ConfessIt's ok, your players won't know it's you. We're all anon here.How often do you fudge? Why? Do you regret it?
I don't fudge.
i play online via vtt so i can't fudge dice>gmrolli'm not gmrolling every roll in the game
>>96836173If you're foundry, there is a module for fudging. It's called DF Manual Rolls.
>>96836154Fudging dice means you are a failure as a GM and as a human being. Fudging dice as a player means you are a cheater and absolute scum deserving only scorn.Only faggots fudge.
>>96836154I'm not against it. I just never did.There are a few times that I think I should've fudged and because I didn't things became complicated and awkward, even if I managed to salvage it.I think if you're new GM or trying a new system it's probably fine to fudge if you realize you screwed up. As you gain experience with the system you should feel comfortable to do it less and less.
If you kill a partymember every encounter your game is trashIf your party breeze through every encounter you are trashA fight should result in the party depleting resources, so they are in a weaker position for the next fightHP is a resource.It's up to player agency to put themselves in weaker and weaker positions (or not) as time goes onIf a fight can go from 100 hp to 0 you are removing player agencyThis is just an example
>>96836154Sometimes if it's a math-heavy roll because of modifiers I just wing it to keep the game rolling
Are these fudging?>realize I gave the boss way too little hp>time for phase 2!>this monsters needs fire to be killed>realize no one has fire>acid is fine too>make puzzle with solution>player comes up with a different solution that also makes sense>change the solution to be what they said
The dice themselves are a tool to facilitate the game that serve the GM and their group. You are ultimately there to have a good time with your friends, and their and your enjoyment is more important that what the dice say. Why roll the dice if you're not even going to use them? Some just do it because it makes a nice sound. Others do it because they weren't sure but then became sure after rolling it, whether or not the result would indicate something contrary. Relating to that, sometimes the dice rolls have been consistently frustrating for a player, no matter how grown up they are. In such a circumstance, deciding to fudge the dice may not be the worst idea, especially if you express why you're doing that or what it's going to mean. Then if the other players want to act smart and be a rules-lawyer about my ruling, I'll kindly tell them to stop acting like smart-asses and that if they don't like my ruling they can exit out the door.
>>96836224It is, but fudging =/= bad. You're facilitating your game to keep it engaging with your players and yourself. You were doing good GMing in my book. Though sometimes you should mix it up so that you let it conclude naturally so as to keep up the illusions that you weren't fudging before.
>>96836224If you simply avoid the consequences of your mistakes you'll never learn from them.
>>96836154We do know when the Ref fudges the roll, you know. We also particularly hate when the Ref fudges it to protect the character of their partner or best friend, or to punish a player who dared to question a previous decision or pre-planned plot, or fudges the roll depending on their mood at a particular moment ("I had a bad day at work/poor home life/crushing debt, so all your characters die today"). We know the dice are random and fickle, but hate when a Ref is as well. What's the point of collecting items that give a +1 here and +2 there, if the Ref is just going to ignore them all and make up the results on a whim?Some players are just as bad - in groups I used to play in, one would roll a d20 continuously as the game progressed until he rolled a 20, then sit on it and only reveal it and try to use it as his result when asked to roll. Another would roll 2d10 for a score of 0-100 and always take the highest d10 as his tens and the lowest as the single digit. Others would just roll without looking and tell the ref (either sat at the far side of the table or playing online, so the Ref couldnt read their dice) they had succeeded. In one frustrating game of WHFB where we all had characters with weapon skills in the 30s, not one of the fuckers missed once (Ref included) and always somehow 'rolled' maximum damage. I kept sticking with what I rolled and missed 2/3 of the time and they took the piss for not being as succesful, until I pointed out it's because I wasn't a bunch of cheating cunts like them.
>>96836398>you gotta be the perfect GM from day 1, or else everyone dies!Let me guess, your father never told you "I love you, son, I'm proud of you"It shows.
>>96836154I fudge dice. I fudge dice because the game is about the players' enjoyment, and the players don't know I fudge dice. Would it be really cool if that attack killed the boss? Does the boss have exactly 1HP left and fudging the dice to make it a kill right before the player goes down cool? Then I will, and I don't regret it. If I were a hostile GM and hated my players I wouldn't need to fudge the dice to kill them, and this keeps the game dynamic and cool.>but it takes away any impact from the players' actions!Yeah, that's why they don't know. I keep it rare if I can, and only when the players don't know the enemy's stats.
