When your DM asks you how many hit points you have left...

[Inconsequenti-AL]

I'll certainly tell the DM... like MOST questions they could ask. Hey, there are limits!

Morrus is one of those 'roll in front of the players' type of GMs. If he fudges stuff, I've not caught him doing so. Besides, there's tons of good concepts crying out to be played.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I have a table rule, at no time are you to speak how many hit points you have left. I don't want to know. You can tell others that you look "seroiusly wounded" or whatever, but as the DM I never know how many hit points the PCs have until they drop dead. The PCs know I'm not going to do some quick math and leave them at -5 or whatever.

 

[fusangite]

I don't understand the cheating mindset. It makes absolutely no sense to me. If there's something big involved with the outcome, I can see it, but then it's no longer really a game. In a game for fun, like D&D, you have to be a real loser to feel like you need to cheat.

I'm curious: how do you declare this to be cheating? I think this is a reasonable and judicious application of rule 0. I also prohibit Raise Dead and other resurrection type spells in my campaign so death has more consequences in my game than in most D&D settings.

When you're running a campaign and there is no chance for a replacement character to turn up for at least 6 episodes (3 months), it's not reasonable to ask someone to stop playing for a quarter of a year because you rolled 4 more points of damage than their character could withstand. D&D is a social game; it's not an elimination game. I've had characters on long quests through uninhabited areas who have been blind for several episodes; that's been pretty challenging but just sitting out the game for that long would really suck.

 

[Victim]

I think the assumption that the only reason for the DM to ask a player's HP is to fudge the damage is flawed. Your character might be one the receiving end of Power Word, an enemy might have Deathwatch, etc.

 

[BiggusGeekus]

http://barsoom.hyboria.net/Swash.html

Fast enough for ya?

 

[Percivellian]

I (try to) run story-based games, and my players, while full of good ideas, really enjoy their characters, and sometimes it takes a little effort to get them excited about a different concept if their most recent just kicked the bucket. So, in the interest of maintaining game autonomy and excitement, I tend to keep characters alive if it's not ridiculous to do so. What I hated in one particular instance was when one of my players wouldn't let me know how many hitpoints he had, so I fudged off about ten points of damage, and he still dropped to about -15...

 

[Ankh-Morpork Guard]

That's great.

 

[Capellan]

We play it that PCs don't know their actual HP total when they are unconscious (since, you know, they are unconscious). So if I think I am about to drop someone but don't know their exact current HP, I will ask them for it.

And if it kills them, it kills them.

 

[shilsen]

If I'm a player, I'll tell the DM if he asks. As a DM, I track hit points instead of the players, so there's no question of asking. I don't mention how much damage a creature does - I just give them descriptions.

 

[reanjr]

...do you tell him? Or do you just want to hear the bad news?

Ultimately, the question is deeper - do you want your DM to fudge the dice to keep your character alive, especially in small encounters that weren't intended to be lethal?

(poll upcoming)

I don't think you are accurately describing the situation for me.

For me, it's not that I either want or not want the DM to fudge the dice. I just think it's his decision and not mine.