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DMs, how do you fudge?
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<blockquote data-quote="TheAlkaizer" data-source="post: 8593474" data-attributes="member: 7024893"><p>Obviously, there's dozen of different examples of fudging and we would probably all have different opinions on them.</p><p></p><p>Let's look at other examples. Some from this very thread.</p><p></p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">One of your players has missed his attack three rounds in a row. He rolls a 15, you look at your notes, that monster had an AC of 16. But you just decide to fudge the result and make the monster AC a 15. <em>"You hit!"</em>. I may come from a good place, but I think this is destructive to the contract between DM, players and the game. If I fudge things to make them have success sometimes, how they can they be sure what when they truly succeed it was because of either their choices/their rolls?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">The players blasted through an encounter, or outright dodged it because they were smart or found an ingenious way ahead. They have way more resources than what was planned when they get to the biggest fight of the dungeon. Should we tweak it to make it harder? It should be epic, it's the last fight. I think this is a <em>bad</em> idea. Your players made some decisions, they used their agency and they were rewarded. They'll reach that fight in a much better posture and will most likely heroically prevail. Why on earth would you steal it from them. It's a thousand times more satisfying to know that your wits allowed this outcome (something I often share with my players after the session) than to be forced in an outcome no matter what your choices are.</li> </ol><p>We've often discussed about the <em>very</em> different type of players and tables there are. The players acting versus the players describing their characters action, the ones that like optimizing their characters and the ones that don't. The ones that want some dungeon delving, and the ones that want a large drama with plenty of characters, etc. What's interesting is that, in my experience, every single type of player, in every single type of campaign that I ran, in every game, or setting always had its agency at heart. Any of these players, in any of these contexts would have felt robbed by some of the examples.</p><p></p><p>In my opinion, there's nothing more sacrosanct in TTRPGs then respecting the players' agency and the consequences of their actions. If your fudges or tweaks affects that, you're striking at sacred essence of the game you're playing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="TheAlkaizer, post: 8593474, member: 7024893"] Obviously, there's dozen of different examples of fudging and we would probably all have different opinions on them. Let's look at other examples. Some from this very thread. [LIST=1] [*]One of your players has missed his attack three rounds in a row. He rolls a 15, you look at your notes, that monster had an AC of 16. But you just decide to fudge the result and make the monster AC a 15. [I]"You hit!"[/I]. I may come from a good place, but I think this is destructive to the contract between DM, players and the game. If I fudge things to make them have success sometimes, how they can they be sure what when they truly succeed it was because of either their choices/their rolls? [*]The players blasted through an encounter, or outright dodged it because they were smart or found an ingenious way ahead. They have way more resources than what was planned when they get to the biggest fight of the dungeon. Should we tweak it to make it harder? It should be epic, it's the last fight. I think this is a [I]bad[/I] idea. Your players made some decisions, they used their agency and they were rewarded. They'll reach that fight in a much better posture and will most likely heroically prevail. Why on earth would you steal it from them. It's a thousand times more satisfying to know that your wits allowed this outcome (something I often share with my players after the session) than to be forced in an outcome no matter what your choices are. [/LIST] We've often discussed about the [I]very[/I] different type of players and tables there are. The players acting versus the players describing their characters action, the ones that like optimizing their characters and the ones that don't. The ones that want some dungeon delving, and the ones that want a large drama with plenty of characters, etc. What's interesting is that, in my experience, every single type of player, in every single type of campaign that I ran, in every game, or setting always had its agency at heart. Any of these players, in any of these contexts would have felt robbed by some of the examples. In my opinion, there's nothing more sacrosanct in TTRPGs then respecting the players' agency and the consequences of their actions. If your fudges or tweaks affects that, you're striking at sacred essence of the game you're playing. [/QUOTE]
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