Cheaters; What to do?

[Kaun]

So one of my players got caught using a D20 with two 20's on it and no 1 last night. I pulled him up on it and was thinking of cutting his xp in half for the session but i am just wondering what others would do in my situation?

[Woodsman]

First offense?

Have him run his dice by me every session, other than that, let him off with a warning.

[Doc Roc]

So he's cheating, and that's the best he can do?

I have a better idea. Get 5 of those, and hand them out to all your players. Critical failure is conceivably one of the stupidest hold-overs imaginable.

[truemane]

If you can game without him, tell him next time it happens he won't be invited to the gaming sessions any more.

If you can't, I'd honestly dock him all his XP for the night. Or worse. But then, I hate cheaters more than I hate almost anything. Cheating at something as inconsequential and as unimportant (in the big picture) as a D&D game seems so slimy to me that I'd find it hard to keep playing with someone I caught doing it.

But half XP is fair too.

[Sir_Elderberry]

So one of my players got caught using a D20 with two 20's on it and no 1 last night. I pulled him up on it and was thinking of cutting his xp in half for the session but i am just wondering what others would do in my situation?

For the next session, every 20 he rolls is treated as a 1. And he has to keep using that die.

[Kantolin]

Ask him to stop?

Notify him that you really don't appreciate cheating, please stop. I mean, other options are kind of sidestepping the problem, whether it's docking his XP or (say) punching him in the face. Just 'Dude, not funny'.

[Kaun]

It not his first offense no, but it is the first one that he cant play of as being a math mistake on his behalf or appoligise due to mis reading his own dice or powers.

i rember one session i kept a secret record of what he said his dice rolls were. (the actual roll not including mods). I dont have the exact info any more due to this being over a year ago but it was something along the line of, with around 65 d20 rolls in the session: only 10 were 14 or lower and only 4 were under 10.

He just hates to fail at anything for some reason and every time we put a stop to one thing he seems to find another.

Its a shame really because he is a good mate.

[jmbrown]

A modified d20? Hardly an offense to do something drastic. Check his dice the next game session and move on. It's not like he was fudging numbers or modifying his spell list mid-day.

[Temotei]

You could hug him and say: "My boy! How long I've waited for you to join me!" Then proceed to take over the world, while cheating at life.

On a serious note: Let him go for this one time. Check the dice next time. If he brings it again, have his character sent to Baator, where he earns no experience, no items (and he loses all of his current things), and have him lose all of his current experience, including levels. Then have a devil come up to him and play with him in combat, to give him a false sense of hope that you, as the DM, will save him from this thing. Then kill his character. Then kill him.

[ghashxx]

For the next session, every 20 he rolls is treated as a 1. And he has to keep using that die.

This is really the perfect punishment. You're not smacking him down hardcore, you're just doing to the game the exact opposite of what he did. It's completely fair and it's a total "action results with opposite and equal reaction".

[Pharaoh's Fist]

Bring out a Dremel and cut the dice in half.

[snoopy13a]

Or you could have other players (or yourself) roll for him. That way, he doesn't get an actual substantial penalty such as XP loss but he gets a psychological penalty by not being able to roll himself.

Having his 20s count as 1s punishes him but it can also punish innocent 3rd party players indirectly.

[Temotei]

Bring out a Dremel and cut the dice in half.

I like this one.

For the next session, every 20 he rolls is treated as a 1. And he has to keep using that die.

Although, I hadn't seen this before. This is the best solution proposed. Still...Pharaoh's Fist has a good solution too. I'd do it just for fun, even if they weren't cheating.

EDIT: Alternatively, just act as if every roll is one lower than it actually is, if you didn't want to make him never have critical hits.

[drengnikrafe]

Get all exostential on him, and make him feel guilty about it.

Really, if you can get him to realize that he's only ruining the experience for himself by eliminating the possibility of a critical failure, and thus taking out that always-present possibility of failure regardless of your otherwise awesomeness at tasks... well, is he gaming to have fun, or is he just gaming to win? If he's just gaming to win, has he ever gamed just to have fun? Doe she remember how much better that was? Etc.

[ocdscale]

I think you need to strike a balance between not burning bridges.
And letting your players know that you take personal offense when they cheat because it breaks down some of the trust between player and DM (and between friends).

Half-XP for the session and a warning that you won't tolerate future cheating should be fine. You know your group best.

[Indoran]

shame him, expose him... be cruel... hurt his pride :D

I have done it... for example I had a player (a girl) who liked to roll twice... she had done it with other dms... but the first time she did it with me was the last... i just pointed out how it was "against the rules" loudly enough so everybody could hear... but low enough so it sounded casual (and condescending)...

She never did it again...

[Temet Nosce]

Really, if you can get him to realize that he's only ruining the experience for himself by eliminating the possibility of a critical failure, and thus taking out that always-present possibility of failure regardless of your otherwise awesomeness at tasks... well, is he gaming to have fun, or is he just gaming to win? If he's just gaming to win, has he ever gamed just to have fun? Doe she remember how much better that was? Etc.

