As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

When is it ok to "fudge" a roll?

13»

Posts

  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    Our DM only ever secret rolled on plot things or random events or whatever. Combat mechanics rolls or whatever were almost always public. And we has pretty good at rolling (pun intended) with weird dice outcomes. Like, when our Big Dumb Fighter was being summoned to the plane of the lvl 90ish wizard who would be the main catalyst for our campaign and rolled a 20 on his will save. So the DM had him roll again, epic caster means epic save rules, and the guy rolled another 20, and like a 17. So the DM had the summoning spell take him to that big epic town, and the level 12 guy got to dick around in town there a little while the wizard fellow worked big magic to actually successfully summon him.

    Tofystedeth on
    steam_sig.png
  • UncleKingyUncleKingy Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I generally find its better to secret roll everything. Then you can fudge or not fudge and nobody ever has to know. The point is to fudge dice rolls for one of three reasons:

    1) A fudged outcome increases drama or increases enjoyment
    2) A fudged outcome saves needless PC death for someone who REALLY doesn't deserve harsh arbitray random character death (yes, you can save the players as well as the bad-guys)
    3) A fudged outcome saves piles of story work you have already written and hence, refers back to 1) above.

    UncleKingy on
  • Curly_BraceCurly_Brace Robot Girl Mimiga VillageRegistered User regular
    edited October 2007
    As a general rule as a player and a DM, I only fudge rules very rarely. If a PC or Big Bag goes down like a bitch because of a bad roll, a good DM (and I hope I can do it when I am DM'ing) will go with it and make it hilarious, crazy, fun, whatever. BUT if a critical success means

    Now... say this happens: Our party is enchanted to be undectecable by anything but serious means by the maind, quest-giving good guy. We scout out a bad guy hide out, and we spot the BBG. We talk it over, and us players decide to go for it, knowing we have a teleport ready to go at any moment. So, my Archer (specialty homebrew PrC class for fighters) sneaks incredibly well (yay high Dex), then I roll a 20 (in this game 20s are auto-crits, as are 1s... makes things really hectic and fun and easier, I think) to perform a successful called shot on the BBG's un-shielded head from behind (I had the feat Called Shot, which was sooo useful), while we our party is still 4 levels below even properly taking him on...

    And then the BBG rolled a 2 (a total of 15 or somethig with all his bonuses, still not enough) on his listen check to hear the arrow and react (yeah he was damn fast). My shot may not have killed him, but an arrow to the head is gonna mess up any evil spell-casting BBG pretty bad...

    So the DM thought quickly and "fudged it" by having an invisible construct watching the BBG's back, literally. The construct took the arrow in the face, and promptly ceased to function, turning visible with my arrow through its control crystal.

    So I got a serious hit for rolling a 20, and the plot was conveniently preserved.

    And oh yeah, then the BBG spotted us, and was able summon a Blue Slaad who took me down to -9 HP in one round before we teleported away. D: So in the end it was an awesome encounter I still remember vividly.

    And I have no sore feelings about the "fudge" since the DM handled it so well.

    Curly_Brace on
  • VicVic Registered User regular
    edited October 2007
    I have occasionally fudged rolls, and in my opinion it can be worth doing. What should be noted is that as people have said before, it should be made to enhance the roleplaying experience and it should be made in both directions.

    Characters have to die occasionally. So do enemy bosses, and every now and then even a fluke spell or crit can be as good entertainment value as an epic battle. To allow a character to actually hit after he has missed with his +7 attack against his opponents ac of 19 for five rounds, or to let that boss' fireball spell do 37 damage and knocking out the gnome mage instead of 43 and killing him can be worth ir every now and then.

    Then again, there is nothing wrong with not fudging

    Vic on
Sign In or Register to comment.