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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Baramay" data-source="post: 2900316" data-attributes="member: 38158">To weigh in on the cheating issue.  I have seen quite a bit.  There are usually action-reaction responses.  So figuring out why a player or DM would cheat is the answer to stopping it.  Here are some I have seen.Changing a character's stats- hp, ability scores, etc.  Often I have seen this come about because a player feels his character is not getting a chance to shine or has been cheated in some way.  A DM who keeps good notes on players abilities will often catch this and can correct the player.  Sometimes it is just an honest mistake.  Such as adding skill points to a cross class skill as if it is a class skill.Fudging dice rolls- This one is comical.  We have a player who quickly picks up his dice sometimes with the result being 20+.  Other times he proudly leaves the die on the table for all to see.  This if often for the same reason as changing stats.  I believe this started after the player had a 2nd level character suffer an embarrassing loss to a normal badger.  It was a topic of jest and I believe he has resorted to this to avoid it from ever happening again.  I will state that if a DM is fudging dice rolls he has a much greater chance of his players doing the same.Not marking off used items- this often happens with gold, potions, arrows, and charged magic items.  This one burns me because we have a player who spends money as if he inherited Brewster's millions.  He always has more available.  The DM is stuck because he does not want to have to keep track of each character's gold, at the same time it is not fair to the other players.  Sometimes this is a mistake and sometimes it is laziness.Poor math that always results in the player's favor- Everyone can make a mistake adding or subtracting but it is very suspicious when it never occurs against the player.  This one seems to be a subconscious desire to have one's player succeed.  Not everyone can score a 700 on their math SAT.  Mistakes happen.  Good notes by the DM and an insistance on players being organized will help.  The interpreting player- Our DM often has a player with a Players Handbook look up a spell he (the DM) is not familiar with.  The player believes magic has been nerfed in 3.5 and therefore will only read part of the description that benefits him the most.  An example of this was when a suggestion was cast and the Players Handbook guy started to read the spell desciption, saw that it was a compulsion and then jumped read the compulsion ability out of the back of the PHB or the MM.  Obviously there is a huge difference between dominate person, a vampire's gaze and a suggestion spell.  This is a difficult one to correct because the players feels the game designers are trying to "cheat" all mages.  The DM just has to be aware of the problem and keep the player focused on the spell in question.I think some of these occur because the DM is too had and others times it is because the players don't work together to succeed.  Often NPCs in the campaign shine over players and have just as good magic items if not better.  The DM is often unclear of a players direction in a social situation, so the encounter does not go well.  He is perfectly clear with the NPCs.  I have seen lazy play often.  What I mean by this is not thinking about ramifications of actions and choices.  I call it the Epimethius syndrome, not thinking things through.  Now playing a character like this if fine.  A swashbuckler type or a character with a low wisdom will often fly by the seat of their pants or act impulsively.  A player should not take it personally if their character is exiled from the kingdom or similar action.  It is all part of being this character and can be great for roleplaying.  Fudging often encourages this type of behavior and it often leads to less teamwork and more individual actions.  A fly by the seat of your pants attitude will result in many near deaths but they will only enhance the character's reputation.  Eventually the character may die from such a devil may care attitude but isn't that the way the character would want to go?</blockquote>

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