Baalshamon
Do any GM's cheat for their characters? I mean when the character that your player is so attached to, he might break down and cry if he died, do you cheat to allow him to survive a lethal attack? Or do you ever cheat to keep an enemy alive longer because the players wiped it out to quickly?
On the flip side do you ever catch your players cheating at dice rolls? What do you do about it? I had a player not long ago turn on the party. He should have died about four rounds into the combat but cheated and stayed alive for ten and only died after he killed another player. This guy doesnt play with our group anymore, but it makes me think about other games and I wonder how often it happens in your games?
Comments
In the past, I've used this strategy when I catch people cheating: "Ok, you win the game! That's right, you win everything! You're now level 1,000,000, you have all the treasure in the world, and you've beaten everyone and everything. Go you! Now you don't have to play any more."
Sometimes that works, sometimes not, but it does help give them a bit more perspective.
I don't know about my players. It would be too inconvenient for me to have to specifically watch every single player's roll since I have nine active players and we usually play in a big room at our university. I like to assume that they aren't lying to me and that's good enough.
But if I ever feel they've had it "too good for too long" I'll sometimes cheat rolls to hurt them as well. :P
As far as cheating for the characters or npcs it does occasionally happen- like Savannah, I have cut battles short, and I have healed npcs to make battles longer. For characters I have missed on hit rolls if they were doing an exceedingly good job of roleplaying. We do have resurrections possible however.... in fact 3 of the 8 players have died once. If the character died I do not think anyone would quit- in fact one who did die seriously considered doing a new character.
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
"Duskreign's First Ever COTM":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011
Just trying to help out.
When players cheat on the other hand I get pretty upset, because like I said above, its supposed to be a story, not a competition. We had a kid once who rolled lots of crits when he rolled on a coffee table in the back of the room, but when he rolled at the table he didn't roll so many crits. After a while we agreed that rolling on the table in view of the DM was the rule.
In d20 I wouldn't always call it cheating though. If like me you use average hit points and if a monster has suddenly a bit more then they generally it is still within normal hit dice. Also I will not fudge to hurt players unless it is tied to giving them a reward. I never plan a story to require a sacrifice at any point. That is what I have party NPCs for.
Oh and to player cheating I've not had it enough to matter much. Still I can flub rolls on them too so I think it evens out if you do know about it. ;)
As for players cheating...meh. I give them the option to roll a long list of d20s and send it to me. I do change the order before I use it so they can't predict a success or failure coming up, but unless they send me a list of all 16+ rolls, I don't worry too much about it. If they really feel the need to cheat, then that is more their problem then mine.
Then again, if someone keeps altering their rolls or bending the rules to their favor, it's incumbent upon the GM to speak to that player to let them know that cheating cannot be tolerated - especially if their cheating is negatively affecting the group's overall enjoyment.
At the end of the day, it's all about the overall enjoyment of the session, right?
Generally I think it's something to be avoided, an indication of a system or story's particular stress point, but if it serves to make the game more enjoyable, there should be no harm.
The DM started asking the players if they liked Batman and if they said yes he gave them just enough bonus to actually hit.
I also generally keep things as they occur when I GM, although will occasionally lessen damage rolled or change a DC if things are looking massively BAD for all concerned. I have never presided over a Total Party Kill, but my encounters _are_ dangerous and with two deaths, insanity and level loss in a group, I find everyone is crestfallen enough without having to wreak even more havoc by allowing BAD LUCK rolls to take control.
I also believe that with the amount of effort people have to put into their characters these days, I have a duty not to continually destroy my players' enthusiasm and for this reason sometimes err on the side of the characters. Equally, if I find that the players are not being challenged, I may add a few elements to make an encounter more difficult.
twiggyleaf
"Shimring - The Faces of Divinity":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/shimring
(a multiplanar 3.5 D&D campaign)
"I met a traveller from an antique land....."
CotM May 2016: Mysteria: set in Wolfgang Baur’s MIDGARD.
Previous CotM Aug 2012: Shimring: High Level Multiplanar Campaign
Inner Council Member
As a GM, I don't straight-out 'cheat', but I do sometimes alter monster stats here and there so that they act more like I was anticipating; if I realize 'oops, I forgot to give these monsters X ability even though they were intended to be able to do X', I just go ahead and do so; on the same coin, I might realize 'oops, giving this guy a skill of 18 was a total mistake' and fix that. Those are more in-play balancing adjustments than cheating, though, and I don't do it very often - I can only think of one time where it came up in my history of GMing.
