Dealing with Player Cheating

[Mercule]

Barsoomcore is right on pretty much everything. Calling them out is guaranteed to cause hard feelings. Prompting everyone to roll in the open is a good way to encourage fairplay and it gives the player a chance to change her stripes -- or enough rope to prove she's been cheating.

On the other hand, you should explore the reasons why the player is cheating. I'm usually a pretty honest roller, as a DM or player. I just don't like the idea. I have "fudged" a few rolls, though, in a couple of campaign. The reason is always universally because I feel that the DM is being somehow unfair.

 

[Laurel]

Barsoomcore gives some good advise. Especially on having the rolls in front of you, finding out what the actual numbers are, but also making it playfully fun and teasing. If she all of a sudden is throwing 1's in to try and balance things, she probably has a good idea/thought that someone knows or at least you suspect.

Do you know for absolute sure that she is cheating, no... she could be rolling high all the time. Maybe her dice were messed up in the manufacturing. Who knows.

Finding out why she is cheating if she is can help a great deal, but also think about what you will do if you find out for sure. Sometimes it is the confirmation of cheating that drives the wedge. It could just be they are a munchkin in which case no help can be found, but it could just be they want or feel the need for attention. If that seems to be it find a place to show case them, obviously giving others the same chance at being in the spotlight.

 

[Crothian]

Barsoomcore is right on pretty much everything. Calling them out is guaranteed to cause hard feelings.

It depends on the people. If they are immature and quick to anger and get defensive, then yay it will. But if they are mature and adult about it it should not have any problems.

 

[Psychic Warrior]

And of course, before you take any action, ask yourself why you care. Does it matter if your player is cheating? Is it because you want to "win" and they're spoiling your fun? Or are other players having less fun because this player is succeeding at EVERYTHING?

While I do agree with your advice I have to say this - cheating shows a huge amount of disrespect towards everyone else at the table. It is a simple lack of honesty not only to the other players and DM but to oneself. So yes, it does matter. Without honesty and repect from everyone in the group what is the point?

 

[shilsen]

It depends on the people. If they are immature and quick to anger and get defensive, then yay it will. But if they are mature and adult about it it should not have any problems.

This is someone who he's pretty sure is cheating. I'd say "mature and adult" left on the last train

That being said, I think complete honesty is the way to go. One way to handle it if you can't be completely straight is to tell her that you think her die might be defective/biased, since there are too many high rolls. Say you want a record of the rolls for the game, give the person sitting next to her the job of recording the rolls, and tell her to not grab the die till he has a chance to record it.

 

[Jdvn1]

Oh, and now we game on a huge table. So the rolling-in-the-middle-of-the-table idea works better because you can't just grab it. Everyone sees all the die rolls.

 

[MerakSpielman]

Next time she picks it up after rolling, just say, "Hey, could you leave it down there please? The whole point is so that we can all see the number ourselves!"

To which she might reply with "You calling me a cheater?"

To which you would reply, "Not yet. Pick up the die again and that'll change."

 

[BlackMoria]

There is several things you can try:

1. Candid private talk with the individual. State you noticed that the dice rolls seem to defy statistical probablity fairly consistency and ask for a explaination. Then state you are implementing a policy of all rolls from *everyone* will be witnessed or will not be accepted. Unfortuately, in essence, you are calling the person to task on this so the person may not react favorably to the what you are implying.

2. If the person is rolling so called *hot*, state that you are amazed at how consistently good the rolls are and you want to witness this phenomenon first. Roll that puppy and lets see it....

3. Accept the person's declared rolls. If it is a hit on a monster, state the attack hit and allow them to roll damage. Record nothing and immediately go to the next person. Unless the person is oblvious, it should occur to them in short order that their rolls are being discounted by you. If they ask why, state you will discuss it after the session. If it is a saving throw, don't state the target DC. Let them state what their dice result is and then announce that they take X damage. Don't explain how you calcuated it. If asked why they took full damage when a lesser roll by someone else resulted in half damage, state you can discuss it after the session but the damage is what the damage is. Unless the person in question is dense, they should pick up that their rolls are ruled upon in an arbitrary and inconsistent matter. When the discussion comes up, state your concerns and discuss. Let them know that you don't intend to supervise their rolls (we are all adults here, I assume) but as long as you feel they are not being forthwith with the dice, your adjudications will continue to be arbitrary and inconsistent in response.

4. If the person appears to be cheating, roll your own dice and apply the result. Then announce the result. If challenged on it, state your concerns about biased dice and skewed probability and that anytime that anyone makes a roll you consider questionable, you reserve the right to make your own roll and apply it.

5. Accept the rolls and the cheating. Make sure that all encounters with multiple monsters have one more than the number of party members and that monster attacks the cheater's character. If a solitary boss monster, the most damaging spell or attack get directed at the cheater's character. If a activated trap or a unfortuate event can affect random party members, the cheater's character is the one that take the hit. Unless they are dense, they will figure out. If confronted on it, simply refer to their 'phenomenal luck' and that because of said luck, you felt they were the best candidate to take the extra damage/monster/act of god. (Actually, I like using this option the best with cheaters. They figure it out in due time and is stops the cheating right quick)

Anyway you slice it, there is no easy answers. Not a good situation to find yourself in.

 

[barsoomcore]

Merak, that's a pretty kickin' idea.

Psychic Warrior -- not everybody cares about what you care about. I do, but not everybody does.

Crothian -- good point. Of course if they ARE cheating, then there's no worry -- like shilsen says, "mature" and "adult" don't live here anymore. But if they're not, and they're mature adults, they might very well say, "You're right, that looks pretty phoney, here, everyone can see how awesome my die has been rolling."

 

[atom crash]

I occasionally DM a game for my 12-year-old nephew and some of his friends. I suspected one of the players of cheating on his dice rolls, and it frustrated* me to the point that I didn't want to run that game anymore. He always seemed to roll in the mid-20s, whether it was for an attack roll or a skill check. His initiative scores were always right around 20. And I was afraid his behavior would encourage the other kids to fudge their rolls too.

My solution was to make everyone roll out in the open. I also had to encourage them that it was okay to fail/miss from time to time, and reinforce the idea that their overall success or failure in the game would never depend on one die roll alone.

I'll also support barsoomcore's suggestions to stand over the roll and to call for a specific number. It makes it feel more like a fun game when the whole group is watching the roll and the DM is telling the player, for example, "All you have to roll is a 12."

*Cheating on dice rolls frustrates me as a DM because it takes the challenge out of the game. The challenge is where all the fun is. It's difficult for me to plan an encounter that will be challenging to the cheater as well as the honest die rollers. The most common "fix" for this is to throw harder opponents at the players, which penalizes the ones who aren't cheating and creates situations where every die roll means the difference between success or failure, which just reinforces the desire to cheat.

It also shows very little respect for the other players and for the game as a whole. If I was playing in a game with a cheater, I'd be ticked that every one of his rolls/attacks/skill checks overshadowed my character's abilities.