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tenshiakodo
2011-01-25, 08:36 PM
I was just reading another post (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=184690), and it reminded me of an incident I'm not personally proud of. I thought I'd share the story, and see if any other DM's have similar tales they'd like to tell.

Once upon a time, I played with a friend of mine who had very little use for rules as written. He believed the game should run purely on rule of cool, and that optimization was no substitute for roleplaying. I've never felt that you couldn't both have an optimized character AND roleplay, but I'm not going to get into the Tempest Stormwind debate.

Suffice it to say, he came to my table with a Fighter/Sorcerer build. Not really knowing how to synergize the abilities of his character, he loaded up on Two-Weapon Fighting and Exotic Proficiency with a Two-Bladed Sword, then attempted to rely solely on Mage Armor and Shield instead of armor.

This same party included a Ranger/Rogue/Fighter...thing, as well as a Cleric with a two-level Fighter dip, both of whom were serious heavy hitters in melee. I could tell the player was frustrated by the fact that their character did not perform as well in combat, but they refused to change their playstyle, so my hands were tied.

At first I didn't notice it, but over time, this character began hitting more and more often in combat, and critical hits became more common. It wasn't until the player who sat next to him said that he thought he saw a 9 claimed as a 19 that I realized I had a problem.

-It's here that I made a big mistake. I asked the player who told me about the alleged cheating, who I trusted, to keep an eye on the alleged cheater, and I kept quiet.

During an encounter with an Erinyes, the hybrid Ranger was dominated into attacking the party. The Fighter/Sorcerer immediately engaged the Ranger in melee combat. Normally, this would have been a very one-sided battle, but then the Ftr/Sor player gleefully announced that they had, with their full attack, crit not just once, but twice on the Ranger's character.

There was never even a discussion about trying to not kill the Ranger, which made the Ranger's player a little upset about the outcome of the battle.

After the session, my spy told me that both of the critical hits were bogus.

-Another mistake. I got very angry, but decided not to discuss this with the group or confront the alleged cheater. Instead I decided some revenge was in order.

Previously, the players had encountered a group of Hobgoblin bandits. They attacked the bandits, and the Fighter/Sorcerer had immediately ran straight for the leader. After a lucky (or not so lucky) crit, they defeated the bandit leader and brought him back in chains.

Since the party was away, I decided that the leader had escaped, and then vowed revenge. I collected character sheets, and performed an audit between sessions. Some characters were over-encumbered, and a few lacked even trail rations or other sources of food!

The next session, I handed everyone notes regarding these bookkeeping issues, and everyone either offloaded excess gear and/or bought vital adventuring gear. Everyone purchased rations at the local inn, a place the party was known to frequent.

Later that session, the party sat down to rest, and I grinned, asking for Fortitude saves from the party. Everyone got very worried, especially when the Cleric rolled a '1' for his save! I was only concerned with one character's result, however.

Much earlier in the game, I'd established that the local Hobgoblin tribes had 'poison masters', and a particularly vile poison, known simply as "Hatred", was used by them.

The poison inflicted Constitution damage, but did it's damage in such a way that the only symptoms the victim noticed was a slight fever! The next encounter, the Fighter/Sorcerer waded into melee, and after a few hits, I announced that the character fell unconscious due to lack of hit points!

The player argued with me, and I revealed that they had unknowingly taken Constitution damage. The character died, and after the battle, everyone began using Heal checks and magic to make sure nobody else was afflicted.

A Detect Poison revealed that the fallen character's rations were poisoned.

The session closed, and I felt pretty smug.

The next day, some of my players confronted me, wondering why I'd singled someone out for what seemed like very heavy handed DMing (which, of course, it was). So I explained everything. The Ranger's player, who had been the most irate about the whole poison incident got very quiet. "You mean that bastard cheated to kill my character?! Why didn't you tell me?!"

It nearly ended my game right there, and the players had issues trusting one another for some time afterwards. Lesson learned: if you think a player is cheating, deal with it openly and throw the bum out. Getting cute just betrays everyone involved.

sonofzeal
2011-01-25, 08:45 PM
Yeah, trust is vital, especially trust of the GM. Players have to trust that you'll do fair by them, that any bad luck are the will of the dice. You've got a lot of power over the game, and they have to believe you're using it responsibly. You seem like a good fellow; hopefully you can earn back th trust of your group.

valadil
2011-01-25, 09:03 PM
-It's here that I made a big mistake. I asked the player who told me about the alleged cheating, who I trusted, to keep an eye on the alleged cheater, and I kept quiet.


