Peregrine’s Nest: A Cheater’s Guide to Dice Rolls

We know GMs fudge dice rolls sometimes, but what happens when players do it?

We know GMs fudge dice rolls sometimes, but what happens when players do it?

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Picture courtesy of Unsplash.

In my opinion, it’s not okay for a player to cheat. It effectively gives a player’s character more advantages than any of the others and probably more spotlight as they just do better all the time. Calling out players who cheat is tough, though. Before you make such a call, you need to be able to spot it. So, in the spirit of Penn and Teller explaining their magic tricks, here is a quick guide to some of the techniques of dice cheats to help the GM spot them. I should add that not all of these mean the player is absolutely cheating, and hopefully any behaviour like this precipitates an adult discussion about how dice rolls are handled in your game.

The Hidden Roller​

If no one else can read your dice, they’ll have to take your word for it, or be really obvious about checking on you. While rolling under your hand is a little obvious, there are many ways to make it harder to see what your dice are reading while in the open.

The first is the player who always sits a little further away. This might be on the furthest armchair in the living room or at the end of the table. Usually it will be as far from the GM as possible.

Recent dice technology has offered another option, that of using really tiny dice. There are some adorably small sets out there, and they are often hard enough to read even if you are next to them.

The Roll-and-Grabber​

The player rolls the dice then sweeps them off the table the moment they stop. Then they usually hold them in their hand and stare into space as if calculating a series of modifiers before announcing they have succeeded. It’s rarely premeditated, usually they see they have rolled badly, scoop up the dice and then try a quick pantomime.

If you are playing D&D where there are a few modifiers its less easy to spot, although more modifiers is even more reason to leave the dice on the table so you can calculate again if you lose track. If you are playing Call of Cthulhu where a result is either under a skill or not, it’s a dead giveaway.

Loaded and Fake Dice​

These are quite commonplace and some are hard to spot, but they are pretty simple for any gamer to detect. They feel wrong, and we all know how dice should feel and how they should roll. They also keep rolling the exact same number each time, so they are pretty obvious.

I’ve seen cheat dice that were very subtle in that they had 2 of the highest results and none of the lowest. So the D6 had two 6s and no 1s. You got two D20s in the set, one with two 1s and one with two 20s. Unless you gave them a proper look you’d never have spotted them. Players using this won’t always succeed, but they will crit more often than they should.

You might also keep an eye out for novelty D6s with a picture on the 6 or the 1. I have so many of these I never use them now as I can’t remember which dice has the picture of the 1 and which use the 6. If those with a picture on the 1 are used in a group with other dice the player can just count all pictures as 6s (and obviously all 6s as 6s!).

There are plenty of other dice in this spectrum of “changing the odds” that aren’t straight cheating but are not impartial dice either. We all know many dice are imperfect, but there’s a difference between having a die that doesn’t roll right and purchasing a die for the express purpose of giving you an advantage.

The Knock-and-Roller​

There are a couple of variants here when rolling multiple dice. This might be when dealing fireball damage or rolling with advantage/disadvantage. Most people roll the dice together, but if you roll them one at a time (when you have more than one) you might “accidentally” knock a bad one onto a better number, or off the table and have to roll again. The more spherical the dice in question the easier this is to do. In another variant you might put one die on the table on the number you need, roll and sweep another and then point at the previously set dice as your result. That takes a little more sleight of hand though and works better if all your dice look the same.

Never a Critter​

One of my players realised that rolling maximum was a little obvious when it happened time and time again. But they also realised that a high but not maximum result was more convincing and always succeeded. In this case, they forgot that a run of 5s was just as suspicious as a run of 6s. So keep an eye out for players who never fail, and rarely crit, but never seem to roll less that the top 25% of potential results.

These are just a few examples. Cheating can be a spectrum, and what’s tolerated at your table has as much to do with the rules, the players, and the kind of behaviour you model. If you’re against fudging dice in every instance, it’s important to say so. Conversely, if you fudge dice sometimes, be clear on what’s okay and what isn’t, both as a GM and as a player.

YOUR TURN: What do you do when you find out someone at your table has been cheating with their dice rolls?
 

