"A DM only rolls the dice because of the noise they make." - Gary Gygax

[SexyOchreJelly]

To all Dungeon Masters,

Is this quote true? How often do you fudge rolls and for what reasons?

[Lord Iames Osari]

It's not true. I almost always use dice where they fall.

Which is to say, yes, I do fudge. One time, I probably fudged a little too much, and almost made it a TPK. Only one PC made it out alive, and he was almost dead - the only thing that kept him going was an experimental combat stimulant that would kill him in a few hours, unless he got to a hospital.

The players seemed to enjoy it, though, so...

[kjones]

I fudge rolls to cancel out my mistakes - if I've designed an encounter that turns out to be too powerful, then suddenly that hit turns into a miss, and that AC 30 is now 25. However, if the encounter is dangerous due to the stupidity of the players and not myself - well, I'm just giving them enough rope.

And I'd never fudge the other way. That's just unfair - for your players to come up with some clever plan, only to fail some critical roll due to DM fiat. If they really can't do it, then they should know better, but I once played in a game... If we ever did something the DM didn't like, suddenly the DCs for everything jumped by 20.

[Quietus]

I generally don't fudge often - when I do, it's because either A) The monsters are rolling nothing but 1's, or B) The monsters are rolling nothing but 20's. Neither of those makes for a particularly fun fight. The occasional crit does happen, and certainly misses do, but I've had occasions where the monsters simply failed miserably to hit the PC's, or couldn't NOT miss.

So essentially, I roll, and if things are being annoyingly bad and unfun, I'll just decide what happens.

[triforcel]

Dice? You need dice for this game?

But in all seriousness, I've DM'ed a few times and I usually go with what I roll, even if I'm rolling treasure before the session starts. Occasionally, as in that one time the first kobold the group encounter rolled three twenties and killed the fighter, I'll fudge it just because it makes the game go smoother. Though I'd like to note that I enjoy rolling the dice even when there's no reason too, keep the PC's guessing and all that.

[squidthingy]

I would only do if the pc's all start getting amazing rolls that make my carefully planned out encounters not as challenging

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

I don't fudge, I add plot bonuses to rolls...

[AslanCross]

I only fudge the rolls if I end up killing a PC way too fast, but I'm weaning myself off that. I do like the sound dice make, though.

[Drider]

I "roll" before the playing, as in, i keep the results of 150 d20, 20 d everything else on a computer document and go from the first and go down.

[Fax Celestis]

I try to make my players aware that the dice fall as they may, and when that happens, the players may be in for a rough time. This is a dangerous game, and characters die.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I don't fudge rolls. Once or twice, I have "forgotten" monster abilities that would turn a tough fight into an easy TPK, though, for the sake of giving my players a shot if they're clever. In such cases, I usually just lower the Encounter Level by one or two for XP purposes and move forward.

[Altair_the_Vexed]

In my experience of the Great Gygax over the years, he seems to make up some great rules - but doesn't follow them himself, and he only says things like this to be provocative. He'd most likely be banned from this forum for trolling...

In response to the OP's question: I play D&D as a DM. That means I play by the same rules as the players. Dice are what we use to make outcomes of our actions uncertain - and the uncertainty is essential to the fun. I roll the dice, and I use the result. I feel that doing otherwise would be an insult.

[bosssmiley]

"Silence this Gygax (whomever he might be). He is giving away all our secrets!"

I fudge occasionally, but only when it'll make for a better story. We game to play heroes; heroes don't go down by being knifed in an alley* thank you very much.

* Noir, low-glam Cyberpunk settings, CoC & WFRP excepted of course

[Matthew]

I quite often roll the dice for no other reason than to alarm the players... (and disguise the significance of actual rolls)

[Dhavaer]

I occasionally fudge. Sometimes without actual good reason, because I think the dice roller's stuck on one number. I don't do it often, though.

[brian c]

I don't fudge, I add plot bonuses to rolls...

QFT


I treat all combat rolls where they land, but if a monster is going down too fast, I might decide that it actually has 70hp instead of 50. If the PCs are hacking away though, I might give them credit for a few hits that would have missed otherwise. I never roll for treasure, the players get what I want them to get.

[Rex Blunder]

Gygax sure made up a lot of DM-only tables to roll on for someone with this philosophy. I guess those are just there to fool the player, if he should happen to pick up the DMG.

