D&D 5E To fudge or not to fudge: that is the question

[AaronOfBarbaria]

I think that anything which can be accomplished by fudging can also be accomplished by not fudging and using a different method to reach the desired goal, and yet there are things which can be accomplished while not fudging that are inherently impossible when fudging is on the table as an option the DM might or might not be using at any given moment.

In fact, I would say that what [MENTION=7006]DEFCON 1[/MENTION] states as being reasons for fudging (the group of improvisers and theater folk) are reasons why I don't fudge. To touch on the rogue example, if the story wouldn't be just as interesting whether the rogue succeeds or not, I would refuse to have any dice involved at all - rather than roll, see that the damage was close, but not quite there, and then invalidate having rolled by declaring the result successful, I'd just tell the rogue player to narrate how their rogue takes out the guard, and we'd proceed on with the story (it having completely trumped the mechanics).

Of course, at the same time as I say that, my group almost never finds situations where the story would be interesting if the rogue takes the guard down in one go without any complications, but would be uninteresting if the rogue ran into some kind of complications in the attempt like the guard screaming out to alarm others or making his last living act one of vengeance (no matter how feeble it might prove) by lashing out at the rogue.

 

[Hussar]

Hey guys,

My younger (though still legal drinking aged, 20-something year old) brother and I will be discussing tabletop gaming on a new youtube channel we are putting together. One of our first topics out of the gate is going to be fudging.

The intricacies, whether you should do it or not, handling lethal damage etc... So I thought I would pop on and ask the community if they fudge rolls when they DM or not.

Just for the record, fudging can be considered lying about a roll, changing a DC after you have mentally set it/pre-determined it, or raising/lowering a monsters health in the middle of combat.

By these definitions? No, I never fudge. If the dice hit the table, that's the reality we deal with. Heck, I prefer all rolls made in the open. Why does the DM need to hide his rolls, other than perhaps in some corner case scenarios?

 

[The Human Target]

By these definitions? No, I never fudge. If the dice hit the table, that's the reality we deal with. Heck, I prefer all rolls made in the open. Why does the DM need to hide his rolls, other than perhaps in some corner case scenarios?

Because Gary Gygax was the Fudge King.

 

[The Myopic Sniper]

As a DM, I am happy to use the tools available especially Advantage and Disadvantage and Inspiration in particular in 5e and autosuccess or autofails without rolling dice for certain tasks. I don't see the point of throwing the dice if you are just going to ignore them. That is just as bad as railroading. And the justifications seem to be largely the same.

If I keep running into certain problems I am more than happy to introduce house rules to fix the issue, but players are consulted, aware and on board with it before any dice are ever thrown.

I run a more narrative friendly game. In the long run, I have found that failure tends to produce better drama than success, even though D&D is not really the type of game you use to produce dramatic stories.

 

[Cody C. Lewis]

Because Gary Gygax was the Fudge King.

It's... IMO, the reason we even have the damn DM screen in the first place. It's like, are my players going to get some special spoiler from that map their DM is working on from 5-6 feet away, upside down, drawn in pencil? Not really no. The game was invented with DMs rolling behind the screen. To me, that seems to be more or less an indisputable fact.

Again, it is not my go-to, but it is a tool in the toolbox.

 

[Azurewraith]

I wont fudge dice rolls as others have said if im rolling dice I want that randomness. Using the rogue and guard example if the player told me their approach was "I sneak up to the guard and slit his throat" or something to that affect as long as they beat passive perception well thats a dead guard. Now saying "I sneak up and attack the guard" well to me thats not as specific and the out come is less certain i mean "attack" is a bit to vague for my liking maybe its just the law student in me or maybe im just a douche.

Now if i have home brewed a monster and it ends up trolling the players because i messed up well then ill tone it down a lil heck my mistake shouldn't ruin everyone's fun, i would much rather come up with a story based reason for the monster to not eat them who doesn't love a good rescue mission because that nature roll turned up the nugget that this monster lays its eggs inside its living victims which then eat them from the inside while mummy monster snoozes.

 

[Li Shenron]

Just for the record, fudging can be considered lying about a roll, changing a DC after you have mentally set it/pre-determined it, or raising/lowering a monsters health in the middle of combat.

I did it in the past (not really lying/changing dice results, but I did tweak some DCs and monster's HP on the fly), but I have learned that it is mostly useless, so I don't do it anymore.

If the purpose is to railroad the situation into a predetermined outcome, I'd rather just do that openly than behind the curtains, but I have learned that a DM's predetermined outcome is rarely any better than any other outcome.

If the purpose is to save the PC from death, I largely prefer to let them drop to 0 and then just ask the players if they are ok with the PC dying, otherwise I let something else than death happen.

 

[delericho]

I try very hard not to fudge, and indeed roll my dice in the open for this reason.

However, I'm not going to claim I'm 100% absolutely pure on this - after all, the players don't necessarily know the target's AC or hit points, so simply knowing the dice came up a '16' doesn't necessarily help them. But I try.

 

[Imaculata]

As a general rule, I do not fudge. I roll most of my dice in full view of the players too, especially when it comes to combat. But there are exceptions.

I may occasionally boost the hit points of a monster a bit, or declare that a monster is dead, even though it technically still had 1 hp left. Sometimes a boss is going down faster than intended, and I want all players to have the chance to fight it. So I make make changes if that be the case.

The most important rule to me, is that the fun of the players comes first. Fudging should never harm the fun that the players are having. I'm not going to rob my players of a victory, by fudging the dice in the favor of an enemy. That is a no-no. But I'm not above giving them a victory a little easier. Especially if it fits a good role playing moment.

For example, I had an enemy pirate fall off a ship, and get grabbed by a crocodile. I didn't roll for damage, and just crossed that enemy off as dead. I gave the players a colorful description of how the crocodile ripped the poor guy to pieces, much to the delight of the players. Storytelling comes first for me, and statistics are secondary.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

As a general rule, I do not fudge. I roll most of my dice in full view of the players too, especially when it comes to combat. But there are exceptions.

I may occasionally boost the hit points of a monster a bit, or declare that a monster is dead, even though it technically still had 1 hp left. Sometimes a boss is going down faster than intended, and I want all players to have the chance to fight it. So I make make changes if that be the case.

The most important rule to me, is that the fun of the players comes first. Fudging should never harm the fun that the players are having. I'm not going to rob my players of a victory, by fudging the dice in the favor of an enemy. That is a no-no. But I'm not above giving them a victory a little easier. Especially if it fits a good role playing moment.

For example, I had an enemy pirate fall off a ship, and get grabbed by a crocodile. I didn't roll for damage, and just crossed that enemy off as dead. I gave the players a colorful description of how the crocodile ripped the poor guy to pieces, much to the delight of the players. Storytelling comes first for me, and statistics are secondary.

I find it difficult to square the two bolded bits, here. Adding extra HP is mathematically equivalent to fudging the PCs' outgoing damage dice in the enemy's favor. What makes the former acceptable, and the latter a no-no?