>>96836732I GMed only twice so far, so I didn't really have an opportunity to fudge.But I skipped a planned phase two of a combat, and I made some enemies incapacitated when they had single digit HP instead of waiting for 0.
>>96836732It took me years of GMing to realize at higher levels I should just drop enemies dead when they hit single digit. It makes the game so much better.
>>96836673To me it just sounds like you play with horrible people.
>>96836704That's the opposite of what I said. You aren't going to do it perfectly at first, so don't pretend you are. If you fuck up then admit it and think about why instead of covering it up. For instance instead of puzzles with a single defined solution use obstacles that can be overcome in a variety of ways, including ones you haven't thought of yet.>>96836743That's just giving everything 9 less HP than written.
>>96836194>If you kill a partymember every encounter your game is trashThis happens a lot to noobs and 5e players that think their only options in combat are attack and whatever else is on their character sheet.>If a fight can go from 100 hp to 0 you are removing player agencyplayers have many ways of avoiding fights, fighting everything head on is plain stupidity and a videogame mentality
>>96836224>make puzzle with solution>player comes up with a different solution that also makes sense>change the solution to be what they saidYou're mindset is wrong. This is something that should be happening all the time in your games, your players should not be trying to guess what is in your head, and you should be encouraging them to think on their feet. Even if it catches you off guard.Examples 1 & 2 are more egregious but easily made mistakes, If I felt I really had to do these I'd be talking to the table about it. I'd probably do nothing about those, you can fix them with subtle GMing.>boss was a pushover?maybe he had a disease or curse>monster needs firegive them clues about it so they can retreat or come up with a solution themselvesWhat system do you play?
>>96836731It's not dynamic if you are the arbiter of what is cool.>fact is stranger than fictionnever forget that
When I DM Blades in the Dark, I don't have to fudge any rolls because it's the players who do the rolling, I only decide the consequences. For other systems, it depends on the type of game I'm running.
>>96836704You have remarkably shitty reading comprehension. Please consider finishing high school.
>>96836154Pretty much never. I roll in front of the players so it’s obvious what happened.>>96836224That’s normal. I often change my monsters to make it more or less challenging. Or I have another wave of reinforcements show up, or give them some ability I make up on the spot. I do it sparingly though because I usually plan ahead.
>>96836175That's for Version 10.
>>96836919>he updated
>>96836923He did not, I'm looking at the page for it right now and it says was last updated 2 years ago.
>>96836942
I aim to never fudge dice rolls. But ultimately the game is about having fun. Here's a moment I fudged recently, you all can judge if it was acceptable or not.>playing 5.5e with a new player, first time ever playing>she made a barbarian and was excited about the cleave weapon mastery ability>fight was pretty tense, down to the wire.>two monsters were lined up perfectly in front of her>it was almost her turn, but one of them got an attack first. >i rolled, and it would have downed her, ruining the cool cleave moment for her to end the fight.>i fudged it for a miss, she then cleaved and killed both, everyone was excitedI prioritized a new player having a heroic moment. Im not averse to killing players but I want them to have fun
>>96837316I'd say you did right. Ultimately there nothing changed result-wise besides some minor resource spending, she would've gone down, rolled a death save that didn't matter, then the next person would kill the monsters and the cleric/druid/bard would bring her back up with a 1st level slot. The only thing not fudging there would accomplish is robbing the player of their cool moment and take away one tiny resource.
>>96837316I think as a "veteran" player I'd be disappointed to find out the DM fudged for me to semi-script an outcome like that, but pulling punches on new people to help them experience the cool parts of TTRPGs is probably good. You did right imo
Anyone who makes a blanket statement like "it's never okay to fudge and if you do you're a bad GM" is almost certainly a nogames tourist, or is themselves an abysmally shit GM.That aside, I think fudging on occasion is fine for the sake of pacing. Things like having an enemy die when they're at 1 or 2 HP left after an attack, or letting players pass a check outside of combat if they're "close enough". Same goes for if a player is attempting something particularly cool or interesting in combat/a crisis situation. Of course, I also just let players DO things without having to roll at all a lot of the time (if they're not under duress), especially if it's something their character is supposed to be good at or knowledgeable in
>>96836154It's not okay, fudging is cheating and takes all fun out of the game.
