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Everybody Cheats?
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<blockquote data-quote="Gibili" data-source="post: 7751143" data-attributes="member: 6682820"><p>Yep, totally agree. There are many ways to balance and adjust, and they are almost always better than fudging dice. The thread was about cheating, primarily on dice rolls in my mind, so I only really focused on that but I also do everything you write above. At the end of the day we just want to make sure it is exciting. The dice adjustment is something I only do rarely. Personally I also like the random element the DMs dice create in a fight, or any other situation. It makes it more interesting for me as a DM, which probably means it wil be more interesting to the players too.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Yep, it is a slippery slope, which is why I rarely do it. If you are constantly adjusting DM dice rolls you are like a driver swerving from kerb to kerb across a road, constantly over compensating. Not good and not fun. If I fudge a crit, it is for effect a crit has on the players rather than say simply damage output of the NPC. I'm engendering a sense of extra risk or impact.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Again, I agree. If you as a DM can come up with a plausible reason for the choices the NPCs make then it is a much better sell, it is better story building. much more interesting for the players, and the likely responses you get from them as a result. It can lead to them coming up with ideas or why the monster ran, it can lead to you the DM coming up with ideas for why the monster might have run and whole side quests and more can come to fruition. I think some of our most fun moments have come from bits of the game that came about spontaneously. Just "the monster hits, the monster misses, the monster hits" adds very little to anything. If you as a DM can be more creative then it tends to engender the same in the players. I've always found players a great source of storylines with the things they say sometime even just in jest. I remember one situation where someone jokingly said, "It would be really funny right now if these rocks turned out to be living". No sooner said than done sir. And it was! <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p><p></p><p>So ignoring dice, is the DM cheating when he changes the story, capabilities and action of the NPCs? <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Every fight shouldn't be a toughie. It's like a piece of music where you need the quiet bits to throw the louder bits into sharper relief and visa versa. Hmm, I think I'm badly mixing art forms here <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /> </p><p>So similarly. you need the troughs in action to make the peaks work. Combat itself needs breaking up with travel, investigation, NPC interaction (that doesn't involving hitting them), intra-party discussion...or bickering, shopping, or whatever.</p><p>I remember the first time I saw Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. It just felt to me like constant, unrelenting action, which got boring quite frankly. Don't these people ever talk to each other?</p><p></p><p>Anyway, this is a fun discussion. I hope there are budding DMs out there taking notes. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite1" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Gibili, post: 7751143, member: 6682820"] Yep, totally agree. There are many ways to balance and adjust, and they are almost always better than fudging dice. The thread was about cheating, primarily on dice rolls in my mind, so I only really focused on that but I also do everything you write above. At the end of the day we just want to make sure it is exciting. The dice adjustment is something I only do rarely. Personally I also like the random element the DMs dice create in a fight, or any other situation. It makes it more interesting for me as a DM, which probably means it wil be more interesting to the players too. Yep, it is a slippery slope, which is why I rarely do it. If you are constantly adjusting DM dice rolls you are like a driver swerving from kerb to kerb across a road, constantly over compensating. Not good and not fun. If I fudge a crit, it is for effect a crit has on the players rather than say simply damage output of the NPC. I'm engendering a sense of extra risk or impact. Again, I agree. If you as a DM can come up with a plausible reason for the choices the NPCs make then it is a much better sell, it is better story building. much more interesting for the players, and the likely responses you get from them as a result. It can lead to them coming up with ideas or why the monster ran, it can lead to you the DM coming up with ideas for why the monster might have run and whole side quests and more can come to fruition. I think some of our most fun moments have come from bits of the game that came about spontaneously. Just "the monster hits, the monster misses, the monster hits" adds very little to anything. If you as a DM can be more creative then it tends to engender the same in the players. I've always found players a great source of storylines with the things they say sometime even just in jest. I remember one situation where someone jokingly said, "It would be really funny right now if these rocks turned out to be living". No sooner said than done sir. And it was! :) So ignoring dice, is the DM cheating when he changes the story, capabilities and action of the NPCs? ;) Every fight shouldn't be a toughie. It's like a piece of music where you need the quiet bits to throw the louder bits into sharper relief and visa versa. Hmm, I think I'm badly mixing art forms here :) So similarly. you need the troughs in action to make the peaks work. Combat itself needs breaking up with travel, investigation, NPC interaction (that doesn't involving hitting them), intra-party discussion...or bickering, shopping, or whatever. I remember the first time I saw Peter Jackson's The Hobbit. It just felt to me like constant, unrelenting action, which got boring quite frankly. Don't these people ever talk to each other? Anyway, this is a fun discussion. I hope there are budding DMs out there taking notes. :) [/QUOTE]
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