I said this one was going to be silly. When should the Dungeon/Game Master fudge the dice roll (aka cheating or lying about a result?) Should All dice be rolled out in the open? Why bother with a DM/GM screen at all?
If the GM can “cheat,” is it okay for the players to do it? Why even have dice mechanics at all? Ever? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?
Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.
When or if I think the GM should do the darned thing.
I’m going to break my sacred oath as a Game Master. I have (gasp) fudged a few dice rolls in my day. In my defense, she was a brand new, first session, impressionable player and her character would have died hideously to a critical. I didn’t roll the full damage. The character lived. I retained that player for over a year until she moved away. No regrets.
The second time it happened was my friend Kevin. His Ranger in my D&D 3E game was tanking damage, courageously. I went easy on a damage roll and dude looked around the screen. He caught me. He was actually upset that I didn’t off his character. I never fudged a die roll again. That was almost 20 years ago now. I’ve learned to behave myself.
I still don’t roll every single die out in the open, but in general I do make my attack and damage rolls visible to the party. I still roll random encounters, monsters, and treasure behind the screen. I figure this way at least the party knows I’m not fudging anything vital.
Would I do it again to keep a character going a little longer? I tend to have the kid gloves on with new players. Yeah, I probably would. Younger kids especially deserve a break so as not to chase them off forever. It’s a bit less obvious and intrusive than using GM fiat or Deus Ex Machina to save a failing party.
Yes, sometimes I think it can be warranted for the GM to conceal a roll and maybe bump the numbers back a bit. If it’s a group of adults and everyone knows what’s possible, then yeah- anything goes. Well, to the reasonable extent, anyway.
When do I think it’s maybe not okay to fudge dice?
I would never, ever fudge dice to intentionally kill off or permanently harm a Player Character. The in game villain’s feelings nor my feelings as a GM are ever going to be hurt if they lose a battle or an encounter. I mean, intentionally going after someone’s character with spite and malice is just plain rude. Not to mention it’s uncalled-for.
If I’ve ever encouraged anything here on this blog, it’s to be nice to your fellow real life humans at the table. It’s not worth causing a personal schism over intentionally killing someone’s character off at the table. That’s the point at which people need to just work out their differences out of game.
I have one sort of exception to that rule. I usually have one player I tend to single out as the Grim Servant of Death or Party Weirdness Magnet. This is a throwback from the Disadvantages in Deadlands RPG. If something seemingly random, goofy, dangerous or weird is going to happen, it’s usually that specific character that eats it first. The player usually knows who it is the second or third time it happens, too.
I always make up for it, though. Sometimes I give their character a little extra loot, Advantage on a die roll, or some other minor favor. One time I bought the player snacks. I always make sure the benefits match the minor bit of in-character torture. It’s also a nice bit of foreshadowing for the other players, too.
Should players ever be allowed to fudge the dice?
To use one of my favorite quotes: AWW Hell Naw! Ain’t nobody doing that. If they do and I find out about it, they will be rolling all out in the open afterward. Repeated offenders will be asked to leave the table.
If the GM does it, there’s usually a pretty good reason. I feel like if the players are doing it, then we have deeper issues. Maybe the player feels they need to “win” the game. Maybe they think I’m being too hard on their character. Whatever it is, we need to discuss it.
To a certain extent, it goes both ways, right?
We know in this modern era of TableTop RolePlaying Games that the relationship between the Players and the GM is not adversarial. There are no winners or losers. There’s no need to prove some sense of dominance. We’re just there to have fun. That’s it. Nothing more.
I trust every person at my table until/unless they give me a reason not to do so. Hopefully they trust me not to do anything malicious or stupid as well. I think it’s important to give all of the PCs a chance to really shine. They don’t need to try to manipulate the numbers just to come out on top.
My storyline, plot, NPC motivation, etc is never so important that I can’t change some things around if needed or just take the hit and adjust accordingly. Sure sometimes major NPCs or villains die unexpectedly. It happens. Oh well.
We have rules to the TTRPGs we play. Those rules usually include some kind of random die roll mechanic for when an outcome is uncertain. I won’t explain the whole thing here, but the tradition of deciding the outcomes of certain player actions actually goes all the way back to tabletop wargaming. Sometimes a referee would have no choice but to randomly determine an event or even the winner of a skirmish in the case of a rules conflict.
If you’re not willing to trust the dice and/or put faith in your fellow players/GMs, why play games with dice at all? Why not just play diceless or pick up a card game? Maybe I just love my random number generators too much to give them up. The trust relationship has to be there all around.
My final caveat to all of this is the usual one.
There is no right or wrong way to TTRPG. If the group decides everyone rolls all out in the open, including the GM, great. If the GM rolls everything behind the screen and the group was cool with it during Session Zero, that’s great. Call it whatever it lands on the floor? Cool. Use all electronic RNGs? If that’s what you decide to do.
Do what works best as decided by you and your group. Nobody on the Internet is more righ or wrong than the rest of us when it comes to deciding the rules. As long as everyone is cool with it, that’s what works best.
Thank you for being here today with me. I appreciate you. Please embrace the things that bring you the most joy.
Jeff's Game Box 