>lots of arguments in favor of fudging when the enemy is down to 1 HPWhy? That enemy still has some luck left and doesn't have a scratch on him. Hit points are not meat points.
>>96837662>Boy I'm sure glad the GM made us spend another X amount of turns to whack this goblin one more time!
>>96836154Never fudge your dice anon, keep Jesus in your dice
>>96837662>Why?For the reasons already stated multiple times ITT.
Fudging dice is for writers, not gamers.
No, I never fudge dice as a GM. If I'm rolling dice it's because I want randomness. I will, however, routinely tinker with encounters/enemies/puzzles/etc in real time behind the screen as needed. Once you have a feel for your system you should also be doing this, your job as the GM is in large part to make these sort of on the fly adjustments and judgement calls to make the game run better.Also I will have meaningless secret rolls behind the screen sometimes, so that my players aren't tempted to metagame based on them and my real secret rolls aren't too obvious. Technically I have them impact something, like if a random NPC's wife in town burns her pie or the result of the chariot races in the imperial capital, but when you're in a dragon's vault or a senator's manor you think those are gonna be more immediately relevant.
>the game is about having fun>so we won't play a gameRetarded logic.
The whole purpose of dice is to determine an outcome numerically on a scale. Every argument for fudging assumes the check is a pass/fail every time which is retarded, why use dice to determine a binary choice? Or if you don't like one of the two options, why even call for dice to be used? Fudging is good for when the math is too lengthy, when combat grinds to a standstill, or if you're rolling on a chart and realize you like option 4 better than option 5. Imo, the best way to handle pass/fail checks is the good ol' take 20, which assumes if you aren't pressed for time, a success is guaranteed. It saves the session from the inevitable "Bob failed the perception check, so I want to roll to see what he missed!" Or "can we all roll to try and lockpick the door?"
>>96837791>goblin with 1 HP>6 retards saying uhhh uhhhh uhhh while farting for 10 minutes before they commit to "i attack">extends the combat by 3 hoursTry playing something else?
>>96836154I'll fudge if a player does something really cool that feels like it should be rewarded.
>>96836173>>96836175last time I was browsing settings I've stumbled upon dice configuration that allows to choose manual roll where you input value instead of rolling(Foundry 13.348)
>>96838133>goblin with 1 HP>6 characters that aren't under any kind of threat from the goblin, and will almost certainly kill it with their next attack anyways>faggot GM refuses to save everyone a couple of seconds and just have the thing be dead, demands that the dice MUST be rolledTry killing yourself?
>>96838194>faggot GM refuses to save everyone a couple of seconds and just have the thing be dead, demands that the dice MUST be rolledYou will roll the diceYou will tick the box for 1 of 8 mandatory daily encounters completedYou will calculate the weight of the coins looted
>>96836154I roll all my dice roll in public, even when the game tells me to not do that.>what do you mean when the game tells you not toGURPS explicitly tells me to roll stealth, perception, traps, detect lies and some other stuff behind the screen, but I can't be arsed to do that. Also we already have "metagame" advantages like luck or impulse points so no need to fudge, the PCs can save their own asses with those.That said, we don't mind killing characters, last saturday a player lost his second character in the current campaign.Last time we played D&D it ended in a TPK, but that was long before 5e was a thing.That said 2, I do it purely out of being lazy, not out of some inner conviction. If you.want to hide rolls, that's fine, as a player I'd be ok with it.
>>96838194If the goblin has no chance to win it should flee. Or rather, the goblins should have fled long before the point there was one left near death.
>>96836224Second and third are fine, but sometimes it's fine for a boss to just die anticlimatically.One of my most memorable games was the time we were playing D&D 3.0 20 years ago and the final boss of the campaign, an orc warlord got hit by the weapon master and just died on the first attack of the battle.
I'm not gonna judge if you make characters with less than 10hp die but why not have them flee?Or surrender?Surrender is very nice, it's a chance to RP.
>>96836224it is fudging, but it's fudging the rules rather than the dice so it's dramatically less liable to be burdensome like fudging the dice often becomes.that said, you should let your bosses die when the players kill them, it feels better to totally dunk on Darkbad the Evil One in a single round than to unload on him and have to slog through a cheap-ass phase 2.
