Powergaming: form of... ONE MILLION HIT POINTS!

[Meirnon]

So, we all cheat. That's a fact. Some more than others, even, edspecially when it comes to games. Some people worse than others. Example: the player who rerolls when no one's looking or never seems to die because he never specifies whether he's counting his hit points up or down or just has a million.

Anyways, we all cheat, and we've all seen cheating, so at least we can be honest about it. So, this is what this thread will be about: the cheating and powergaming you've done or seen, gotten away with or been caught. If it's done, it's done, so let's have a laugh about it!

To start this off, I'll talk about a few cheatery moves I've seen and or done.

The example above actually refers to a person I still play with but refuse to DM for. He likes to reroll his initiative if he gets below 15, or reroll his attacks if he somehow doesn't crit. He also seems to have a critical case of Infinite-Hit-Point syndrome, although it's mostly solved by our DM using a computer program to keep track of it in that campaign.

The best example of this I have yet is my last campaign. He was playing a Half-Giant fighter, 4th level. He thought he was some kind of supertank because he had an AC of 18 and about 50hp. I had him and the (rather large) party fight a couple hill giants that they should have been able to wrap up nicely. The player in question stood his ground and got pelted by throwing rocks. Like 5 of them, each with above average damage. Yet, when it came to the up-close fighting, he was able to take a few more hits of ~10damage. He must be some kind of magic to have survived all of that.

A personal example is a little less-extreme. I *gasp* rerolled initiative! A halfling rogue with a dex of 20 does not roll a 5 on initiative, so I rerolled and got a 17. Much better, although it didn't really help any... I was stuck in a well the entire battle.


This thread is about cheating, powergaming, and general fairness tipping in any game. Enjoy it, and don't bring any anger here!

[lobablob]

Your justification for cheating doesn't seem very strong. What's the point in rolling the dice if your going to declare that probability is wrong if it doesn't go your way?

[Meirnon]

Then what's the point of cheating in the first place? The entire point of this thread is to just talk about powergaming.

[KuReshtin]

In one of the groups I play in, we have a guy who is notorious for never calling out what his result of the dice rolls are.
As soon as he needs to roll a skill roll, or an attack roll, he rolls the dice, looks at them for a second and then just declares "yep, that's a hit." and then picks the dice up to roll damage (Gurps system, so same d6 dice used to roll skill and damage rolls).

He also somehow had a DnD 3.5 character that didn't have any attribute less than 15 at Lvl 1 creation. I can't prove this is cheating, cause I was too busy rolling up my own character, but I very much suspect that when we were told we were using the 4d6-worst option to roll up our stats, he failed to disregard the lowest result and just add up all four dice to his scores. He did claim that one of his Lvl 1 stats was 21, before altering it to 18 when called up on it.
Our GM somehow decided that we'd by that time come too far in the character generation process for him to make this guy reroll his character, and thus, he ended up being Mr Statty McOverkill.

[Inhuman Bot]

I'm thinking this is the wrong subforum. :smalltongue:

[Meirnon]

I think it fits here because it's not just a single specific game... in fact, it doesn't have to be a game. It's just talking about people cheating and the frustrating to hilarious results.

[Thajocoth]

I've never cheated on purpose.

The first session I ever played, I misread Magic Missile and used d6s instead of d4s. Noticed the mistake and mentioned it to the DM before the second session. He didn't mind.

Another time, I said I step into a room, but the DM (different DM) didn't hear me, and when he saw my mini in the room tossed it out.

I also had one DM (third one), move everyone's characters forward 20 squares, claiming he's skipping to a few rounds later, when my character would not have moved forward and I would not have moved him forward. Though it was a more advantageous place to be. He ceased to roll well after that, for both the remainder of that battle and all of the next session... That seems to happen if a character of mine acts out of character. It didn't effect my rolls for this other group I was controlling the following session though. They did amazingly.

Oh... The one time I meta-gamed. This would be the one time I've consciously cheated. Paladin's player told me to drink my acid-breath potion because I was fighting a Troll. After he explained it, I did a knowledge check to see if I could know that and failed. I, both in character and out, would not have known to do this. Reluctantly, with a lot of pushing from the Paladin's player, I drank it. I paid appropriately though, getting knocked unconscious half a dozen times that battle, never rolling well with him again except while dominated (when I crit), and dying a couple sessions later (only character I've had die).

