Your cheating stories here...

[Drawmack]

We had a guy in a game when I was a teenager that criticaled every fourth roll, like clockwork. This was not the worst.

We had a girl that had boots of speed, she still had them after we got dispell magic cast on us and it killed everyone else's items. This was not the worst.

We had a guy who leveled his stuff, this was the worst. At third level he got a +1 sword of cure minor wounds, by 10th level he had a +5 vorpal sword but it was the same sword. His arrows did more damage as he leveled up, I'm talking bigger and more dice. We caught him when one day we just realized that something was wrong with 3d8 damage from one arrow. He got away with it for a long time cause it was gradual and the game was beer and pretzels.

 

[Sniktch]

I've made some passes at a different players wife (she was also playing in the same game). Fortunately I was able to pass it off as "in character"

ROFLMAO,PP!!

 

[Bhaal]

We had a guy who exaggerated his rolls and damage. He'd say he did X damage, and when asked why he got that when Y was his max possible damage, he couldn't come up with any explaination, and just went quiet. He'd roll his dice while idle too, and looking back we're fairly sure he saved any 20's rolled like that and used them instead of rolling sometimes. He got 20s all the time and it was always on fairly important rolls. After someone made a jab at him suggesting he did that, he stopped gaming with us. After that the DM made sure we all sat somewhere where everyone could see everyone else's roll. The DM shows his rolls (at least the ones we're allowed to see) to make it fair, thought honestly I'm pretty sure that guy was the only one to do that.

 

[jdavis]

We had a player who cheated so blatently with the dice that we never actually called him on it, he would sit there and roll the dice till he got a number he wanted and then save it till his turn came up, he also was bad about rolling the dice then grabbing them and anouncing whatever number he wanted, he wasn't even trying to hide this, it got to be silly. Instead of calling him on it the DM just started applying unique circumstances to his roles, instead of announcing what the monster's armor class was he would just say roll to see if you hit most of the time you could see what the original roll was so he just took that instead of what the guy said to see if he hit. It was actually pretty funny, the guy just was no good at cheating.

When we first started gaming first edition our DM misread the rules on rolling hitpoints, so instead of rolling a dice every level we rolled as many dice as it said, (1st level 1 hit dice, 2nd level 2 hit dice, etc.......) by fifth level I had a fighter with well over 100 hit points and yes it took us to 5th level to figure it out, the party beat Asmodeus as a random encounter, the DM finally started to wonder if something was up (we were all between 10 and 12 years old at the time). It wasn't really cheating as we thought we were doing it right, but....................

 

[Byrons_Ghost]

With the last regular PC I played (human illusionist, 2nd ed) I was sort of accused of cheating: the DM just couldn't believe that my dice rolls were actually as bad as I was telling him, and said I was making up low numbers.

In my group, we don't really have a table to sit around so I just take people at their word for what they roll since I can't see the dice from across the room. I expect a minor amount of fudging, but I think I'd be able tell if it got blatant. I figure, as DM, I can kill them (err, the PCs that is) anytime I like anyhow, so why stress over a roll here or there?

For my newest campaign, I did insist that all character generation was done as a group, and in plain view. There were some borderline-suspicious attribute scores and hit point totals with a couple of people in the last campaign. I prefer group character generation sessions anyhow, because it allows people to see what others are doing, and get their characers connected into the party better.

Worst I've had was with my higher level 3e game- the fighter/wizard was often wrong with his damage calculations and other mathematical things- but almost always in his favor, of course. I eventually had to go over his sheet and correct all the places where he'd added in the wrong bonuses. Since we were all still pretty new at the rules, and there's a lot of modifiers above level ten, I didn't make a big deal out things. I'll be watching a lot more closely on the low-level campaign. No more combining Weapon Finesse and strength to hit, for example.