To be honest, I don't think this was that big of a mistake. I would have watched him myself instead of getting someone else involved. But checking to see if it was a one time thing or a recurring incident is perfectly reasonable.



-Another mistake. I got very angry, but decided not to discuss this with the group or confront the alleged cheater. Instead I decided some revenge was in order.


Yeah, that's a problem. Fixing out of game problems with in game vengeance does not work. It's a pretty common mistake and I know I've made it, albeit under different circumstances.

aboyd
2011-01-25, 10:00 PM
I did something similar. However, to this day I don't know how to handle it better. Some of the usual options, such as talking it out and dismissing the cheater, were not open to me.

I was DMing for a group of 9 players. One of the players was a pretty troubled guy -- emotionally stunted, dyslexic, jobless, from a broken home, and a "project" of another player. And by "project" I mean, the other player had taken him under his wings, and the game had become essentially an act of charity for this troubled young man. The other players gradually became annoyed with him (he acted out sometimes, just constant intra-party fighting) but also, they became very protective of him.

So. The guy made huge, repeated mistakes in character building. He blamed his dyslexia. However, his mistakes were all, 100% of them, hugely in his favor. His dyslexia never caused him to transpose numbers in a way that would have been poor for his character. For example, one of his characters had +12 in every class skill, at first level. I asked him how on Earth that would be possible. His response? "Hero Forge didn't stop me, so I thought it was OK."

At another point, he was role playing in town, and gave someone a 10 gp tip. He didn't write it down. They were level 6 at the time, so I felt like 10 gp wasn't worth micro-managing. But then he gave someone 100 gp and didn't write it down. Then 1000 gp and didn't write it down. At that point, I said, "Um, you've just spent 1110 gold pieces in town, and not once have I seen you deduct gold from your character sheet. Do you even have that much?"

"Yeah," he says, and pulls out the character sheet and scribbles something on it. Later I reconstructed the PCs wealth, going painstakingly through my notes to determine how much cash on hand he should actually have. Turns out, about 400 gp. Lame.

Anyway, I discuss this with the player repeatedly. He constantly blames his dyslexia, and never improves. At a certain point, I asked a couple of the players if they'd be OK with me uninviting him. They both said they'd leave if he left. Oh.

At this point, Mr. Dyslexic finally does something that provokes me into misbehaving. He starts cheating the dice rolls. When he rolls, he claims "poor eyesight" and constantly grabs the dice "for a closer look," usually before anyone can see the result. However, as he starts doing this, I start paying attention, and every now & then I get a glimpse of him rolling 1s or 2s and declaring them 19s or 20s. Then, later on, he starts rolling behind a pile of books, so that I can't even keep tabs, and scores a succession of critical hits.

I try asking him to roll in the open. He fails to do this. Each time, I ask him to re-roll in the open. He starts getting grabby with the dice again. I get exhausted trying to correct him, but I also note that over time, the other players have taken to him, and feel protective, and will not allow the guy's fun to be spoiled. I try talking to the other players again in private. They still don't want him removed. I feel like I'm stuck coddling a player. Unsure what to do next, I get naughty. I decide that if he wants to railroad to ensure that his character is always awesome, I will railroad to ensure that things remain more balanced.

He rolls 2 19s. I say, "Weird, they missed." Next he rolls 2 20s. I say, "Weird, that's a crit and guaranteed hit, but the enemy doesn't seem phased. Maybe he is immune to critical hits?" He rolls max damage over & over again. I also roll and write down what I rolled instead of what he declared. He interprets a spell to have the most awesome, beneficial effect possible. "Wow," I say, "that's really cool." And then I have the NPCs continue to behave as if a more sanely RAW/RAI interpretation had been used.

I do this over & over again, for weeks & weeks of sessions. Until one day, the guy actually does roll out in the open. And he starts declaring wide ranges of numbers on his rolls -- not all natural 20s. And he assures me that he's trying to be honest. He fails, but I nonetheless relent a little bit.