[Milskidasith]

Then what's the point of cheating in the first place? The entire point of this thread is to just talk about powergaming.

Powergaming is not cheating, and cheating is not powergaming. Cheating is being a munchkin.

[MistahFixIt]

In one of the groups I play in, we have a guy who is notorious for never calling out what his result of the dice rolls are.
As soon as he needs to roll a skill roll, or an attack roll, he rolls the dice, looks at them for a second and then just declares "yep, that's a hit." and then picks the dice up to roll damage (Gurps system, so same d6 dice used to roll skill and damage rolls).

Oh god, we had a guy like this in one of my groups. I wasn't DMing at the time, so it didn't occur to me that he was doing anything wrong, besides "Oh hm... he seems to be unusually lucky. The Random Number God(dess) smiles on him."

That is, until he rolled and stated "I hit for..." and proceeded to roll his damage. I happened to notice he had rolled a natural 1. >>;

I politely pulled him aside after the session that day to inform him discreetly of the 'error' he made. For some reason, he decided not to come back to the group for a while... :smallannoyed:

But I have occasionally 'padded' my rolls on what I deemed to be particularly devastating rolls generating a character. >.>;

[Meirnon]

Well, powergaming and cheating. YOU GET MY POINT! I was typing that while in Student Assist at school, and was very distracted.
>.>
<.<
Yes... distracted.

EDIT: I can't pad my character gen rolls... my DM's watch me roll them in person. I still got stats worthy of a king (3 18's, lowest stat was 11) in front of one DM, though.

I do notice that my characters get better stats when I roll them away from the DM, and when the DM says "those are too good, roll them here" I roll crap.

[Mystic Muse]

also, Lets avoid real life relationships here poeple.:smalltongue:

[Milskidasith]

Well, powergaming and cheating. YOU GET MY POINT! I was typing that while in Student Assist at school, and was very distracted.

No, I really don't understand how you can associate cheating the system with creating a powerful character. At all.

[Meirnon]

I edited on the first post what the forum is about. That should tell you. It's about any unfairness, cheating, or powergaming.

And many times powergaming is associated with cheating. At least in my experience.

[Setra]

No, I really don't understand how you can associate cheating the system with creating a powerful character. At all.
Some people cheat to create a powerful character? :smalltongue:

[Yarram]

Lol burn.

I don't cheat at RPG's, but I have been known to cheat at cards.

Hehehe...

[GoC]

What's the point in rolling the dice if your going to declare that probability is wrong if it doesn't go your way?

This. Why not just roll 10+1d10 if you don't like bad results?

[SDF]

And many times powergaming is associated with cheating. At least in my experience.

Power gaming is essentially just making a character with abilities far and above the rest of the PCs. A good DM should be able to keep up with a full group of "overpowered" characters. Sometimes thats the point. I've power gamed on accident before when I've come up with a cool concept that turned out to be broken.

As far as fudging rolls, I only do that as DM. Almost always to keep certain PCs alive.

Actual cheating is one of the dumbest things I could think of in DnD. You are literally cheating against your own imagination.

[BizzaroStormy]

I tend to cheat at Munchkin (the card game) a lot. Having cards in my sleeve, looking at other players' hands, drawing cards when our DM's mom call everyone over to eat dinner. I've even succeeded at stealing a couple cards from someone else.

Best part is, if nobody catches you cheating before your next turn, its allowed.

[Archonic Energy]

I tend to cheat at Munchkin (the card game) a lot. Having cards in my sleeve, looking at other players' hands, drawing cards when our DM's mom call everyone over to eat dinner. I've even succeeded at stealing a couple cards from someone else.

Best part is, if nobody catches you cheating before your next turn, its allowed.

when you know you're playing munchkin, bring your own mini deck of super special awesome cards marked with UV pen so you can find them after play...
What?

[tyckspoon]

I tend to cheat at Munchkin...

Well, yeah, but in Munchkin "It's not cheating if nobody catches you" actually is a rule.