30's cheating. He's lucky we weren't in a saloon playing poker.

You get caught being a big baby, and cheating, you get the axe.

I understand some people are bad at math, so usually I keep track of the "high rollers". If it seems they roll too well, I ask them to sit near me. I explain that I don't think they are cheating, but the odds do seem in their favor quite a bit so I would like to witness the miracles as they come. I find they either stop cheating (if they were) or things soon get back to normal.

Now if I suspect loaded dice, I will do my DM duty and use his dice to roll all attacks made against him for one session. If the dice are truly blessed, they won't leave his character injured or worse. If by hefting and using the dice I find them to feel off, I tell him get new dice or don't play.

Finally, If I'm 100% sure a cheater is in my midst then sayonara.

 

[Gold Roger]

I've played and play with people that cheat. They're good friend of mine and not power players, nor do they want to "win the game".
Two players cheat in that they don't write up their memorized spells, basically using all spellcasters as spontanous casters, rarely calling better rolls than they did roll if I don't look and not correcting me if I get some situations wrong in their favor. I mostly gloss over the non corrections, after all the game keeps flowing this way and if it's major there are other players after all. I look at almost every roll myself, so that's no major concern, though it would be great if I could trust my players more. I gloss over the non memorizing thing mostly. I avoid having these players memorizing spellcaster in the future and if they have, I ask to check their memorization lists once in a while.
It's anoying, I find it injuring to the DM, because it expresses a disrespectfull view of "do what you can get away with because he doesn't get it" and a lack of faith in his DMing skill, because someone that cheats, is in my view only justified if he thinks it is needed to avoid a TPK.
Another player, I played for a long time with, is even worse. She fudges die rolls regulary and, worst, peeks at the DM's notes whenever she can! Her argumentation is that it's a cooperative game, so you can't cheat anyone out of the win and thus it's no real cheating anyway, at the same time she has some strange kind of players vs DM mentallity. In the one shot, the discussion came up in, she was backed up by two other casual gamers and I let it slipp, because I didn't want the game to be disrupted. Appart from thinking of it as an injury to the DM, I think it's also egoistic (I don't want my charakter to die), unfair to the honest players and anti-athmospheric. She hates fights and I would seriously understand her if it was just that (then I'd just help her create a good non-combat PC and give her something to do during fights). But she's also very disinterested in story elements, never bothering to keep them remembered nor showing interest or affort to learn more. She isn't even a good charakter role-player, all her charakters where terribly over the top carricatures in concept and either exactly that or totally bland in play. Her Roleplaying expectation boils dow to interactive Sims with puzzles (most of us hate puzzles in RPG's). Let's just say we don't play with her anymore, though she's a good friend.

PS: Heck, I wrote a lot!

 

[iwatt]

I don't care.

If someone wants to cheat it's his problem. I ahve enough other things to do in a typical session to bother policing someone's rolls.

 

[Bloodstone Press]

So how do you curb cheating in your game?

Ignore it?

Talk with the player about it?

Have it so that all dice rolls are made in the open and if not, don't count?

We used to have that problem about 10 years ago. There was this guy named Vinny who used to game with us. He would cheat on his attack rolls and saves all the time. We sat far apart from each other in chairs around a large room and no one could anyone elses dice rolls. I finally got sick of his cheating and talked the other players into sitting at a table where we could all watch everyone elses rolls.

That pretty much stopped it.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

(spits)
In my group, we don't take kindly to cheaters.

Actually, if anyone in my group cheated (intentionally rather than an honest mistake), I'd be surprised.

I don't just let anyone into my house, and we just don't let anyone into our group.
If, during the trial period, I get an inkling of dishonesty from a player, they aren't invited back.
So far, I haven't had to do that though.

 

[Warbringer]

An interesting note:

Cheating is expected in MMORG. Strange how it is still discouraged in good ole roleplay

 

[Crothian]

An interesting note:

Cheating is expected in MMORG. Strange how it is still discouraged in good ole roleplay

That's funny, as if cheating is okay and should be allowed. So, not so strange it is discouraged, but sad if it is expected in MMORG

 

[Shining Dragon]

Nipple Clamps.

 

[Shining Dragon]

An interesting note:

Cheating is expected in MMORG. Strange how it is still discouraged in good ole roleplay

I'd be interested in hearing what this cheating you speak of is.