Curbing Cheating

[Storm Raven]

Someone cheating at a non-competitive game like an FRPG is pretty pathetic. I've never had to deal with a cheater in that situation, but if it came up, I'd probably just point out this fact, and encourage the other players in the session to make fun of the cheater.

 

[lukelightning]

Nipple Clamps.

Why would you reward cheaters?

 

[Halcyon]

Interestingly, I think I tend to see more 'lucky' dice rolls in the rare situations when PCs end up fighting each other. In the last Ars Magica game I played and in the AE campaign Im currently in there have been at least two scuffles between players (neither of which resulted in a character dying), but in both cases one PC seemed to have an incredibly 'fortunate' string of rolls against the other. I think this was probably based more on the fact the two players were irritated with each other and a desire to 'win,' especially in the AM game where the players just didnt like each other. I don't think Ive gamed with many players, if any, who cheat consistantly, but as others have said I have seen people fudge rolls based on the situation.

 

[Whimsical]

"If I didn't call for the roll, and if I didn't see the number on the die, then it wasn't rolled."

If I caught someone cheating, I would speak to them after the game one-on-one and inform him that cheating is unacceptable at this game. If he chooses to continue to play, then he will need to choose to play honsetly.

If he did it again, then I would disinvite him from the game.

 

[genshou]

I'm surprised Lela hasn't commented on this topic. We had a couple of gamers in our old group I'd like to talk about.

The first was a definite cheater. Most of us have seen it with our own eyes. She is a friend, however, so we don't kick her out of the game. We just sort of roll our eyes and get back to playing our own characters.

The second? He's definitely not a cheater. We've had him always roll his dice in the open. He still gets an uncanny amount of 15+ rolls on his d20s. We've had him use dice other than his own. We've used his dice against him. Somehow, he just has good luck or something. Add to that the fact that this player is a consummate min-maxer and you see the problem with this luck...

 

[Drowbane]

Zero Tolerance.

On the rare occasion where I've had cheater players, I nip it in the bud as soon as I notice it. I will take the offending player aside and let them know in no uncertain terms that cheating will not be tolerated, and if they don't like it they can find another group. Be it friend or stranger.

This has worked great thus far. I had a player in a Sci-fi game who had a bad habit of rolling his dice in such a way that they tended to run into more of his dice he had on the table, if you didn't watch him closely he would deftly move the dice with the more choice results forward as if those where what he rolled. As most of his dice tended to look alike, he got away with this for sometime. When I verified that he was doing this, he was taken aside and told to knock it off... and this guy was a friend of nearly a decade. Thankfully he took me seriously and stopped so I didn't have to give him the Boot from the game.

Any one caught cheating loses 1d4 to their prime requisite(s). Call it an act of the gods….

Sir, if you don't mind (and even if you do! ) I'm stealing this. Mwa ha ha ha ha!

 

[Sundragon2012]

My players find the idea of cheating abhorrent in the same way they would find me fudging dice rolls, even to save them, abhorrent. There has always been a "You always roll in the open" rule in any game I run. I couldn't imagine it any other way and most folks I've played with had the same expectations.

I have caught cheating in my group when I was maybe 13-15 yrs old on rare occasions but then I would make the PC suffer horribly for the act in some way that would dissuade further episodes. For the last 18-19yrs though, it hasn't come up.


Chris

 

[Tarondor]

I can't imagine any of my present players cheating. And damned few of my players, ever. There is one who was famous for it and we all refused to play any game with him that required secret bookkeeping. My D&D game requires rolls in the open and I as GM track hit points (I don't even tell the players exactly how many they have), so it's hard for them to cheat.

If someone somehow cheated in my D&D game, they'd be given precisely one chance to get their act together. The second time, they'd be firmly asked to leave forever.

 

[Frozen DM]

We have one player in our group that everyone is pretty much convinced is cheating at die rolls. He's pretty good at it, though, and it is hard to catch him red-handed. The two tell-tale signs that he's most likely fudging a roll:

1) Rolls his dice and snatches them up before anyone can see the result. Basically, his hand follows the roll and picks the die up the isntant it stops rolling. This way he can just pick any number that he feels like. Oddly enough, he usually picks numbers from 15 to 20.

2) Long (and I mean LOOONG) pauses after rolling as he adds up his bonuses. I mean, seriously, if you swing your sword at an orc, how come it takes almost a minute to add your +3 attack bonus to whatever you rolled in order to get that 22? Basically, we all feel he's spending that time debating on what total would be high enough, but not too high to appear like he is cheating. Of course, the fact that it takes a guy (who is actually very good in math) that long to do simple addition is the dead giveaway.

As for dealing with the problem. This is the tough part. We've already lost a player in the past because they were tired of this guy's cheating. DMs have tried talking to him, but nothing seems to stick. He'll stop for a couple of weeks, but then the fudging resumes. What makes the situation worse, though, is that this guy is my roomate and we game at our apartment. And I know that kicking him from the group is going to cause nothing but problems , as friends and roomates.

So instead we all just let him go about cheating, each game getting more and more annoyed at this juvenile behaviour. He is always the best combatant, gets the best skill rolls, always wins initiative. It's frustrating mostly because this means the other players don't feel like they matter. I hate that this occurs. Almost anyone else would be kicked to the curb, but since we've been friends and roomates for a long time, it seems like a trivial matter to ruin that friendship over.