Re: [DL] What to do with a cheater

["jason adkins" <danthius@hotmail.com>]

Hello,

     I've been running games for going on 13 years.  I've met all kinds of 
players, but the most fun I have is when I find a cheater.  Let me tell you 
about my favorites to do to these poor witless fools, who have obviously 
forgotten that it is just a game.

     -I have such sights to show you......   -Pinhead

Part 1.  Identifying a Cheater.

     This is the easiest part.  Cheater's are so bad, they can't help but 
get caught.  In such a social game someone is going to notice.  Especially, 
when most of your group doesn't cheat.  (We can hope).

Part 2.  Decide the severity of his cheating.

     Is he interrupting game play?  Is he breaking your storyline?  Or 
causing dissention among your players?  Is he cheating in such a way as to 
actually irritate the Game Master?  If not, who cares, as long as he's 
having fun and you are too, it shouldn't matter that he doesn't think he can 
make it unless he cheats.  On the other hand, if "yes" was the answer to any 
of the aformentioned questions, read on, as I give you some idears' on how 
to fix his wagon.....

Part 3.  Paybacks are a bitch......And revenge is a dessert best served 
cold.

Method 1.  Simple, straight forward and to the point.  Tell him.  Inform him 
you don't appreciate it, and if he doesn't quit, you may be forced to ask 
him to leave the game.  However, this is usually only a temp fix.  A cheater 
will lie to you.  That's part of the game, you see.

Method 2.  Use your players to police the others.  A little Gestapo, but 
what the hay?  The party watches eachother, like hawks.  How do you 
reinforce this?  Offer bounty!!!  Example:  One player cheats, other player 
notices it, and verbally calls him on it.  You thank him for his 
participation in keeping the game exciting, by weeding out unnecessary 
cheating.  Then you give him a white chip!  But wait, don't give it to him 
out of the pot....Heh, heh, heh.  Give it to him right out of the cheater's 
pile, or his not yet received winnings.  Kind of turns your players into 
buzzards, but hey, they don't have to do it if noone cheats.  Right?

Method 3.  Easy, Breezy.  Kill the card cheatin' bastard.  A stray bullet, 
flys right under the back of his helmet, and pops his spine in two.......  
The sword slices right past his defenses with a whopping 33 for the roll!!!  
And tags him with a fatal wound in the heart......  His kick ass, turbo 
machine, his junker made.....  Well, he forgot to wire the carbuerator 
correctly, and the next time he throws the ignition, bam!!!  Heh, heh......  
You get the idea?

Method 4.  Smile and Nod.  In this insidious defense, we find the fine art 
of cheating back....usefully.  Never give out target numbers.  Just say, 
"I'm sorry you missed".  Or "No, because of modifiers you needed to roll 
higher".  When he does seem to hit, just don't mark it down.  Don't count 
his success, he misses his scrounge roll to find ammo casings in the middle 
of a military depot.  Can't stop the bleeding from a knee scrape with a 
medicine roll.  You got it?  Sooner or later, he'll get ticked.  What do you 
do?  See Method 1.

Method 5.  He can't hurt you if he can't reach you.  This one requires 
imagination, so I'll just give you an example:  A player of mine couldn't 
help but cheat.  (This was for AD&D, by the way).  So one day after going 
through a magic portal (Dimensional Gate?), he came out on the otherside as 
a harmless, little, intelligent squirrel (Hell of a Mutation, maybe?).  He 
didn't last long, as one of the non-sympathetic dwarves in the party (How 
about a Mutant, or a Savage), scooped him up for lunch.  The moral of this 
story, not much a cheater can do when the Game Master calls in HIS coup.  
Just stay out of the way and for Pete's sake, don't cheat!!!  It's just a 
game?!?!

                                 Jason Adkins


>From: "Chris Aniballi" <aniballi@mc.net>
>Reply-To: deadlands@gamerz.net
>To: "Deadlands" <deadlands@gamerz.net>
>Subject: [DL] What to do with a cheater
>Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2000 12:47:18 -0600
>
>Hey all,
>
>To make a long story short, I have a cheater in my Deadlands campaing that 
>I
>run every two weeks at my local gaming refuge.
>
>He has, on several occasions, recorded more fate chips than he has, rolls
>constantly and only stops when he gets a roll he likes (never under a 14 on
>his 3d8 quickness....), reports what I have been told by other players as
>higher totals than he has actually rolled. He sits on the far end of the
>table (at my request, due to his loud voice drowing out others if he's too
>close to me). To top off that heaping pile of smoking dung the player has a
>tendancy to be disruptive at times. It's not like he's doing it to be a
>jerk, he's just loud and has a short attention span. He drifts off the
>subject, speaking over me (and I *hate* that!) when I'm doing story 
>elements
>and asides with separated characters and such. It probably wouldn't be so
>bad, but ever since I found out he was cheating I have essentially avoided
>going out of my way to make him an active particiapnt in the story. If he
>decides he wants to roleplay, he can get into it, but as of yet he just
>waits for the action to happen.
>
>Due to the casual nature of the club that we have there is a bit of a
>problem. Some of the other players who have caught him in the act have
>reported it to me. However, as much as I inititally wanted to kick him out
>of the group, we mutually agreed that cheating at an RPG is both rediculous
>and pathetic (after all, no one wins, and the point is to tall a story and
>have a good time). His behavior has yet to really effect their experience,
>so untill it does he gets a little room. They also convinced me to let him
>do what he does, but never spare the worst in respect to the character.
>Never make him an active part of the story, etc. If the behavior becomes a
>downer for the others in the group, however, he's out. And if he doesn't
>watch the volume on his idle chatter, it's gonna happen.
>
>So, has any one else had a cheater in their games (DL or not), and how did
>you take care of it? I have to admit that it's bothering me a bit, and I've
>never really had this kind of problem (whiners and cry babies, even 
>loonies,
>but never a cheater [at least one that got caught]).
>
>Chris Aniballi
>Callin' him out would be a bad idea, right?.... Right?
>===============
>"Once you've driven a woman to suicide,
>bringing one to orgasm is just not that impressive."
>-Scott Carpenter
>
>
>
>To unsubscribe, send a message to esquire@gamerz.net with
>	unsubscribe deadlands
>as the BODY of the message.  The SUBJECT is ignored.
>

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