 

[ced1106]

In junior high, when I was still learning the game (and serving as DM), I ran S4 (the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth) for a pair of my friends. Turns out one of them had bought the module and they were reading it in between sessions. When I found out (I got suspicious and tested them with something that there was no way they could have known about, without having read the mod), I got extremely angry and killed the game. Wouldn't play with them again for months afterward (and always used homebrew from that point).

I remember those days. I did stuff like twink the monsters. Fun watching the players turn all sorts of colors.

re: Monster Manual memorizing:
GM: "You see some sort of jelly-like ooze or slime."
Player: "What color is it?"
GM: "What's your favorite color?"
Player: "Uh, yellow?"
GM: "Yellow."


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

 

[Lela]

I remember those days. I did stuff like twink the monsters. Fun watching the players turn all sorts of colors.

re: Monster Manual memorizing:
GM: "You see some sort of jelly-like ooze or slime."
Player: "What color is it?"
GM: "What's your favorite color?"
Player: "Uh, yellow?"
GM: "Yellow."


Cedric.
aka. Washu! ^O^

Gotta love that. As someone once told me on these boards, if they yell out the name of the creature (or obviously know too much about it) just sub in the stats for another one out of the MM. A flying hill giant that breathes Fire and has a tail attack is quite surprising.

Watch as they all go home to look through their own MM. Or sometimes even pull it out at the table while you're sitting there. It's quite funny.

 

[Dr. Zoom]

A player in my game always cheats on his ability score rolls. He will not play without 18's at first level. My new campaign will use point-buy, so I expect him to have 2 high scores and a bunch of 8's.

He also cheats on his hit point rolls, usually by rolling many times and stopping on the highest or next to highest number. My new game will be using fixed hit points, and I am not sure how he will react to that.

He cheats on his attack rolls, skill checks, and saves. He rolls and picks up the dice quickly and then makes up a number. I have seen him do this many times.

And if you call him on it, he is the type of person that would be offended for accusing him of cheating, even though he knows he cheats. He would make a big deal out of it. Maybe that's why he is on his 4th character.

 

[incognito]

For me the worst cheating is the "accidental" cheating.

The players are sitting around, waiting for combat, or all rolling some skill or ability check, or even rollling for hp. Anything that takes some time and requires the DMs attention.

Player #1 rolls in front of you, and you and he are dicussing the number, and what it means.

Player #2 (once player #1's roll is done with, but before the DM is done with him), rolls the correct die, and If/when the result is good, leaves it one the table and begin's exclaiming happily "look at the roll, look at the roll!" The point is, if the roll was low, he just does not say anything...

I had a "player #2" (I was player #1) who got away with this for 5 levels of Ranger (he averaged 8 points on a d10!). Also we used 4d6 drop the lowest, and one reroll of a single stat method. I ended up with a 81 total points, not too shabby, but right in front of the DM. High was a 16. "Player #2" had 2, 17's and nothing lower than 12 - and he rolled "at home."

I mentioned this to the DM, after the session, when "player 2" got off yet another miraculous Will save. The next time we rolled for HP, the DM went with "player 2" first. In an unsuprising turn of events - he took the 1/2 (5 hp), rather than rolling.

I started a new game. "player 2" was not invited. Then again, I let the players use a point buy for stat generation.


For my own cheating (no, I'm not an angel), I am the worst when it looks like the die has landed at a off angle: resting against an book, or a glass or something. If the roll looks "ok" I sometimes more the book, or ask the DM to take a peek and see if the number I think it is will be ok. If it looks low/bad, I sometimes say the die needs rerolling.

 

[HellHound]

I cheated.

I have a set of six-siders (white with black pips) that have ADDITIONAL pips drilled into the 1, 2 and 4 faces, so the dice now roll 5, 4, 3, 6, 5, 6 instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

I also have a set of the same style (with with black pips) that have had the pips filled in and painted over so the dice now roll 1, 2, 3, 2, 4, 2 instead of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

I also have a d20 with the edges around the 20 shaved off and rubbed smooth. It NEVER rolls a 1.