When everything hinges on the roll of the dice...

[Stalker0]

I've played the game for a long time now, and one thing I can say is I've played a lot of campaigns and a lot of characters...but there are certain moments that still stick out to me and are the ones my group still talks about. And a lot of them have to do with the times when the dice do things that no one ever expected.


In the long run, I say let the dice fall. Sure sometimes a character will be cut down before his prime, but in the end its all about making stories...and stories come much better when the player truly overcome adversity.

 

[Stormonu]

For whatever reason, my group has 0 luck. Dramatic story always ends up getting killed by poor rolls (either by me when the bad guy is supposed to be a badass, or by players when it comes to crunch time).

I'm very much for "let the dice fall where they may, but I'm also tired of them falling opposite of a good drama.

 

[Callista]

I'd rather have a character die fairly than live because someone fudged a roll. But I do try to have contingencies in place (even Contingency if necessary) for most things we could reasonably expect to come up against; and there's always the party resurrection fund if I really feel the character's story ended too soon.

 

[Raven Crowking]

The more I let the dice dictate chance, the more magic starts to happen.

It all went well because the player made the decision to let the dice fall where they may.

Fudge the dice and get a predictable, artificial result, or let 'em roll and actually hang on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens next. That's an amazingly simple call for me to make.

This pretty well sums up my opinion on the matter.


RC

 

[CharlesRyan]

Last weekend my group was playing their second session in the Red Box adventure (veteran gamers, but most of them new to 4E). Spoilers follow, if you're concerned about that.

They failed the skill challenge in talking to the white dragon (by just one roll), and ended up in a fight. After an exciting battle, all the heroes were down except the rogue. The dragon had 1 hp.

It was down to that last roll of the dice: If the dragon hit, it was a TPK. If he missed, all the rogue needed was a hit--any hit.

I might have fudged, but I didn't need to; the dragon missed cleanly, and the rogue hit. I did sort of fudge through the healing rules--after such a heroic stand, it would just have undermined the players' fun to have someone miss their third death save while the rogue was desperately trying to summon three decent unskilled Heal checks.

After an extended rest, they went into the chess room. A much easier fight, but nothing came together for them. The cleric went down early, and they had no more healing. Despite pulling a number of punches, six rounds later it was TPK.

One fight fudged; the other not. Two different results; but ironically the opposite of expectations.

The lesson? An unfudged fight can be a real nail-biter, but only if you're really OK with the negative consequences. Personally, I take to heart the belief that the GM's job is to ensure the game is fun for everyone. Sometimes the risk of a TPK adds to the fun, and sometimes it doesn't. In the latter case, I'll fudge every time.

 

[Iron Sky]

In my buddy's 3.0 game years ago, there was an ancient red dragon that the high-level party had been hearing nasty things about and finally dropped in for the face-to-face meeting to talk down to the party (they weren't supposed to fight it for another 5 levels or more).

It got off one sentence before the cleric walked up to it, cast Harm. The dragon needed a natural 1 to fail its save. The DM, mentally preparing to slaughter the party with the dragon picks up his dice and rolls... a 1.

Everyone else literally threw everything they had at it, one managed to hit, and viola! Ancient red dragon finished off by a rock to the head.

But it doesn't end there. Annoyed at the party defeating such a powerful opponent so easily, he had the dragon's mate show up, see the dead dragon and fly into a rage.

Wizard's reply? "I turn it into a bunny rabbit" (Polymorph). Again, the DM needs to roll a 1 to fail its save.

The Wizard had a new (angry) bunny familiar after that.

 

[Hussar]

Like CharlseRyan, I find that any fudging that I do, tends not to be in the realm of die rolling, but in rules applications. I've "forgotten" to apply a particular rule from time to time, or perhaps let the monsters use tactics that are less than perfectly sound in order to make for a better experience at the table.

Cos, y'know what? After almost thirty years of gaming, I damn well better know what makes for a better time at the table. I've made the mistake of forgetting that from time to time and going hard nosed, letter of the game and it's frequently been a mistake.

It will not break the game to forget to take that AOO from time to time and if it leads to more fun encounters, go for it.