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gorice

Hero
Assuming you've DMed before, you've never fudged a dice roll? Or if you've only been a player, you'd prefer the DM slavishly adhere to every dice roll even if it leaves dead PCs in their wake more often than not?
I never fudge, and I never want anyone to lie to me about results. Otherwise, why are we even rolling the dice? I want an RPG, not the DM's story.

I don't understand why anyone would be surprised that I don't want people to cheat when I play games with them.
 


Hmm.


And then...

Still very much in the realm of the impossible thing before breakfast, then. I didn't have high expectations of this book, but I might actually prefer the 2014 book's scattershot approach to straight-up telling DMs to railroad their players.

Some of the other advice isn't bad, but then you get stuff like this:

Yes, please do encourage my DM to fudge the dice and lie to me.
Sorry I disagree with you cause I think what all those quotes said are correct in my view.
 

R_J_K75

Legend
Sorry I disagree with you cause I think what all those quotes said are correct in my view.
Yep. It's OK to roll the dice behind a screen or out in the open, and it's good to know when to do either. Further, regardless of outcome of the dice roll it's OK to disregard the result if it's going to create something undesirable, such as a character death, put the players in a situation where there is only one or no solution, or just create a non-sensical scenario. Used sparingly it's fine to fudge rolls here and there, as long as the DM doesn't come to rely on it. Besides if done well, the players will never know. In rare dire cases when a player fails a roll, I'll let them re-roll it, but if they fail a second time then they're screwed 9 out of 10 times.
 

ad_hoc

(she/her)
Fudging rolls is probably one of the top reasons people say the game is too easy.

Fudging rolls gives the illusion of risk without actually having it.

The only time I fudge is if I roll and then realize what we're doing isn't fun. This is usually in the last round of a combat that has already been decided so I just go ahead and narrate that the PCs win. It isn't to remove risk, just speed things along because they've gotten boring. I'm open about it to the table too.

I think lying is the problem. If the DM feels that they should lie in order to keep the suspense and tension then that's disrespectful and will eventually come out anyway. If the table doesn't want character death that should be discussed in session 0.

In my session 0 I explain that over the course of a year long campaign there are typically 1-2 character deaths. My campaigns aren't super deadly but there is also real risk and the players buy into that.
 

Tales and Chronicles

Jewel of the North, formerly know as vincegetorix
Fudging rolls is probably one of the top reasons people say the game is too easy.

Fudging rolls gives the illusion of risk without actually having it.

The only time I fudge is if I roll and then realize what we're doing isn't fun. This is usually in the last round of a combat that has already been decided so I just go ahead and narrate that the PCs win. It isn't to remove risk, just speed things along because they've gotten boring. I'm open about it to the table too.

I think lying is the problem. If the DM feels that they should lie in order to keep the suspense and tension then that's disrespectful and will eventually come out anyway. If the table doesn't want character death that should be discussed in session 0.

In my session 0 I explain that over the course of a year long campaign there are typically 1-2 character deaths. My campaigns aren't super deadly but there is also real risk and the players buy into that.
This is my 3 Fs rule:
Fudge For Fun

That applies for both DMs and Players.
 



R_J_K75

Legend
I think lying is the problem. If the DM feels that they should lie in order to keep the suspense and tension then that's disrespectful and will eventually come out anyway. If the table doesn't want character death that should be discussed in session 0.
My campaigns aren't super deadly but there is also real risk and the players buy into that.
If everyone is upfront about doing it then that is part of the agreement of the table.
If I do fudge because I've realized what we are doing is boring I let everyone know.
I don't fudge dice often, minimally at most, and I've never done it to preserve some pre-written narrative that I prepared. But when I did, I never really thought of it as lying, but I can see how some would see it as such. I can't ever remember discussing this at session 0, it just seemed like something everyone just assumed happened every so often, and I never had players accuse me of it, or say they felt their fun of the game was compromised. Character death was always an expected possibility at any given time. My campaigns aren't particularly deadly either, and in combat I roll out in the open for the most part. If I fudge a roll or give a player a mulligan it's because I didn't clearly explain the situation, the player didn't understand fully what I explained, the rule involved in the situation resolution, or I followed a rule too much to the letter and it made for a really bad or stupid outcome. So, for me it's a case-by-case basis, if I screwed up, I'll tell the players but if it's something rather insignificant that has little impact on the overall game, I don't bother and just keep on going.
 

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