Everybody Cheats?

Gary Alan Fine's early survey of role-playing games found that everybody cheated. But the definition of what cheating is when it applies to role-playing games differs from other uses of the term. Does everyone really cheat in RPGs?

Yes, Everybody​

Gary Alan Fine's work, Shared Fantasy, came to the following conclusion:

Perhaps surprisingly, cheating in fantasy role-playing games is extremely common--almost everyone cheats and this dishonesty is implicitly condoned in most situation. The large majority of interviewees admitted to cheating, and in the games I played, I cheated as well.

Fine makes it a point of clarify that cheating doesn't carry quite the same implications in role-playing as it does in other games:

Since FRP players are not competing against each other, but are cooperating, cheating does not have the same effect on the game balance. For example, a player who cheats in claiming that he has rolled a high number while his character is fighting a dragon or alien spaceship not only helps himself, but also his party, since any member of the party might be killed. Thus the players have little incentive to prevent this cheating.

The interesting thing about cheating is that if everyone cheats, parity is maintained among the group. But when cheating is rampant, any player who adheres slavishly to die-roll results has "bad luck" with the dice. Cheating takes place in a variety of ways involving dice (the variable component PCs can't control), such as saying the dice is cocked, illegible, someone bumped the table, it rolled off a book or dice tray, etc.

Why Cheat?​

One of the challenges with early D&D is that co-creator Gary Gygax's design used rarity to make things difficult. This form of design reasoned that the odds against certain die rolls justified making powerful character builds rare, and it all began with character creation.

Character creation was originally 3d6 for each attribute, full stop. With the advent of computers, players could automate this rolling process by rapidly randomizing thousands of characters until they got the combination of numbers they wanted. These numbers dictated the PC's class (paladins, for example, required a very strict set of high attributes). Psionics too, in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, required a specific set of attributes that made it possible to spontaneously manifest psionic powers. Later forms of character generation introduced character choice: 4d6 assigned to certain attributes, a point buy system, etc. But in the early incarnations of the game, it was in the player's interest, if she wanted to play a paladin or to play a psionic, to roll a lot -- or just cheat (using the dice pictured above).

Game masters have a phrase for cheating known as "fudging" a roll; the concept of fudging means the game master may ignore a roll for or against PCs if it doesn't fit the kind of game he's trying to create. PCs can be given extra chances to reroll, or the roll could be interpreted differently. This "fudging" happens in an ebb and flow as the GM determines the difficulty and if the die rolls support the narrative.

GM screens were used as a reference tool with relevant charts and to prevent players from seeing maps and notes. But they also helped make it easier for GMs to fudge rolls. A poll on RPG.net shows that over 90% of GMs fudged rolls behind the screen.

Cheating Is the Rule​

One of Fifth Edition's innovations was adopting a common form of cheating -- the reroll -- by creating advantage. PCs now have rules encouraging them to roll the dice twice, something they've been doing for decades with the right excuse.

When it comes to cheating, it seems like we've all been doing it. But given that we're all working together to have a good time, is it really cheating?

 

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[Cyrinishad]

... Clearly, Mike "Talien" Tresca & Gary Alan Fine, have lost their privileges to bring their own dice to the table, and should be required to make dice rolls into a rolling box in the center of the table... Sad.

This article sounded like a child trying to justify a behavior they know to be wrong by using the age-old b.s. rationale of: "...What's the big deal? Everybody's doing it..."

Stunning...

 

[TerraDave]

The claims are sweeping.

Lets go through them:

Char gen: This was discussed recently in another thread, but in the roll 3d6 days, players would refuse to play badly rolled characters. They would also make and play more characters, and keep the good ones in play longer. I have never heard of computer generation used, and that would have been tough to do in, say, 1979. 4d6 and so forth was introduced to deal with this, though some re-rolling still happened, and players would still sometimes churn characters until they got an especially good set of rolls.

