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Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?
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<blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 6572608" data-attributes="member: 2011"><p>I don't think it has anything to do with 4E/WoW.</p><p></p><p></p><p>Personally, I almost never fudge because I have an extremely strong sense of fairness. I've played that way for nearly 4 decades. I try to put together a game ahead of time, I try to put some spotlight on each of the PCs, I try to not significantly modify my game unless players actions change the scenario during a given session, and 98% of my rolls are in front of the players (there are a few that are not when rolling would inform the players that something is going on).</p><p></p><p>No, I cannot plan for everything, so I do have to come up with some things on the fly, but my rule of thumb is moderation. My ability to do things on the fly is subpar at best and I know my limitations, so I tend to make middle of the road plausible / reasonable decisions during a game and save my imaginative game ideas for between sessions when I can take time to flesh them out and think about them a bit.</p><p></p><p>Modifying hit points or dice rolls to me feels like DM cheating. Not cheating in the sense that the DM can do whatever he wants, so he cannot cheat POV, but cheating in the sense of cheating the players and the story of opportunities.</p><p></p><p>Say for example that a DM feels that an encounter is going too easy, so he beefs up the monster hit points or does something else on the fly to make the encounter more difficult. Nobody is omniscient, even the DM, so the party ends up using a few more resources that they would not have used. Later on, lower on resources, the party decides to run away and not go to one more room in the dungeon. In my mind, the DM is cheating the players of "what might have happened" by fudging stuff on the fly. The next room might have been a dud, but it also might have been one of the most memorable encounters of the campaign and the DM inadvertently nixed it. Granted, running away could also result in one of the most memorable encounters of the campaign, but in the former case, it was a environment / player decision / random roll decision and in the latter, it was DM whim that led to player decision. I'm not big on DM on the fly whimsy, so I don't prefer this path. DM whimsy seems like the antithesis of a level playing field and jars my strong sense of fairness. All DMs have to make on the fly decisions, but in the sense of fairness, these should be unthought of scenario modifications / reactions and NPC decisions, not changing the rules, hit points, AC, etc. based on player decisions and the current flow of the dice. JMO.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KarinsDad, post: 6572608, member: 2011"] I don't think it has anything to do with 4E/WoW. Personally, I almost never fudge because I have an extremely strong sense of fairness. I've played that way for nearly 4 decades. I try to put together a game ahead of time, I try to put some spotlight on each of the PCs, I try to not significantly modify my game unless players actions change the scenario during a given session, and 98% of my rolls are in front of the players (there are a few that are not when rolling would inform the players that something is going on). No, I cannot plan for everything, so I do have to come up with some things on the fly, but my rule of thumb is moderation. My ability to do things on the fly is subpar at best and I know my limitations, so I tend to make middle of the road plausible / reasonable decisions during a game and save my imaginative game ideas for between sessions when I can take time to flesh them out and think about them a bit. Modifying hit points or dice rolls to me feels like DM cheating. Not cheating in the sense that the DM can do whatever he wants, so he cannot cheat POV, but cheating in the sense of cheating the players and the story of opportunities. Say for example that a DM feels that an encounter is going too easy, so he beefs up the monster hit points or does something else on the fly to make the encounter more difficult. Nobody is omniscient, even the DM, so the party ends up using a few more resources that they would not have used. Later on, lower on resources, the party decides to run away and not go to one more room in the dungeon. In my mind, the DM is cheating the players of "what might have happened" by fudging stuff on the fly. The next room might have been a dud, but it also might have been one of the most memorable encounters of the campaign and the DM inadvertently nixed it. Granted, running away could also result in one of the most memorable encounters of the campaign, but in the former case, it was a environment / player decision / random roll decision and in the latter, it was DM whim that led to player decision. I'm not big on DM on the fly whimsy, so I don't prefer this path. DM whimsy seems like the antithesis of a level playing field and jars my strong sense of fairness. All DMs have to make on the fly decisions, but in the sense of fairness, these should be unthought of scenario modifications / reactions and NPC decisions, not changing the rules, hit points, AC, etc. based on player decisions and the current flow of the dice. JMO. [/QUOTE]
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Would you change a monster's hit points mid-fight?
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