GM Confessional: I fudged like a Banshee (just not on the dice rolls)

[Ahnehnois]

They're your rules. Do what you want with them.

Personally, I either do detailed, correct stats, or make up the numbers I need completely without regard for the rules. But there's nothing wrong with a middle ground.

 

[enrious]

Just remember, I don't think fudging is a dirty word.

"`Fudging' isn't a dirty word, Blackadder. `Crevice' is a dirty word, but `Fudging' isn't."

Everyone at the table having fun is the goal, however it's accomplished.

 

[Zourin]

The true art in DM'ing is to never get caught fudging, winging, hand-waving, lamp-shading, stealing, or lying.

If you shatter the illusion that you are playing by the rules (except in good humor), you can cause a lot of table trouble.

 

[Elf Witch]

I do this all the time now. I just jot down a few things that I need. I tried to do it by the book and the prep work was just to much. Especially as the game goes up in levels.

I jot down things as I wing it in case I need to remember it later.

 

[Li Shenron]

I pulled stuff from everywhere. The Bestiary. The Advanced GM Guide. The NPC guide. The Pathfinder Rival Guide. Dungeon and Dragon magazine. Old PC character sheets.

Oh, I tweaked some of the numbers. Changed weapon and armor proficiencies, tacked on an extra feat here or there. But really I felt no compulsion to be 100% accurate down to every BAB, skill, and bonus.

...

Honestly I don't even call this "fudging".

Balanced character creation rules are for the PCs, the rest of the world is not even supposed to be balanced, there can be individuals with any stats.

 

[scourger]

I like it. Ease of preparation is one of the things I really love about Savage Worlds. That game urges GMs to just make the kind of character they want without strict adherence to the guidelines for the PCs. The same kind of advice was presented in Omega World d20. Kind of a keep it simple method. In 3e, there were great tables in the DMG for NPCs of all levels with abbreviated stats.

As a DM, I want most foes to be presented as simply as a D&D minis card. Any more than that is really just unnecessary for me. A main villain may need the reverse side with all the RPG stats, but not usually. I hope 5e will continue to allow for that kind of coarse granularity for the DMs while preserving an interesting level of fine granularity of options for players.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Rules are for players.

That's definitely the right approach to games like 3e that have complex character build rules that are the same for PCs and NPCs. It's the way I handled NPCs when I was running Mutants & Masterminds, which is derived from the 3e rules. For some sessions, I was creating 30 or more supervillains. There's no way I could've done that if they had the same amount of stats as the PCs.

 

[Doug McCrae]

I also realized that every time I encountered a magic user, he had just the right spell prepared to counter any of our attacks. I am sure most DMs do this. They don't prepare spell lists because it is a pain in the butt. So they use spells that seem appropriate for the situation. I can't stand that as a player. I would love to spontaneously cast any spell from the PHB as I need it. Oh, this NPC has resistance to fire? Ok, I will cast only cold spells. I was bull rushed off a bridge? No worries, I'll just use Feather Fall even though I would have had no reason to prepare it for the day. No spell slot goes to waste when a DM spontaneously casts NPC spells! But mine sure do.

A possible solution just occurred to me. How about, instead of a detailed spell list, an NPC caster has a percentage chance to have the right spell to handle any given situation? For some NPCs this might be 99%, or even 100%. For others it could be 50% or lower.

This means that the GM doesn't need to write out a spell list, but players won't have the feeling that they can never win.

Though part of the problem is that D&D just has too many spells, so casters do have the potential ability to solve any problem.

 

[Doug McCrae]

winging =/= fudging.

I think it depends on whether the NPC's stats ever become 'solid'.

If the GM jots down some NPC stats 30 seconds before the PCs fight them, then that probably counts as winging. Likewise if he has some standard values he uses for, say, minor, moderate or tough challenges and he decides that this will be a moderate challenge or whatever.

But if the GM has nothing written down, and values never become solidified, like an NPC that has however many hit points it needs to make the fight dramatic, then that's fudging.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Good point, Doug...I'd agree with that.