I kind of agree with Doc on critical failures, the idea that every character no matter how good fails 1 in 20 times is well... rather foolish in my opinion. The problem is less that he altered some important element of the game, than that he betrayed your trust as I see it.

Personally I've never encountered a situation like this (I only DM online), so I'm unsure how I'd react. Still, you might talk it over with your other players and see how they feel about the guys antics. If it's not a big deal, check his dice, roll your eyes, and be done with it. If it is, then you should probably do something about it and just doing the same to him won't really solve the problem.

[Levithix]

This reminds me of somebody's sig that said something about not rolling dice unless you were willing to roll a 1.

All and all, I really wouldn't see it as that bad ... he probably would have been better off to talk to the DM and worked out something about his character being really lucky. I don't know about you, but if one of my players was really afraid of his character failing and wanted his character to always roll well, I'd let him spend a feat to do it better.

We have five people in our group (we rotate DMs). Three of us can optimize and the other two ... not so much. I give the other two beneficial homebrew feats to allow their characters to be on par. The rest of us don't really want it cause we'd rather do what we can with what we have.

I guess I kinda went off topic, but the point is that you should talk to the player and figure out why he felt the need to cheat. (I cheat all the time as DM and not at all when a player, but technically DMs can't cheat, what with being the god of gods in the game)

[Sliver]

Throw a tantrum and cry, in front of the entire group next game. Make sure everybody else know you are acting to make him feel bad so they play along.

[Kaun]

Throw a tantrum and cry, in front of the entire group next game. Make sure everybody else know you are acting to make him feel bad so they play along.

Thats how i start and end most sessions.

Generaly when i know hes fudging his rolls up i just fudge the target numbers up aswell.

His cheating tends to irritate the other players tho, i know one of them is close to having a go at him for it.

Im starting to think an electro shock treatment may be the best idea or hitting him on the nose with a rolled up news paper.

[Temotei]

This reminds me of somebody's sig that said something about not rolling dice unless you were willing to roll a 1.

That's Mando Knight.

[Mahtobedis]

I think I would do what Sir_Elderberry recommended and then every time I caught him cheating starting with this incident I would give every other player something that I would not give him. Things like bonus exp, or magic items, or the luck feat that turns 1's into 20's.

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

I'll second the "other players roll his dice." He's lost that privilege, at least for now. Oh, and I'd also keep a copy of his sheet so you can correct him when he makes his "honest" mistakes. When you end up correcting him (and he ends up brushing it off as an honest mistake) you can make snide comments about how this is reminiscent of the time he mistakenly used the bogus d20.

[AslanCross]

Microwave the die until it melts or explodes. Have him watch.

Seriously, I'd confiscate the die and tell him to never do it again. Or you could go the democratic way and ask the other party members what to do with him. That way, everyone gets the picture that you take cheating seriously.

[Serpentine]

I think, considering this is apparently a habit, you should do this:
At the start of the next game, when everyone's sitting down, give a bit of a speech about how you will not tolerate cheating in your game, and that more to the point it's absurdly stupid to even try in a game where you're not even trying to beat your fellow players. Give the perpetrator a pointed look if you want.
Then, set out new rules that apply to everyone: all dice are to be checked at the start of a game; No dice are to be touched unless they are to be rolled (so noone can "drop" a die and take or leave the result); All dice must be rolled on a set surface (e.g. a table) (so everyone can see the result); All dice that roll off the surface are rerolled (no taking or leaving according to the result); Any dice that lands on the surface is to be used (no "that wasn't my roll, this is my roll now"); any others you can think of.
Depending on what other things he might be doing, consider going over everyone's character sheets just to check all the numbers - they can get messed up by accident as well as design, so it could be worth checking them anyway.

[Rixx]

Allow him to keep playing with you on the condition that you get to destroy his cheat die in front of everyone before the game starts.

[BobVosh]

Cut one finger off for each time he cheats. It is the only way he will learn. The others will then herd behind your strong leadership.

If you have one of those old D20s that go to 10 twice, let him use that for a session. Always fun.

If you can play without him and his cheating bothers you, just do that. If you can't and it bothers you, just ignore several sets of damage, or jack up the DC, etc. As with all things, anything you do the DM can do better. Especially cheating.

[Sploosh]

Take the die, and you then use it on the rolls against him from npcs for the rest of the campaign.

[742]

or hitting him on the nose with a rolled up news paper.

i was going to reccomend talking and figuring out the problem, why he cheats ect; remembering that punishing players does no good and the objective is to have fun, but this idea is great! just make sure to scold him in a firm but not angry voice when you do it and you should be both fine and much much cooler than you were before.

[Sliver]

i was going to reccomend talking and figuring out the problem, why he cheats ect; remembering that punishing players does no good and the objective is to have fun, but this idea is great! just make sure to scold him in a firm but not angry voice when you do it and you should be both fine and much much cooler than you were before.

+1. The most advised course of action. Do it!