I probably should have simply kicked the guy out and allowed everyone to leave with him. I didn't. I felt like my hands were tied and misbehaved accordingly.

sambo.
2011-01-25, 11:38 PM
the dice cheating is something most experienced DMs have run into before.

when in doubt about a players honesty, i rule that ALL player rolls must be made in front of everyone at their turn in the initiative order. so no rolling early.

i've even found players bringing loaded dice to the table. it's easy to detect, just drop the die into a tall glass of water. if it tumbles as it falls, it's fine. if the 20 shoots straight to the top and the die sinks like a stone without tumbling, it's loaded. i then tell said player he MUST use MY dice for all of his rolls.

i'll warn players once and once only regarding such things.

by and large, if there are less than savoury things like this happening, best to have it out in public with the rest of the group.

Zaydos
2011-01-26, 12:03 AM
I've encountered dice cheating from a player once I know of, and never had someone bring loaded dice; then again when I had the most varied bunch of players I was one of 1 to 4 who brought dice (out of 10). I have had my players suspect my "lucky dice" of being loaded after a series of crits (2 out of 6 from a dragon :smallredface:), but that was in jest as they used the same dice a fair bit of the time (although being superstitious I generally preferred to let them use one of my other ~5 d20s I had then) and they'd seen me use the same die as a player where its modal average was a 5.

I did have one player that lied about his characters stats and bonuses, and I wouldn't have put past cheating on dice rolls except I continued the former DM's (i.e. his) rule that all players had to roll in the open. Didn't stop him from trying to claim a +12 to diplomacy as a Lv 1 human wizard in 3.0 Core (so no items, max +2 from feats and he didn't have Skill Focus, and cross-classed). Then again he never did roll his ability scores in the open (they all rolled them at once, and I was too busy helping people build characters to micromanage and too trusting to actually want to) and always had at least 2 18s.

abadguy
2011-01-26, 01:54 AM
Loaded d20s?! Thats .... thats just sad :smalleek:

Paseo H
2011-01-26, 02:09 AM
Eh, I think DMs are too soft nowadays. They want to be friends with the player, rather than the DM.

Sometimes, when a player thinks to provoke and thus compel the angry rebuke of the DM, said player has to be reminded who is the chief and who is the indian.

If the player doesn't want that to happen, then he should have respected and obeyed the will of the DM. CASE CLOSED.

horngeek
2011-01-26, 02:51 AM
Eh, I think DMs are too soft nowadays. They want to be friends with the player, rather than the DM.

Sometimes, when a player thinks to provoke and thus compel the angry rebuke of the DM, said player has to be reminded who is the chief and who is the indian.

If the player doesn't want that to happen, then he should have respected and obeyed the will of the DM. CASE CLOSED.

:smallconfused: Most DMs are friends with the players. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want a friendship to end over a game.

Sure, foot-putting-down can happen, but never in a way that's likely to ruin a friendship.

SiuiS
2011-01-26, 02:53 AM
I want to make a loaded d20 now. I want it to consistently roll 9's.

king.com
2011-01-26, 03:14 AM
I want to make a loaded d20 now. I want it to consistently roll 9's.

I want a load d10 for the same result. Muhahahaahah, perils of a warp for all!!!

Volos
2011-01-26, 03:26 AM
I had a player who did all this sort of faking dice rolls via loaded dice, rolling hidden dice, and even picking up the dice before anyone could see the result. So I did what any sensible DM would do. I told him to stop, and I warned him what would happen if he didn't start playing fairly. Suffice to say, I was able to set his character sheet on fire from across the table by the sheer awesomeness/terribleness of what happened to his character. With the houserule I had in effect, he had to start 1d4 levels below the party with his new character. He hit a nat 4, and that was after picking a level adjusted race. Did I mention he wasn't very smart?

Necro_EX
2011-01-26, 03:55 AM
I have a few things I'm not largely proud of in my so far short DMing career.

My local group has a player that can be rather obnoxious. You know that guy that hardly roleplays, tries to min-max as hard as he can, won't shut the hell up during the game, keeps track of how many goblins he's killed, and constantly exclaims how badass every kill he gets is? Yeah, that's him. Oh, also he would constantly fire into melees and generally be less-than-useful for the group.

Well, at one point our group had basically had enough of that and decided they kinda wanted him out. I made the mistake of letting another player kill him.
Now, it all made sense in-character, the killer was wanting to take the assassin prestige class and therefore had to kill someone for no other reason than to join the assassins, so it seemed fitting to have him kill an ally. A couple of inhaled poisons and a framing later the character was dead and the player was a bit miffed at the whole deal. I don't really blame him, honestly...