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Andrew Peregrine

Andrew Peregrine

aco175

Legend
It has not happened in a long time at my table, but I recall how the big bad would target that PC. Dragon flying by, he seems to be in the blast every time. Wizard casting save or suck seems to catch him. Even smaller things like an ogre running over to a couple PCs and I 'rolled' to see who to attack. Surprise it is you. Eventually the player came to me after the game and said something about me targeting him, so I told him about the uncanny dice roll he was having and how nobody could see what he was rolling (as a quicker-picker-upper). It was a couple weeks before we both got over the argument, but things got better.
 

aramis erak

Legend
I long ago banned mini-dice in living room games... but I've not played in a living room in years now.
I maintain the "6×6" rule... The hand at release must be 6 inches off the table, and the dice need to move horizontally 6 inches. Didn't stop it all, but did do a bit.
Likewise, until all the dice are on the table, the roll isn't counted. So, the guy feeding 1 die at a time through the tower? Until all are down, that 1 or 20 is still in flux, and later dice knocking it are just par for the course.
 

One of my early D&D players bought a crystal die and sat at the opposite end of the table. He would call a 20 in 'judicious moments', knowing I could not see the result from afar. I knew something suspicious was going on based on the looks of some of the other players.

The next game, when he rolled a fake 20, I walked next to him, grabbed his die, took a red Crayola from my pocket and filled the 20 and the 1 in wax. It stayed that way for the rest of the campaign. I never played with him again.

(I rolled my DM results in front of the screen for all to see.)
 

Micah Sweet

Level Up & OSR Enthusiast
We know GMs fudge dice rolls sometimes, but what happens when players do it?


In my opinion, it’s not okay for a player to cheat. It effectively gives a player’s character more advantages than any of the others and probably more spotlight as they just do better all the time. Calling out players who cheat is tough, though. Before you make such a call, you need to be able to spot it. So, in the spirit of Penn and Teller explaining their magic tricks, here is a quick guide to some of the techniques of dice cheats to help the GM spot them. I should add that not all of these mean the player is absolutely cheating, and hopefully any behaviour like this precipitates an adult discussion about how dice rolls are handled in your game.

The Hidden Roller​

If no one else can read your dice, they’ll have to take your word for it, or be really obvious about checking on you. While rolling under your hand is a little obvious, there are many ways to make it harder to see what your dice are reading while in the open.

The first is the player who always sits a little further away. This might be on the furthest armchair in the living room or at the end of the table. Usually it will be as far from the GM as possible.

Recent dice technology has offered another option, that of using really tiny dice. There are some adorably small sets out there, and they are often hard enough to read even if you are next to them.

The Roll-and-Grabber​

The player rolls the dice then sweeps them off the table the moment they stop. Then they usually hold them in their hand and stare into space as if calculating a series of modifiers before announcing they have succeeded. It’s rarely premeditated, usually they see they have rolled badly, scoop up the dice and then try a quick pantomime.

If you are playing D&D where there are a few modifiers its less easy to spot, although more modifiers is even more reason to leave the dice on the table so you can calculate again if you lose track. If you are playing Call of Cthulhu where a result is either under a skill or not, it’s a dead giveaway.

Loaded and Fake Dice​

These are quite commonplace and some are hard to spot, but they are pretty simple for any gamer to detect. They feel wrong, and we all know how dice should feel and how they should roll. They also keep rolling the exact same number each time, so they are pretty obvious.

I’ve seen cheat dice that were very subtle in that they had 2 of the highest results and none of the lowest. So the D6 had two 6s and no 1s. You got two D20s in the set, one with two 1s and one with two 20s. Unless you gave them a proper look you’d never have spotted them. Players using this won’t always succeed, but they will crit more often than they should.

You might also keep an eye out for novelty D6s with a picture on the 6 or the 1. I have so many of these I never use them now as I can’t remember which dice has the picture of the 1 and which use the 6. If those with a picture on the 1 are used in a group with other dice the player can just count all pictures as 6s (and obviously all 6s as 6s!).

There are plenty of other dice in this spectrum of “changing the odds” that aren’t straight cheating but are not impartial dice either. We all know many dice are imperfect, but there’s a difference between having a die that doesn’t roll right and purchasing a die for the express purpose of giving you an advantage.

The Knock-and-Roller​

There are a couple of variants here when rolling multiple dice. This might be when dealing fireball damage or rolling with advantage/disadvantage. Most people roll the dice together, but if you roll them one at a time (when you have more than one) you might “accidentally” knock a bad one onto a better number, or off the table and have to roll again. The more spherical the dice in question the easier this is to do. In another variant you might put one die on the table on the number you need, roll and sweep another and then point at the previously set dice as your result. That takes a little more sleight of hand though and works better if all your dice look the same.

Never a Critter​

One of my players realised that rolling maximum was a little obvious when it happened time and time again. But they also realised that a high but not maximum result was more convincing and always succeeded. In this case, they forgot that a run of 5s was just as suspicious as a run of 6s. So keep an eye out for players who never fail, and rarely crit, but never seem to roll less that the top 25% of potential results.