Behind the screen: DMs have lots of way to tip a situation one way or another, and one of the more blunt ones is to lie about die rolls. In the old days, when characters could have single digit HP up to 3rd level, this was mostly done to keep low level players alive. But yes, key monster and (pet) NPC attacks and saves have certainly been fudged over the years.

Player cheating: This on the other hand is usually a big no-no. At least when it comes to rolls in play. BUT, fumbles (1s) or other disastrous low results are not always reported, hp and gold may not always be tracked accurately, nor may the usage of spells and other special abilities, and there is a strong tendency to interpret rules in their favor. These are all problems for any DM

Legal fudging: These predate 5e by a long ways, to help games more closely match how people actually play and match genre fiction (I think both Top Secret and Victoria Games James Bond had fudging mechanics, which makes sense if you have seen the relevant movies). In 3e I had a "fudge" house-rule that was used for a reroll about once a level, and that was enough.

 

[Irda Ranger]

I have one player who tries to cheat like this, and let me tell you, it ruins the game for everyone else.

I roll in the open as a DM and recently have been playing online a lot using a chat bot dice roller, and it's great. Everything is in the open and you have to describe what the roll is for. You don't just say "dicebot roll 1d20", you say "dicebot roll 1d20+2 Saving throw vs burning hands", and dicebot comes back with a roll that everyone can see.

The game is much better this way. Also, everyone gets inventive about finding ways to avoid rolls. Good roleplaying and careful planning can often set up situations where a roll isn't required to achieve victory.

Also, when victory is depending on a throw of the dice, and dice come back in your favor, there's nothing like that feeling. Cheaters rob the whole table of that.

I agree though that the pressure to cheat is highest when generating stats and hit points. That's why I like point buy, or the standard array, or any other system where generating 10,000 characters cannot convey advantage. I also have a house rule for Hit Points to reduce the pressure to cheat: when you level up, you roll your entire HD pool (not just 1 HD), and either take the new total (if higher) or 1+CON HP for that level.

 

[neobolts]

I have truely never cheated as a player. I simply don't understand the appeal.

As a DM, I have made adjustments on the fly to encounters that were way too easy or hard. But that was correcting an error in my preparation, not something done to out a desire to "win".

 

[Ath-kethin]

I played in an AL game where one player was obviously cheating all the time - he never rolled below a 16 on anything, ever. But I like the way the people running the game put it: if your life is such a mess that you need to cheat at freaking D&D to feel empowered, cheat. You have bigger problems than I can solve.

As a DM, it's impossible to cheat. You make the rules and control the game. From the 5e Dungeon Master's Guide, page 4:

". . . as a referee, the DM decides when to abide by the rules and when to change them."

Sorry, Charlie.

 

[talien]

Well I WAS going to write an article titled "Nobody Cheats" but unfortunately we have data points (both research and surveys) to the contrary.

 

[Larrin]

Hi, My name is Larrin, and I'm a cheater. It's been 10 years since I've kept track of ammunition on a character sheet. Even when the DM tells me I should. I just can't. I pay for 140 arrows and assume that should cover it until the cost of arrows is trivial, and then I don't worry about it.

 

[SharnDM]

I "cheat" behind the screen, rarely though. Every now and then a GM fudge is a paramount tool in our arsenal to make the shared story even better. I will caveat this to say that my behind screen fudging is typically a positive boon to the players. It needs to be something special to grant my villains a gift or two.

As a player there was a time when I'd fudge a To-Hit roll or two, I mean I was a silly teen once too, but these days I'd never do so. Failure can lead to interesting developments!

 

[Kobold Boots]

There is one rule that I have that guides me when it comes to "cheating".

Does the outcome of whatever action is taken harm the ability of others at the table to have fun?

If answer = yes - Then you talk to the player about it.
If answer = no - Then you let it go until the answer equals yes.

Most people who have been playing for a long while know the difference between being a bother and being a good friend. I've found that the amount of time I've been dealing with this sort of thing has gone way down over the years as the folks I've played with have aged.

KB