Of course, it all worked out and he's still in our group.
He's now playing a rogue with a blunderbuss. D:

I learned my lesson, though.

agentnone
2011-01-26, 04:32 AM
I had a lot of problems in the past with this kind of thing. I was a player at the time and another player was doing the whole "picking it up to get a better look and claiming something different" or rolling outside of view of everyone else. So because of him, I actually learned a lot about die cheating and what to look for.

With this knowledge, when ever I run a game, I tell my players from the very beginning that all die rolls will be made out in the open and in full view of everyone, especially the DM. If I don't see the die in motion and rest flat on the intended rolling surface, the result is null and void and must be rolled again. This also applies to them rolling dice early. And with making characters, I take turns watching each individual player roll their stats. The players also know that if I catch them die cheating, then I will use my spreadsheet of pre-rolled results for their rolls for the rest of the session. Yeah, I have a huge spread sheet with pre-generated results from a random die roller I made. Was originally made to make my job as a DM easier with large-scale encounters but it never got used.

With these in place, no one tries to cheat in my games anymore. Best thing to do is sit down with the players at the beginning of the campaign and tell them your rules regarding die rolls BEFORE the game gets going. This way, they can't say they didn't know. And I go over it with new players as well if they join the group after it's started. Nipping it in the bud before it becomes a bud is the best course of action in my experience.

Volos
2011-01-26, 04:40 AM
Of course, it all worked out and he's still in our group.
He's now playing a rogue with a blunderbuss. D:

I learned my lesson, though.

Are you saying that you're upset or afraid of him weilding the blunderbuss? It isn't a standard weapon, so you don't have to allow it. Also, I think it made sense to kill off his character. It gave him the idea that he might need to change his behavior.

Necro_EX
2011-01-26, 04:56 AM
Are you saying that you're upset or afraid of him weilding the blunderbuss? It isn't a standard weapon, so you don't have to allow it. Also, I think it made sense to kill off his character. It gave him the idea that he might need to change his behavior.

I'm more worried than upset, it was completely up to me whether or not it would be available to him. I figured though, it being Faerun and all, it was an acceptable weapon considering there are flint and wheel lock pistols to be had.

He's trying to play him as something of a pirate, but not a pirate...if that makes much sense? The character's a pretty even spread of rogue and swash. His swash stuff has hardly played into the character, though...but, in his defense, they're only just now level five.

I've had some fun at his expense, though. For example they had to go to this old ruined keep in the Marsh of Chelimber to find a piece of an item for the plot. They make it to what seems to be a big indoor swimming pool. Turns out to be the treasure vault that had gotten flooded and is now the resting area of a water elemental that has found itself the object of worship of both Sivs and Bullywugs. Thinking he spotted the item they came looking for at the bottom, he jumps right in (they hadn't noticed the elemental just yet). After a round or two of trying to get something that was part of the floor off the floor he comes back up to find them fighting the elemental, so he swims to the other side of the room and pulls out his pistol. Ca-shick, Ca-shick. Oh, yeah...water.

It wasn't so much that I had his character killed so much as it was the way I had gone about it. Basically, behind his back, I informed everyone else that it was going to have to be either him or another disruptive player (who, it turns out is infinitely worse.) that has to get the boot. The consensus came down to him and we had been joking about who'd get to off him next session.
In the future if I have to boot someone, I'll boot them first, kill the character second and preferably without involving anyone else.

He's definitely improved his behaviour in the sense that he won't fire when he knows it's likely to harm another player or anything, but he can still be obnoxious. Not so obnoxious for me to want to boot him, and we don't really have a whole lot of players in my area, anyway. :/

I mentioned playing Pathfinder next, and he really wants to be an alchemist. :/

Just can't be anything that doesn't make things explode, it seems.

Beelzebub1111
2011-01-26, 06:41 AM
I have a player who has a seemingly endless bag of cash...I totalled him spending 12000 over the course of two sessions (at level 5) not even including helping pay for another player's armor adjustment and various other magic items.

Having just come back from the dead (about half of that 12000), I'm going to rule that he has no cash and will be keeping a total of how much he gets along with him.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-26, 07:26 AM
Eh, I think DMs are too soft nowadays. They want to be friends with the player, rather than the DM.

Sometimes, when a player thinks to provoke and thus compel the angry rebuke of the DM, said player has to be reminded who is the chief and who is the indian.

