How do you handle campaign cheaters?

[Piratecat]

Blacksilver, you're a better man than I. I'm glad your group found a solution that helps solve the problem instead of just eliminating it. I applaud how you handled it.

 

[Arnwyn]

Do you have any Druids in your campaign? I think I'd annoy my DM to no end in his game if I asked him every time I needed to open the MM.

Statblocks, duh.

 

[Aust Diamondew]

Kick out the offending player, paticuarly since he's been a problem in the past you say. Talk to the other players in your group and see what their opinions are on the situation.

This is one of the reasons all of my game is in my head and in my notebook.

 

[JesterPoet]

Statblocks, duh.

Hmmm, duh? Why waste paper printing or writing out statblocks when I have them bound into a perfectly good book that I paid money for?

I would think the more appropriate "duh" would be trusting that your players aren't looking at the stats for your creatures in the monster manual. It is, after all, a reference book for the game.

 

[BSF]

Do you have any Druids in your campaign? I think I'd annoy my DM to no end in his game if I asked him every time I needed to open the MM.

Well, I suppose the same could be said of anybody that has access to summoning/conjuration spells. It is hardly a Druid issue. Actually, Druids and Rangers have it easier since they only summon non-templated creatures. Everyone else is summoning Celestial/Fiendish beings. I understand that you consider the MM to be a resource, but most people that specialize in summonings will end up stat-blocking the creatures anyway so they don't have to apply templates from memory each time they summon.

As a player, you would annoy me each time you had to ask for creature stats. Of course, you would also annoy me each time you opened the MM to look them up. I prefer for my players to be prepared and I will usually go out of my way to help them if they need it,

 

[JesterPoet]

As a player, you would annoy me each time you had to ask for creature stats. Of course, you would also annoy me each time you opened the MM to look them up. I prefer for my players to be prepared and I will usually go out of my way to help them if they need it,

I wouldn't have to ask for creature stats... because I have a MM...

I used a druid as the example because that's what I play, but, you're right, it does apply to others.

I see your point about stat blocks, and I actually use them, in the form of character sheets for all of my wildshape forms that I use regularly. However... I don't use EVERY wildshape form all of the time, so I don't have absolutely every one already statted out. When I want to use a form that I don't have statted, I don't have to ask for permission to open the MM because my GM trusts that I'm not going to look at anything but what I'm supposed to.

So tell me this... If, hypothetically, I was in your game, and I had my wildshape stats prepared when my turn came up, whether I turned to them in a binder of stat blocks or in my MM... what difference does it make to you. Just because I use another source doesn't make me any less prepared if I'm ready when I'm supposed to be.

 

[BSF]

It's not a matter of trust, it is prepartion and my personal experiences with it. When people are cracking open the books they tend to take longer during their turn because they really aren't prepared. I run a game with 7 players and it bothers me when spellcasters have to look up their spells on their turn as well. [slight hijack of an already hijacked thread]Is it really that difficult to lookup your spell while the other 6 players and the DM take their turn?[/end hijack]

So long as you aren't slowing the game, I really don't care. If any of my players decided they wanted to lookup monster stats, for their adversary, in the book, I would be disappointed. Of course, the players might be disappointed when the treasure haul ends up being anemic. There is the Knowledge skill mechanic to obtain monster information legally in the game. I reward those skill choices by making them relevant in the game. If you could lookup summoned creature stats, or wildshape stats, without slowing down the game, then I would be fine because you are prepared. That's all I am asking really. As I said, it isn't trust, it is preparation that I worry about.

My game currently has a Shaman (GR Shaman's Handbook) that has Summoning as a domain and we have a Druid. I play in a game where my PC has a few levels of Druid. We also have a high level Druid and a high level Ranger. I have not seen the Wizard ever use a summoning spell. I can definitely feel the flow of the game shutdown with either group when people are not prepared.

 

[irdeggman]

Do you have any Druids in your campaign? I think I'd annoy my DM to no end in his game if I asked him every time I needed to open the MM.

Yes we do. He keeps to pretty much the same animals when he changes so he has the stats written down. If he wants a different one then the DM helps him with what he needs to know. A player shouldn't have to leaf through the MM to check out what animals he can change into he should have a list and the important info for the most frequently chosen ones at hand. Just like spells and magic items the PC has.

 

[JesterPoet]

Yes we do. He keeps to pretty much the same animals when he changes so he has the stats written down. If he wants a different one then the DM helps him with what he needs to know. A player shouldn't have to leaf through the MM to check out what animals he can change into he should have a list and the important info for the most frequently chosen ones at hand. Just like spells and magic items the PC has.

Well, I guess it's simplest to just agree to disagree. You seem to see the MM as a GM-only reference, whereas I see it as a general reference. To be perfectly honest, there's little a GM could throw at me that's in the MM that I don't already know pretty well anyway, so it's not really a worry of my accidentally running into out-of-character knowledge. I just manage to separate IC knowledge and OOC knowledge in game, so the book doesn't affect it either way.

 

[Morrus]

I'd toss him and not look back.

Hey PC, just for the benefit of us Englunders, please, please, please insert an 'out' inbetween him and and! It'll help avoid any confusion, believe me.

P.S. This is not Morrus BTW.