Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How do you roll, DM?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 8098410" data-attributes="member: 3400"><p>Oddly enough, I don't fudge my players' dice either. I don't know exactly why it would be a relevant example.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Whereas if the dice have been giving my players a bad run or seem excessive to the pacing of the game, I'm quite content to knock a crit I land on them down to a regular hit. Or I've dropped a die off the finally tally, or the strength modifier. In a PF1 game, the halfling rogue tried to tumble past a triceratops skeleton. Seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do - but (in one of the biggest mistakes of the PF revision of 3.5 rules) tumbling past big things is <strong>really (pointlessly) effing hard</strong> in PF1 and she took an AoO - I rolled a threat, confirmed. The 4d10+30 was, quite frankly, a bit excessive so I chose not to double the strength bonus from the crit which shaved 15 points off the total. It had the appropriate effect of putting the fear of death into the character (as played by the player since she was now in single hit points) but didn't kill her. </p><p>I don't have to let the dice be their full arbitrary selves to have varied and interesting results. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And if the dice had dictated that the water elemental die rather than eke through with 1 hit point and save the love interest? I doubt the outcome would have felt as great - maybe even a little bitter since the player's desperate (but actually pretty good) plan failed because of the fickle dice.</p><p>In a later session of the same campaign as the example above, the PCs had a chance to scry on one of their opponents. It failed - he made his save. So they hatched a plan to get some more personal info and items to undermine his ability to resist the spell. When the saving throw came up again, I ignored the roll and decided he failed. I didn't want the dice to ruin the really good plan the players put together. Rebuffing them so they try another approach is worthwhile - doing it again when they're being clever and careful just because a roll is involved? Not doing it.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That player isn't everybody who plays. Not everybody is interested in that kind of game - hence save game on computers, magic capable of raising the dead, Hero/Force/Destiny points used to save a PC's bacon, etc. I actually suspect they're in the minority these days given the number of ways people have of ameliorating deadly outcomes even strictly rolling the dice.</p><p></p><p>But boy do the debates on the topic seem to devolve into claims that those of us who do edit the roll results are missing out on some level of fun or purity of the game or just playing on "easy mode".</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="billd91, post: 8098410, member: 3400"] Oddly enough, I don't fudge my players' dice either. I don't know exactly why it would be a relevant example. Whereas if the dice have been giving my players a bad run or seem excessive to the pacing of the game, I'm quite content to knock a crit I land on them down to a regular hit. Or I've dropped a die off the finally tally, or the strength modifier. In a PF1 game, the halfling rogue tried to tumble past a triceratops skeleton. Seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do - but (in one of the biggest mistakes of the PF revision of 3.5 rules) tumbling past big things is [b]really (pointlessly) effing hard[/b] in PF1 and she took an AoO - I rolled a threat, confirmed. The 4d10+30 was, quite frankly, a bit excessive so I chose not to double the strength bonus from the crit which shaved 15 points off the total. It had the appropriate effect of putting the fear of death into the character (as played by the player since she was now in single hit points) but didn't kill her. I don't have to let the dice be their full arbitrary selves to have varied and interesting results. And if the dice had dictated that the water elemental die rather than eke through with 1 hit point and save the love interest? I doubt the outcome would have felt as great - maybe even a little bitter since the player's desperate (but actually pretty good) plan failed because of the fickle dice. In a later session of the same campaign as the example above, the PCs had a chance to scry on one of their opponents. It failed - he made his save. So they hatched a plan to get some more personal info and items to undermine his ability to resist the spell. When the saving throw came up again, I ignored the roll and decided he failed. I didn't want the dice to ruin the really good plan the players put together. Rebuffing them so they try another approach is worthwhile - doing it again when they're being clever and careful just because a roll is involved? Not doing it. That player isn't everybody who plays. Not everybody is interested in that kind of game - hence save game on computers, magic capable of raising the dead, Hero/Force/Destiny points used to save a PC's bacon, etc. I actually suspect they're in the minority these days given the number of ways people have of ameliorating deadly outcomes even strictly rolling the dice. But boy do the debates on the topic seem to devolve into claims that those of us who do edit the roll results are missing out on some level of fun or purity of the game or just playing on "easy mode". [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
How do you roll, DM?
Top