Fantastic mysteries vs. DM cheating

[Kyramus]

I started my campaign with a few built in secrets.

Some that the players will never know about, and some that they might encounter or read.

In a journal that I hand written (it was a prop) of a sane wizard that slowly grew mad and proclaims himself as vecna.

I've written a few visions, or signs that may or may not be picked up.

One is " There are twins, born and unborn locked within an eternal womb"

That is a big campaign secret and actually deals with magic, life, gravity, etc. hehe Not going to go into it, but it was fun to see ONE person wondering about it.

 

[spunky_mutters]

As has been discussed, the key to fudging the mechanics of an event is to retain credibility with the players. I wanted a group of NPCs to have access to a bunch of demons, so I had their leader make a deal with a Demon Prince. Since their leader was a Demi-God with a lot of resources, this was feasible, and gave something for the players to find out if they ever sought answers for where the demons came from. I didn't want to change my NPCs, because their stats and spells were already set, and had been used in combat with the PCs. This is outside the scope of game mechanics, but plausible. But the PCs never questioned it.

The thing I hate is when the DM bends time or space to have an NPC get away. As a DM I will never do this. If the players catch me with my pants down, I'll face the consequences. You can never be so tied to your beloved storyline that the players can't have an unexpected impact, or there's really no point in playing. Just go write the book. I had a DM do this to us a few times, and I just lost interest in the whole campaign. It's no fun to ride the rails. I never did find out what happened, because I moved away, but everybody was feeling abused by the DM Ex Machina that seemed to always keep this guy alive. It's one thing for NPCs to have prepared escapes; that's just good planning. But when the DM has to ignore the game system for things to work out the way he wants, that's when I balk.

So as far as introducing things that are mechanically unexplained... just cover your butt. Introducing divine elements always explains it pretty well. They have powers and connections that can do a lot of things outside the scope of game mechanics.

 

[mmadsen]

I generally avoid that. Which is one reason that I liked Relics & Rituals. The ritual system provided me with a mechanic handle to an all too common plot device.

That demonstrates a good principle of RPG rules. Give lots of examples, but have ways within the (flexible) rules to do just about anything (with DM approval) -- beyond Rule 0, that is.

 

[-Ekimus-]

hehehe ive got 2 funny stories about this supposed "DM cheating", both of which hurt our players.

one of our party members was a 12th lvl vampire wizard, and he made a fortress underground on an island. this guy came in with a "ring of anti-magic field" so no magic would work against him from the wizard. he decided to attack our wiz, and the guy used a ring of control undead thru the field and controled our wiz, who was forced to walk into the ocean.

another time, with the same mage at a later and restored date, was with another weaker mage in a city. some guy bumped into them, so they got mad. he turned out to be a 27th lvl fighter/assassin. the mage cast Desintigrate, and the guy rolled a 1 on his save. in our rules, which may not be similar to yours, a 1 is an automatic fail, and a 20 an automatic hit. so, he rolled a one, and the DM scrambled for a reason as to why he didnt die. a very big arguement ensued