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Post by ShadowOfSouls on Aug 7, 2014 21:07:22 GMT -5
I recently ran into some gamers and while chatting with them one started lambasting a local DM saying "Oh he fudged a roll when I was playing with him!" First of all... Was the DM rolling infront of the players... (I only ever do this for dramatic effect) If he wasn't why was the player peeking behind DM screen? And thirdly... Why does it matter? It's not DM vs Players... I've always felt that if a roll would likely result in a total party wipe then I fudge it. Evening out the result a little bit has never been such a sin in my eyes. I often tweak more important plot npc's during battle if they're proving too difficult or too easy for the group to handle.
D&D for me has never been enough of a combat system for me to care all that much for the purity of the numbers. For me it's the adventure and the story that really matter. Sure characters die sometimes but it shouldn't be because the DM just happened to get that one in a billion roll on the dragonbreath damage. (Neither should the main villain of a months long adventure die to the first Phantasmal killer spell wizard with his luckiest initiative and DM's unluckiest saving throw happen to land)
So what's your opinion on this? Is fudging a never never or should the DM have this liberty for his or her use when truly needed to avoid a spoiled campaign.
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Post by Sargai on Aug 7, 2014 21:38:01 GMT -5
Liberty. As a DM, I am more than willing to fudge dice rolls or allow some flex in rules if it means that the story is improved or it makes the game more enjoyable and doesn't break things. Also, killing player characters is just about the last thing on my agenda. That sort of crap is inconvenient and I will absolutely fudge things to give players slightly better odds of survival. If they still die, they still die, but I don't want to sit through character creation and re-integration because my player's dice decided to be allergic to double-digits. On the other side of that, I have no problem fudging things on the baddies' side if the players are steam-rolling their way through.
Perhaps I prefer that direction because I have played with a DM who would fight every little thing we did if we were doing well and getting the better of his campaign. He may not have aimed for character deaths, but he certainly embraced and found some small amount of joy in them.
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Post by ShadowOfSouls on Aug 10, 2014 12:00:28 GMT -5
That's the thing. Too many players have this attitude that the game is them vs the DM. And sadly there are DM's who seem to think that it's their job to compete with the players.
Happily my current group is more interested in the story than trying to one-up me at every turn.
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SoulAxe
Journeyman
..(<>)o(<>)..
Posts: 41 
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Post by SoulAxe on Aug 11, 2014 15:48:09 GMT -5
Fudging the rolls are a DMs choice and prerogative. Its always appriciated when everyone feels they weren't cheated, or that things were to easy.
Since our group only gathers like twice a year these times, it often becomes extended weekends of gaming. The latest example we get of the DM decising NOT to fudge the rolls, is when one from our party was chewed to pieces by a hydra.
If you stick your head out, you are gonna get bitten.
Since I don't peek behind the DMs screen I cannot testify to how many times they have let a roll go in our favor, but the rolls are there to give David a chance against Goliath. Sometimes that Goliath is the character, my paladin was "felled" (fell on his back) by a rat once. We have joked about it being the only 2nd level rat in the dungeon.(since it leveled for defeating the paladin).
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Post by Carcer on Aug 18, 2014 12:47:59 GMT -5
I think that it depends on the kind of game you're playing. If all the players have brought in on the idea that they are playing a game where anything could happen and that death could be around any corner, I imagine that knowing the dice had been fudged would be kind of disappointing. But if there is some kind of agreement that the players and GM are trying to put together some kind of story, then I can see how a few fudged rolls here and there could work.
I suspect that when DM's fudge a roll and it makes the players' unhappy, it is because the players think they are playing the first kind of game but the DM thinks they are playing the second kind.
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