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Message: <blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7757719" data-attributes="member: 6775031">In theory, the DM was supposed to make copious notes beforehand, and then adjudicate based on the notes. Cheating, in that context, might take the form of ignoring the notes or changing them in order to prevent the players from accomplishing some goal. The most clear-cut example of a cheating DM would be one who rolls behind the screen, and their monster happens to get a critical hit which drops the PC at the right moment; or vice-versa, with a monster who botches an attack, because they didn't want to kill a PC. The standard ward against that sort of cheating is to roll in the open; or, in the prior case, ask to see the DM's notes.Are we talking about a DM? Or a Storyteller? Because the terms are not interchangeable.I played through a Pathfinder adventure path, once. I distinctly remember a point when the group found itself in a strange world, where I decided to do some quick exploring before my Wind Walk wore off. A quick (move speed 600') fly around the locale revealed a horrible demon that was (coincidentally) in the middle of consuming a humanoid corpse. I had no chance of fighting such a thing by myself, so I just made a note of it, and flew back to the rest of the group.The GM later told us that this has been a contrived coincidence, and that the demon was always going to be in the middle of consuming that corpse, whenever the first PC spotted it. The corpse was actually a plot key, and there was no way to get back to our home world without it, which is why it was guaranteed to be there whenever we got to that area. Since I observed it without engaging in combat, though, it was lost forever.Of course, that was stupid, and there's no way that my character could ever believe that they had done something wrong by gaining more information about an unknown situation, even if the player knew otherwise. My suspension of disbelief was shot, though, and I lost all confidence in Pathfinder adventure paths.</blockquote>

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