Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 1261400" data-attributes="member: 2011">Please. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f644.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":rolleyes:" title="Roll eyes    :rolleyes:"  data-smilie="11"data-shortname=":rolleyes:" />Are you telling us that your players are so stupid that they cannot figure out when they are getting their hats handed to them and the Calvary shows up that it wasn't DM intervention?Yes, it is about fun. And for most people (except for some powergamers and some DMs on power trips), fun equates to fairness.Just like it does in practically every other game played by people.And in gaming, it is all about perception of fairness. If players perceive that the DM is fudging in order to either force a certain storyline or to save the players, regardless of whether that is what he is doing, the players may (and often will) have less fun because of it.I have had several fudging DMs in the past and those are the campaigns I have had the least fun in. The reason is that even if the DM does not think that he is railroading the session, he actually is.I have also found in my experience that the players who do not like or want to solve problems at games (e.g. those that are willing to let other players do most of the work) are those who have the most fun in campaigns where the DM fudges whereas gamers who like to be challenged and like to come up with their own solutions to problems are those who do not like DM fudging. This is not always true, but it is a tendency that I have noticed.And, this is not about DM planning. All DMs plan to some extent  (some more than others). This is also not about DM filling in the gaps. All DMs have to fill in detail where they previously did not have it defined.This is about DMs who change the scenario or outcome on the fly to meet some preconceived notion of what they wanted to happen (even if they think that their preconceived notion was more fun).As DM, I plan events for every single session we play. And although some events occur as planned or similarly to plan, none of the sessions occur without many unexpected events happening and planned events often not happening. The first casualty of war (and gaming) is the plan.But, any DM who "fudges" (i.e. changes the dice or the scenario) on a frequent reoccurring basis is doing a disservice to his players. IMO. He is shoehorning the events of the campaign into his own mindset of "fun" and reinforcing lack of spontaneity and problem solving from his players.</blockquote>

Verification