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Podcast #254: Can the GM Cheat?
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<blockquote data-quote="Blue" data-source="post: 9052763" data-attributes="member: 20564"><p>I haven't listened to the podcast, but this always struck me as a false question.</p><p></p><p>Any one of the hobbyists (can't use the word "player" here) around the table can cheat.</p><p></p><p>If a D&D 5e DM fudges dice, is it cheating? No, it's listed in the DMG as a valid technique. If they change a rule to fit a circumstance, is it cheating? No, the rules allow the DM to do that. Just because doing things that might be considered cheating in other games does not mean they are cheating in a game where the DM is following the rules to be allowed to change the rules. To cheat is pretty dang hard, such as applying a rule differently to two different PCs in the same aspect. "Well, a fireball only does 5d6 to my significant other's character who's low on HPs, but it does the normal 8d6 to Chris."</p><p></p><p>Other games don't offer that. For example, it's absolutely clear in a PbtA game that the GM can cheat. They are constrained in many ways, both in what they can't do and in what they <em>must</em> do. Breaking either of these is a GM cheating.</p><p></p><p>So a GM can cheat in any game, that's never actually been a question except to GMs who have been raised to having 100% authorial and rule control. And even for them, it's a question of optics, the "can they cheat" has always only had a positive answer.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Blue, post: 9052763, member: 20564"] I haven't listened to the podcast, but this always struck me as a false question. Any one of the hobbyists (can't use the word "player" here) around the table can cheat. If a D&D 5e DM fudges dice, is it cheating? No, it's listed in the DMG as a valid technique. If they change a rule to fit a circumstance, is it cheating? No, the rules allow the DM to do that. Just because doing things that might be considered cheating in other games does not mean they are cheating in a game where the DM is following the rules to be allowed to change the rules. To cheat is pretty dang hard, such as applying a rule differently to two different PCs in the same aspect. "Well, a fireball only does 5d6 to my significant other's character who's low on HPs, but it does the normal 8d6 to Chris." Other games don't offer that. For example, it's absolutely clear in a PbtA game that the GM can cheat. They are constrained in many ways, both in what they can't do and in what they [I]must[/I] do. Breaking either of these is a GM cheating. So a GM can cheat in any game, that's never actually been a question except to GMs who have been raised to having 100% authorial and rule control. And even for them, it's a question of optics, the "can they cheat" has always only had a positive answer. [/QUOTE]
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Podcast #254: Can the GM Cheat?
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