If the player doesn't want that to happen, then he should have respected and obeyed the will of the DM. CASE CLOSED.

Uh...

The DM is the players' friend. Real life is more important than silly elf games.

The DM is not the boss outside of the game. DMs who think they are are the worst DMs.

The players always have the final veto.

Kaww
2011-01-26, 10:26 AM
In the future if I have to boot someone, I'll boot them first, kill the character second and preferably without involving anyone else.


I disapprove. Let the character leave the party alive. Characters shouldn't suffer for player being a munchkin.

Tyndmyr
2011-01-26, 10:51 AM
It nearly ended my game right there, and the players had issues trusting one another for some time afterwards. Lesson learned: if you think a player is cheating, deal with it openly and throw the bum out. Getting cute just betrays everyone involved.

Bad situation, yeah. Hey, at least you learned from it. You've neatly pegged the issues at hand.

Getting cute for poetic justice or comedy is one thing, but it doesn't replace addressing the issue. I also don't feel that asking a player to watch his dice rolls is bad. There's a lot of players at the table, and sometimes you really can't watch everything. However, I can understand why the player who got his char killed due to cheating was unhappy. In the same situation, I would be too. It's perfectly ok to punish cheaters, but you don't want others in the group to suffer for it. I've had to deal with it. When I catch them at it, I call em out. If they roll in such a way that nobody else can possibly see the roll, it doesn't count. All dice get rolled in the open.

Paseo H, there is nothing wrong with a DM being friends with his players. I would hope that you can have a good game with your friends, instead of needing to choose between the two.

Necro_EX
2011-01-26, 11:45 AM
I disapprove. Let the character leave the party alive. Characters shouldn't suffer for player being a munchkin.

Well killing the character's a situational thing. Strider was a worthless person and constantly put the party in danger.

You're right, though.

Tyndmyr
2011-01-26, 12:35 PM
I disapprove. Let the character leave the party alive. Characters shouldn't suffer for player being a munchkin.

Characters don't have feelings. Meh.

And generally, munchkiny players tend to have characters that are generally unloved by the party as well.

Paseo H
2011-01-26, 01:38 PM
Uh...

The DM is the players' friend. Real life is more important than silly elf games.

The DM is not the boss outside of the game. DMs who think they are are the worst DMs.

The players always have the final veto.

Who said anything about outside the game?

I'm just saying that some players are too egalitarian and too fairness-minded, when hey, reality check: the DM is the author of what is fair or not in a game, and that's final.

Tyndmyr
2011-01-26, 03:04 PM
Why is this desirable?

What is wrong with being egalitarian and fairness minded?

Volos
2011-01-26, 03:12 PM
In the future if I have to boot someone, I'll boot them first, kill the character second and preferably without involving anyone else.


I had to boot two of my playes who were dating each other (because they met in the game) because their behavior got really disruptive. They took the game a little too seriously, and founded their entire love life on the principle that their in game characters were in love. I didn't have a problem with this untill it stopped the game altogether. They wanted to do nothing but spend hours and hours roleplaying luvy duby scenes with no regard to their character's original motivation. Not to mention that the boyfriend was always missing sessions because he had to do raids in WoW. The girlfriend would join him on atleast half of these raids. Instead of just kicking them out, I tried speaking with them. That didn't work as they appeared to be deaf to any of my concerns. So then I sent them a very nice email and then pointed out that they should read it. Their exact responce was, "Read Email." So then I talked to the rest of the group, and we didn't play one day just so that we could sit down and talk about it. They ignored every single word. So I had their characters go off and build a castle together... sortly before a volcano, a meteor, a titan tripping, and a earthquake sent them into the deepest reaches of hell. I stopped telling them when and/or where we were gaming and I blocked their emails as well as phone numbers. I told the rest of the group they could still be friends, but no one seemed all that keen on the idea. Wonder why? Anyways, that is how I handle players who get disruptive. In the past I have done... things I am not proud of.

Paseo H
2011-01-26, 06:48 PM
Why is this desirable?

What is wrong with being egalitarian and fairness minded?

Some people are meant to be leaders, and some people are meant to be followers. That's the way the world is, and it is the way things should be.

Yuki Akuma
2011-01-26, 06:50 PM
Some people are meant to be leaders, and some people are meant to be followers. That's the way the world is, and it is the way things should be.

...

It's a game.

