D&D 5E DMs, how do you fudge?

[Inchoroi]

I don't fudge die rolls or anything. I might add a monster ability that a monster should have had that my dumb brain forgot, but beyond that I don't change anything. If a PC dies or a monster dies more quickly than I anticipated, that's how it happens! I will houserule stuff, but won't change things mid-campaign (I'm looking at you Rauothlim's psychic lance).

 

[bloodtide]

I don't "fudge" dice rolls. There is no need to.

When I roll dice as a DM I WANT an randomly rolled outcome, so I let the dice roll where they may.

Combat encounters are built with a set, predetermined outcome as part of the game play. It's never 100%, but it's often 99% likely to happen my way. Did the players blindly have their characters stumble into the most obvious capture trap ever that any five year old could have seen coming....yes. Could they maybe get out of it with teamwork and determination...yes. Are they going to fumble around, play on their phones, not work together and get their characters caught....big yes.

If I wish something to happen or not happen, I won't be rolling any dice for that: whatever I wish on a whim happens or not.

 

[Mezuka]

No fudge, I roll in front of the players. They find that very scary, except when I roll bad and they make fun of me.

 

[CleverNickName]

Combat encounters are built with a set, predetermined outcome as part of the game play. It's never 100%, but it's often 99% likely to happen my way.
...
If I wish something to happen or not happen, I won't be rolling any dice for that: whatever I wish on a whim happens or not.

This does not match my own experience at all.

 

[bloodtide]

This does not match my own experience at all.

Well, everyone plays D&D differently. What do you find so "different?"

 

[FitzTheRuke]

My most common fudge is to kill off monsters when they drop to like 1 or 2 HP after a fairly substantial attack. If a PC nails a monster for like 35 points and the creature ends at 1 HP... I'll occasionally just pull him from the board if there are still like quite a number of other creatures in the battle.

I did this quite a bit when we were playing 4th edition. Sometimes I'd add the HP to a different monster (for every below average HP monster, there might be an above average one). I did the first part only to keep the game's pacing up. I don't want to put down 4e (I personally liked a lot of it) but I think we all know that some combats could grind, if you didn't have tricks to avoid it.

 

[Oofta]

I'm noticing, in this admittedly small sampling, that GMs who do fudge do it sparingingly and to improve table play. So I think the idea of GMs starting down a slippery slope to constant fudging may not be a common phenomenon.

I don't remember who it was, but there was a post on another thread about a blogger that never even tracked monster HP. They just had the monsters die "when it made sense". To me that's kind of the ultimate in fudging and would kind of annoy me as a player. Knowing that combat was predetermined like that (or that the DM openly fudges on a regular basis) would make me feel a bit cheated.

To each their own, of course.

 

[CleverNickName]

Well, everyone plays D&D differently. What do you find so "different?"

The parts I quoted. I've never felt that combat has a predetermined outcome. I can barely ever guess what new-fangled stunt my players are going to pull from one round to the next...to say nothing of their dice rolls, or mine.

The time they were hired to hunt down a group of hobgoblin brigands and bring them to justice? Pretty straightforward adventure hook, right? NOPE. They took the contract and hunted them down, all right. Then upon meeting the first group of hobgoblins, they asked if they could join their gang. I thought it was a ruse to get close to the leader, but nope. They were serious. On a whim, they had just decided to be bandits instead of heroes.

That time they were fighting that gelatinous cube in a large room? Sounds easy, right? Just break out the crossbows? Nope, absolutely not. Someone mentioned that oozes couldn't fly, so the ranger and the rogue decided they absolutely must climb up onto a chandelier and attack the gelatinous cube from above. Of course, they fell...directly onto the gelatinous cube, and were immediately engulfed. Once freed, they tried again.

Heaven help me if I mention a fireplace, torture device, or hole in the ground while describing a battlefield...it will immediately become the most urgent and important thing in the room. "Oh there's a fireplace? Well clearly we need to stuff the mimic into the fireplace and light it! Sure, it will put ourselves in unnecessary danger and use up tons of resources, but clearly the DM doesn't want us to!"

 

[Arilyn]

I don't remember who it was, but there was a post on another thread about a blogger that never even tracked monster HP. They just had the monsters die "when it made sense". To me that's kind of the ultimate in fudging and would kind of annoy me as a player. Knowing that combat was predetermined like that (or that the DM openly fudges on a regular basis) would make me feel a bit cheated.

To each their own, of course.

I remember that post. Seems extreme, almost like the GM wasn't prepping and couldn't run the game on the fly? But maybe not, maybe just really into the story in their head. Anyway, this GM sounds like they started at the bottom of the slippery slope.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't remember who it was, but there was a post on another thread about a blogger that never even tracked monster HP. They just had the monsters die "when it made sense". To me that's kind of the ultimate in fudging and would kind of annoy me as a player. Knowing that combat was predetermined like that (or that the DM openly fudges on a regular basis) would make me feel a bit cheated.

To each their own, of course.

I played under a DM who did that. It was terrible and frustrated everyone at the table.