[horseboy]

I quite often roll the dice for no other reason than to alarm the players... (and disguise the significance of actual rolls)

That, plus, when I need something to come off as random and arbitrary, when it's actually quite important. You don't want to tip your hand too soon to the PC's that the little girl is supposed to live so that she can grow up and drink their souls later, or whatever.

[psychoticbarber]

Like an above poster, I also rarely fudge, but I fudge when *I* make a mistake that could endanger the player characters.

[Behold_the_Void]

My fudging tends to be oriented more towards player preservation than player killing. I will inflate an encounter just to make it last a bit longer on occasion though.

[Renegade Paladin]

I only fudge it when there's a mass of NPCs on both sides that I really don't want to waste the players' valuable time rolling out to the last hit point. For instance, I'm running a nautical campaign now, and the sailors and sailors on board enemy ships aren't important enough for me to run individually; I just roll a couple d20s for either side and adjudicate what happens to who on the fly.

[BardicDuelist]

I only fudge if I make a mistake and make things too hard for the PCs. I don't want them to die because of my incompetence (their incompetence is more than enough).

I also fudge treasure rolls. If I roll somthing that I think will unbalance the game, I re-roll. I try to keep things a little surprising and such, but I do want some control over it.

I do the "sorry, I forgot the monster could do that" sometimes too. Especially with broken things like Alter Self, etc.

[truemane]

I'm all about fudging. I've run entire adventures on nothing more than the clackety-clack of random dice and my sense of dramatic timing. Part of this comes from the fact that when I started DM'ing, I had no idea what the rules were. So I made it all up as I went along. No one noticed.

I will usually keep them as they lay for large, dramatic scenes, whether that be combat or social scenes.

But in general, I make it all up.

Hmmm...I have the same username on here as I do on my PbP site...I hope none of my DnD players are OOTS fans. I'm probably safe, right? What are the odds of On-Line DnD Roleplayers would also know about OOTS?

[Azerian Kelimon]

Truemane, you've just rolled 1 one your luck roll, most likely.

[Winterwind]

Fudging against the players I would consider plainly unfair, unfun and unnecessary.
As for fudging for the players, I have a hard time making my players believe that I don't DM too much in their favour generally and wouldn't ever let them die (and they want the possibility of death in order to increase excitement). Therefore, no fudging at all in our group.

[clarkcd]

I used to fudge rolls to keep players alive but because I rolled in the open they knew when I was doing it. They told me it ruined the excitement of the game knowing that I would never kill them except by player stupidity and since my group at that time were fairly methodical players they were basically immortal. So I told them I would stop fudging, I did, and everyone had a better time. YMMV

As a side note I find that not fudging makes it more fun for me as a GM as well. It's no fun when you know the outcome before you start as a player and it's doubly so as a GM. It's fun when the players make you stay on your toes by rolling so well you have to alter the story. Sure the campaign plot may stay the same but how you thought the players would get there changes. Spices things up IMO.

[Fiery Justice]

What I think he means here is that while the dice may fall on a given number, they have no authority over the Story. If the mad hatter with the axe I didn't intend to kill the party with lands a few critical hits, thats not dramatic (unless its a really dramatic hatter I suppose) its just lame. It won't send people home talking about it like legend, it will send people home thinking, "My guy died to that loser hatter.". If however, the monster is dramatic enough, I think even TPKs are permissible. But I think its true yes, if I understand it properly.

[Dark Knight Renee]

To all Dungeon Masters,

Is this quote true? How often do you fudge rolls and for what reasons?

Hmm. I'd have to agree with that statement, though I personally find dice rather noisy and see little reason to roll them if I'm not going to use the result. I usually DM more freeform games, so when I do roll the dice, I tend to fudge if the results do not support the dramatic tension or whatnot (not always fudged in the PC's favor).

[Knight_Of_Twilight]

I fudge when the game is better for it.

[Guy_Whozevl]

I tend to fudge dice rolls in plot critical battles, such as against a BBEG. However, since the party is pretty big and we have two primary casters who employ direct damage, buffs and debuffs judiciously (we houseruled in 3.0 Haste that affects the whole party), it is usually in the favor of the BBEG (he makes the grapple check, his AC is actually 1 point higher, etc). I tend to not have any PCs killed off though, even when I try. Maybe I'm still too nice...