JamesonCourage
2011-01-26, 07:07 PM
...

It's a game.

Did he answer the question?

AslanCross
2011-01-26, 07:20 PM
I'll ignore the debate on fairness and instead add that I think the major problems in the OP's post are: A lack of trust, which was admitted, and the use of in-game "punishment" to deal with the personality issues of the player.

Jay R
2011-01-26, 08:58 PM
As soon as you discuss fairness, a single principle becomes crucial -- every player has the exact same chance of a critical hit. A player fudging dice rolls has repudiated the idea of fairness.

There are only two ways to deal with cheaters:

1. Kick them out of the game -- instantly, and with no second chances.

2. Set up an elaborate set of rules (all dice must be rolled publicly, must sit on the table untouched until three people have witnessed the result, must be rolled at the right time, must use dice with high contrast between numbers and die, etc.) that boil down to "None of us will ever be able to trust the others".

Option 1 leads to a smaller pool of available gamers. But it's a lot more fun to play with people you can trust.

A player who'll cheat me once will cheat me again, and I can't be bothered to be constantly vigilant.

Zaydos
2011-01-26, 09:50 PM
Me I use the rules, roll where we can see them... I've just had more problems with players doing like Durkon and forgetting bonuses than cheating. Actually I pretty much gave up that rule entirely ever since I've been in a place where you didn't have to go out of your way to keep them from being seen (although I'll still check to make sure they're doing the math right).

Howler Dagger
2011-01-28, 03:34 PM
Im not the DM in my game, but he uses an ipod touch app to roll all our dice. As a general rule, he doesnt let us see the results, since, for example, if my druid rolls a total of twenty on my check, then my brother's character gets a total of 25, we would know (roughly) what was needed to pass. Also, it would be unrealistic to know exactly how much damage we did, since it would (in real ife) be unlikely that you know you did 23 damage to that one enemy.

dsmiles
2011-01-28, 04:06 PM
when in doubt about a players honesty, i rule that ALL player rolls must be made in front of everyone at their turn in the initiative order. so no rolling early.Really? Only when in doubt about a player's honesty? We've made that a permanent houserule. It pretty much stops most cheaters before they even get started, although I've never run into loaded-dice-guy before.

I've just had more problems with players doing like Durkon and forgetting bonuses than cheating.This happens in my group more often than I care to admit. By both DM and players alike. More than one impossible encounter has been won by the players because the DM (whomever it may have been at the time) forgot that the BBEG (or whoever) cast that bull's strength (or other buff) just a couple of rounds ago. Of course, the reverse is also true. More than one sure-win encounter has been lost due to our forgetfulness...:smalltongue:

Volos
2011-01-28, 06:33 PM
Im not the DM in my game, but he uses an ipod touch app to roll all our dice. As a general rule, he doesnt let us see the results, since, for example, if my druid rolls a total of twenty on my check, then my brother's character gets a total of 25, we would know (roughly) what was needed to pass. Also, it would be unrealistic to know exactly how much damage we did, since it would (in real ife) be unlikely that you know you did 23 damage to that one enemy.

That is certainly an interesting way to run the game. I've heard of a varriant that allows the players to roll all the dice, but having the DM roll everything isn't one I've heard of before. I could see the advantage to make it more 'realistic' but this is D&D we are talking about... realism goes out the door once you can cast 0 level spells. It would probably also take away the excitment of dice rolling from the game for the players. Do you feel that way or do you enjoy the game more due to his dice rolling methods?

ffone
2011-01-28, 08:49 PM
"Trust, but verify."

The world is full of BSers and DnD is no exception. Of course lots of people BS their rolls. What about human nature would lead you to believe otherwise? I've never seen a rolled stats / rolled HP game where someone 'got' a below-average result and stuck with it.

People who act outraged at the suggestion they are cheating, are often doing it precisely to hide their cheating, and to in effect try to scare you off the inquiry. It's a bluff.

People will say 'forcing rolls to be in the open is admitting we can't trust each other and breeds distrust." I find precisely the opposite to be true. Funny thing: when stuff is verifiable, and you have a reputation for not being easy to be cheated, you'll find yourself surrounded by honesty. Trust b/c it's the 'nice thing to do', and you'll get taken for a ride.

Also, it's un-PC to say, but I've never met anyone who went out of their way to talk about their own dyslexia and wasn't doing it to cop sympathy/advantage from someone else.