In DnD, yeah I've been known to fudge rolls for players. There are too many "save or die" type things or "save or suck" things. They can add a lot of great tension to a combat but you also never want a player sitting there bored for hours because he missed a single roll.
So far in Dresden RPG, the system has fudge factors built-in. For instance, it's the winners decision as to what happens to an opponent when they are "taken out". I usually announce ahead of time if -death- is an option. Otherwise, it could mean that player is beaten senseless or has their brains scrambled past insantiy and into a coma. Most bad guys (especially with wizards and death curses and the like) find keeping someone around isn't a bad idea and bargaining chips are extremely important.
I watched an obnoxious player start cheating and trying to dominate a a game once. It would have been socially awkward to call him on it (the host of the game was his best friend, I was a newbie to the group). I tried dropping a few hints, maybe a bit too subtley, even setup a skill challenge that essentially required cheating to win. I pointed that out, got nowhere, so I just left and took my game elsewhere. Many of the players followed; the group was becoming pretty toxic anyway. Otherwise, in my established campaigns, I've seen it happen a few times. I'll call people on it if I see it, but it's rare cause I'm picky about who I play with :)
Player's cheating? I know one would never cheat. He wouldn't have fun, hes one to roll with the punches. The others, if they do and I catch them, I don't mind letting them know doing so will get them banned from the game.
killervp
"A God...Rebuilt":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/a-god-rebuilt
"Duskreign's First Ever COTM":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/wyrmshadow/wiki_pages/112011
Just trying to help out.
I suppose, really, it depends on my mood and how impressive things might be.
~Steve
"Star Trek Late Night":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns/star-trek-late-night
"January 2112 CotM":http://blog.obsidianportal.com/star-trek-late-night-januarys-cotm/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=star-trek-late-night-januarys-cotm
"Duskreign's CotM December 2011":http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaign/wyrmshadow/wikis/122011
As a player, I find cheating rather pointless. Half the fun for me is taking what limited resources I have making the most of them in any given hypothetical situation (any sort of encounter). Cheating just removes my purpose for playing the game.
As a GM, Well, a GM really can't cheat unless they themselves refer to it as such. Whenever the usage of GM cheese has been brought up against me, My usual response is "you know... that one feat." Any good RPG has the "limitless" factor where you could theoretically do anything.
In regards to fudging rolls to keep players alive, I have never done that. I've always had "divine intervention" keep them alive then use that as a plot device. One of my "golden rules" is "Gm's should never recant what they say and never turn back time without having an NPC cast the spell."
I accidentally did that in an encounter... had the monsters appear and do nothing for 3 rounds while they were slaughtered. When questioned, I looked at the player and in a surprised voice said "I know! You just slaughtered those creatures unprovoked!" Other fun excuses are along the lines of "They had a muscular/nervous disorder that caused them to go into shock and become temporarily paralyzed triggered by the fear of the mere sight of the party" or for a more serious reason "They had a delayed magical/poison paralytic effect that just happened to kick in at that time."
On the other hand I once had a crit hit rolled by a goblin archer on the first encounter for a new group. They were shocked when the bolt impaled itself in the Paladin's forehead...The player was more than a little pissed, but it really set a tone for the following encounters. They were a little more careful and planned things out better.
Like I said, if it helps the story and makes it fun, or can create a long lasting impression, I'll fudge the rolls.
Like the last session we played, my oldest daughter(in a Serenity/Firefly type setting) wanted to flip off the roof she was standing on, land on the ground and take off running towards an enemy. She rolled really well for the jump/flip/landing...but when she went to take off running, yeah...not so lucky and she fell flat on her face on the ground. BUT...in her own words, that fits the character idea she is playing. She laughed...and to me, THAT is what is important that a lot of people forget. It's supposed to be fun, and if a player is constantly making new characters simply because they're rolling badly, what fun is that?
In terms of 'cheating', I don't think a decision to ignore a rule, or a possible outcome should be classified as 'cheating'. Ultimately we are creating a story- everyone around that table helps to shape and influence the events- if an outcome is so severe that it would generate a strong negative emotion/effect then it's probably not the right outcome. The more detail that an individual puts into their character, the less we should allow them to be 'killed off' by some freak die roll. At least that's just my opinion, and it's definitely been shaped by the games we've been playing recently.