How often do you cheat?

[takasi]

Hopefully this question only applies to DMs...

How often do you roll behind the screen, see a crit that would kill a player, and say "miss"?

Or roll for the reoccuring BBEG's save vs disintegrate, see a 1 and say "he saves"?

How often do you roll behind the screen?

How often do you tell players what the monster's to-hit is? Or their saves? Or their hit points? Do you ever do this?

 

[Grymar]

I will admit to not being 100% legit. There have been times when for the story sake I don't want the BBEG to go down in the surprise round when he hasn't even had time to give his big evil speech. My cheats have never altered the outcome of a fight, only drawn it out some and hopefully made it more memorable.

 

[lukelightning]

I rarely cheat. I did fudge a bit in my last session and give an NPC an extra healing potion in order to keep one of the PCs alive... it was almost a TPK. I don't know why I bothered, though, since my players love making new characters and definitely see PC death as an opportunity for more fun, not a loss.

I've never cheated to keep an NPC alive, not even in the classic "PCs beat down the BBEG far more easily than planned" situations. I have way more fun as a DM when the players of the game surprises me, rather than trying to force a story.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Very rarely.
I just don't want to kill off a heavily invested in character for no other reason than the dice said so.
Since killing a character is just as much a pain for the DM as the player I hate to do it.
Now on the other hand if the PC was doing something stupid to get himself killed well time to break out a blank character sheet

 

[Doghead Thirteen]

We like long-running campaigns and characters who get played for years.

Our combat rules are extremely deadly.

Ergo, there isn't much I won't do to stop a PC getting pointlessly killed.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

As a DM, I don't cheat, per definition.

 

[Valesin]

I roll in front of the players so I never fudge rolls. However, sometimes I miscalculate how tough a villain will be so I might adjust hps or spells prepared on the fly, and that very rarely.

 

[Michael Morris]

The DM can't cheat. See rule 0.

 

[maggot]

I usually only fudge a stat or die roll when an NPC would finish off an important encounter and the next person to act is a PC. I don't like stealing the victory from the players. This happens every now and again. But I don't fudge rolls otherwise, but I'm always up for a discussion of why you should get a +2 circumstance bonus to that save so your character can live.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I know our DM fudges on occasion. Last week, I happened to be standing at the instant he rolled damage for the two zombies hitting the barbarian (who was down to about three hit points)... so I saw the pair of 8s hit the table.

The DM declared five damage, and the barbarian went down unconscious.

Doesn't bother me, especially given it's the second session of a new campaign - I've done the same thing myself.

-Hyp.