These are just a few examples. Cheating can be a spectrum, and what’s tolerated at your table has as much to do with the rules, the players, and the kind of behaviour you model. If you’re against fudging dice in every instance, it’s important to say so. Conversely, if you fudge dice sometimes, be clear on what’s okay and what isn’t, both as a GM and as a player.

YOUR TURN: What do you do when you find out someone at your table has been cheating with their dice rolls?
This reminds me of the old "Cheating Made Easy" article in Dragon Magazine back in the late '80s. Very cool!
 

tetrasodium

Legend
Supporter
Epic
I would add players who drop a spin down die . Those dice are labeled 1234567891011121314151617181920 right next to each other rather than being distributed. That's fine if you are using them as a mtg life counter or something as intended, but when dropping a ~2inch metal spindown die with all of the high numbers facing up a player has almost guaranteed odds of getting well above 10. Just ban spindown dice at the table & dropping of dice in general.

This isn't a theoretical thing, Discovered both spindown dice & the drop method after a lonnnng time with a player abusing one. First time any of us saw him roll a 1 after years was when he (and everyone else )got forced to use dice cups to shake & roll dice. Eventually he figured out how to drop it with the cup & we noticed the number arrangement at some point.
 
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SteveC

Doing the best imitation of myself
It has been a long time since I've had to deal with this issue. That's because I've been playing exclusively online since Covid and the dice are out there in the open for everyone to see.

But I remember back in the misty days of yesterday, we had a player who would cheat. I think the DM handled it in the most Midwest passive aggressive way possible: he did more damage to their character than anyone else, and monsters had more hit points than anyone else. I remember we were playing Champions once, and he hit the cheater's character and picked up dice to do damage. He then said "Oh yeah, I hit your character," and picked up four more dice.

I remember thinking that this should have just been addressed in a private conversation with that player at the time, but we were young.

I'll say something controversial that I read online about cheating that I think I agree with at this point, though. Why does someone cheat? I think it's because they likely have something going on in their life that's rough, and they need some extra success in a game to make them feel better. I'm at the point where I'm playing with friends I've known for a long time. I hope that they would tell me what's going on (and they do a lot of the time). I just think that people tend to be struggling with issues that I don't know about enough, so maybe I should give them some more grace. Does it really matter if they crit three times in a row? (Of course, VTTs cut this all out...)

I know that will likely not be a popular opinion as it's not fair to the other players. And I get that. I just think that, at my point in life, if cheating at an elf game keeps you a little more sane, I can live with that. Of course, that's a "your mileage may vary" situation, and it likely does.
 

Gellert

Villager
I'm fortunate in that I game with family and a couple of close friends almost exclusively and with this bunch cheating hasn't been a thing. However we do use dice towers which close down any chance. I discovered the glory of these accessories back in the 90s and never looked back. Lots of fun listening to the clack of the dice as they drop and no rolling off the table onto the floor to be lost or grabbed by dogs :)
 

talien

Community Supporter
I'll say something controversial that I read online about cheating that I think I agree with at this point, though. Why does someone cheat? I think it's because they likely have something going on in their life that's rough, and they need some extra success in a game to make them feel better. I'm at the point where I'm playing with friends I've known for a long time. I hope that they would tell me what's going on (and they do a lot of the time). I just think that people tend to be struggling with issues that I don't know about enough, so maybe I should give them some more grace. Does it really matter if they crit three times in a row? (Of course, VTTs cut this all out...)
I think this is a very mature approach to the situation. The "adult conversation" is important. And in a fantasy game, where people are trying to control a thing (when they have so much imaginative control over their fantasy character's appearance, decision-making, etc.), why are they feeling they need to do this? Is the power fantasy that important? A lot of times it's immaturity -- issues like this tended to happen in my group when I was in high school -- but for older gamers this is often worth a discussion because it's a sign someone has other problems going on, to your point.
 

Koloth

Explorer
Unless the alleged cheater is the host, do something like "Let's shake things up a bit, Fred, you sit here, Sally, please move to Fred's old chair, etc.", making sure the suspect winds up close to the GM.

Another way is to buy one of the mega sets of large easy to read dice and declare, "I need to test these out today, here is a set for everyone. Everyone including myself will use these today." Plus it is nice to have a bunch of spare dice for the times when someone shows up without any.

I have a dislike for those hard to read novelty dice. Even if the player isn't trying to cheat, the extra time wasted trying to read the things gets irritating.
 

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