DMs, do you fudge dice rolls? Why or why not?
DMs, do you fudge dice rolls? Why or why not?
Caleb Taylor
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Samuel Lee
Yes, and if you don't, you're a shitty DM.
>letting characters die to anything other than HUGE lapses in judgement or boss fights and similarly dramatic moments.
Bentley Williams
This. The dice are an element of enjoyable randomization, but the 'enjoyable' part is key, not the randomization.
David Russell
>running a game of D&D where 90% of the time there's no sense of danger because you know you won't die unless you do something absolutely idiotic
Do you have a button you push to set off an alarm and wake everyone up when the boss fight gets there, or what?
Sebastian Reyes
If you aren't able to create a sense of threat and danger without killing NPC's, you're a fucking awful GM.
Ayden Murphy
Yes. If it means a wonky roll will seriously fuck up the adventure or campaign, absolutely fudge the roll.
Nicholas Lewis
Any good DM fudges. And always for drama/excitement. It is better to leave a party member at the cusp of death rather than knock them out of the game. But you also have control over making things more damgerous than they are when appropriate to the level of energy for that moment.
Logan Hill
*PC's/NPC's
Tyler Richardson
>without killing NPCs/PCs
I didn't say that. I said that players have to know you're not holding their hand and walking them through the dungeon safely, and that they COULD die.
There's a huge spectrum between "don't worry, I won't let you die" and "AHAHA BETTER HAVE BACKUPS BECAUSE I AM INTENTIONALLY FUCKING YOU OVER."
Xavier Wood
I used to but since I transitioned from 3.5 to 5e I have stopped. It used to be necessary to make combats threatening but with bounded accuracy it isn't needed anymore.
I build my encounters to a balanced budget and roll openly for enemies. Some may prefer fudging to create interesting combat but I think that the raw uncertainty of the dice adds to the tension and feeling of danger. Combat SHOULD be uncertain and chaotic, if it gets fudged to the point of blandness then it loses its thrill.
Also I find that rolling dice openly draws players in and they tend to crowd around waiting to see just how bad that big hit was. It's the anticipation of seeing how the dice come up that really glues them to the table.
I do fudge some rolls, mainly monster initiative rolls so that they are spread out nicely along the distribution. That makes it more likely that there will be a natural back and forth between sides in a scene.