Handling Cheating

[kitsune9]

I fully agree. But my circumstance involves a 12 year old. I like to give kids a few chances to shape up.

If I was playing with kids, I'd give them a couple of chances to shape up too. Adults, definitely not.

 

[Water Bob]

Really, the absolutism is rather astonishing.

I'm glad to see it. We shouldn't be accepting of cheating at all. Especially among friends.

 

[Elf Witch]

I'm glad to see it. We shouldn't be accepting of cheating at all. Especially among friends.

Different people have different definitions of cheating in DnD. I don't consider it cheating when a DM fudges a dice roll.

I am also not going to get upset if a player is having a frustrating day at the table and they fudge a roll. Not if it only happens once and awhile.

I am not going to embarrass them and make a fuss because an otherwise good player gave into temptation and said he hit the bag guy when he spent the entire combat and the one before missing every round.

Like I said DnD is not about one person winning changing a miss into a hit is not taking that much away from the other players.

Now cheating all the time is an issue and one that should be discussed.

I just don't get this absolutism people have in a game that is based on comparative play with no one person being the winner.

I find it hard to believe that you have a good player at your table and they fudge one die roll and out they go.

 

[Water Bob]

I don't consider it cheating when a DM fudges a dice roll.

That's because it's not cheating.

I don't like it or do it, but the DM is in charge. He's the referee. He's the judge. He says what goes.

I am also not going to get upset if a player is having a frustrating day at the table and they fudge a roll. Not if it only happens once and awhile.

Have you ever thought that your players might do this every once in a while and blame it on a bad day because you're so lax about them cheating?

No tolerance.

I'm especially incensed if it's a friend doing it. My friends should know better.

 

[Aberzanzorax]

Somewhat tangential, but sometimes people deal with randomness better if each random event is *not* independent.

For example, take a deck of 60 cards with the cards labelled 1 to 20 three times. So there are three 20s, three 19s, etc. Shuffle that deck and draw from the top every time you would roll a d20.

What this does is prevent improbable streaks. You can only ever draw a 1 three times, and you will only draw a 20 three times. While there are some card-counting tricks you could pull, over the long run the results from the card deck will match the results from rolling the dice.

Some people like this type of randomness better. It seems more controllable, more logical. There might be less frustration with the dice and less urge to cheat. Plus cheating is a lot more obvious.

I love this idea. The one and only time I cheated was because I had a fantastically improbable string of bad luck and I was trying to simply even it out so I could do ANYTHING. This would have completely solved my problem.

Oh, and I forked this thread, btw.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/321321-examples-when-you-cheated-why.html

 

[Umbran]

I'm glad to see it. We shouldn't be accepting of cheating at all. Especially among friends.

No tolerance.

If we take a "no tolerance" position with our friends, we have darned little to differentiate them from our enemies. Where I come from, friends cut each other a little slack, from time to time, rather than present brick-hard, cold walls of inconsiderate intolerance.

But, they're your friends, and your game. Treat them how you like.

 

[Dordledum]

We've got one of those players who we suspected of some minor fudging. He always seems to have one spell extra, or just the right spell memorised at the right time or just one charge more in his wand of fireballs than before.

In the case of the wand (I think the DM should keep track of charged items btw), we now check after each use. Like: "Only 3 charges left, right?" Kind of hard to fudge afterwards.

For reference, in this campaign I'm a player, not the GM. As a GM I'm pretty strict with my players. Rolling in the open, requesting a copy of character sheets after level-up, following up after dubious calls, etc. Works like a charm (even with the same fudging character as indicated above).

 

[Elf Witch]

That's because it's not cheating.

I don't like it or do it, but the DM is in charge. He's the referee. He's the judge. He says what goes.







Have you ever thought that your players might do this every once in a while and blame it on a bad day because you're so lax about them cheating?

No tolerance.

I'm especially incensed if it's a friend doing it. My friends should know better.

A lot of people consider DM fudging to be cheating just FYI.

I play with other DMs and as well as DM.

My players don't cheat in my game. I have never seen any evidence of it. Like I said I trust my players I don't need to see their rolls for stats or hit points I trust them when they say they hit or saved.

They all role their dice in the open so anyone can see. They take their lumps along with their rewards.

They know they have a say in the game and that I listen to their concerns. They know that they don't have to cheat if their PC can't keep up with the rest because they know I will do everything I can to help them fix it and make the game fun for them.

I have seen cheating in other games over the years and while some of the people doing it were the type that couldn't stand for anything bad to happen the majority of the cheating could be laid at the feet of the DM.

They ran adversarial style games. they had no clue that their encounters were just to hard all the time for the PCs level. They didn't seem to notice or care that that the players were getting frustrated.

 

[The Red King]

In my old Friday night group of many years, we had a cheater who, because he was a good friend and our D&D game was pretty much our social group, could not really be kicked out (as in, no one at the table, no matter how miffed they were at the cheating, was willing to sever a friendship to stop it).

How we fixed it was with a severe handicap. I don't think he ever understood why his over-powered characters kept getting murdered in their sleep by the party, or why he never got any plot-spotlight by the DM. I don't even know if he cared. We were there to have fun, he was there to win. I think we got what we wanted out of it but I don't necessarily think he ever did.

Sadly, I think he falls into this category.

 

[Water Bob]

If we take a "no tolerance" position with our friends, we have darned little to differentiate them from our enemies. Where I come from, friends cut each other a little slack, from time to time, rather than present brick-hard, cold walls of inconsiderate intolerance.

If a friend of mine felt like he had to cheat, then I'm not too sure I want them to be my friends.

It's a character thing. "Character" as in the person's integrity (not his PC) is something I value in a friend.

I'm not going to cut slack on that.

So, yeah. No tolerance. Especially with friends.

A lot of people consider DM fudging to be cheating just FYI.

Then, those people would be wrong. It's silly to assume a DM can create encounters, decide how many enemies the PCs will fight, how often, and how strong those enemies will be, then say that a DM can also cheat.

A DM cheating is laughable considering he controls the entire game world.