Re: [DL] Fudging

["Michael Maguire" <mikejmaguire@hotmail.com>]

I'm inclined to agree with this - the dice are for determining success or 
failure in dangerous situations, not everyday goings on (unless, to use 
Allan's cobbler example, you want to know how much money your character got 
from making shoes during a few weeks of "downtime" or something.

I generally (though admittedly not without exception) avoid fudging dice 
rolls and other random events in games.  I strongly agree with the notion 
that whether you fudge or not as the Marshal, it has to be applied equally 
to both sides - the posse and the npcs.

Personally speaking, and I am reasonably sure I said as much in an earlier 
post on this topic, I don't much care for being in a game where the person 
running things fudges rolls and such to help out my character.  It always 
cheapens the experience for me - I prefer to earn my own cudos and take my 
own lumps.  My players generally feel the same way (the one guy in the group 
who hates getting pooched by random dice rolls does his best to minimalize 
his involvement in situations where it can happen, which can be fun to watch 
at times).

Different play groups will have different opinions of fudging, though, 
depending on what they like getting out of a gaming experience.  One of the 
bottom lines about fudging is not only being "fair" about it, but knowing 
how your play group will react if you do (or don't).

Mac






----Original Message Follows----
From: Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>
Reply-To: deadlands@gamerz.net
To: deadlands@gamerz.net
Subject: Re: [DL] Fudging
Date: Sat, 15 Mar 2003 18:48:22 -0700




Okay, okay okay.  I mostly agree with you.  This would be akin to requiring 
the posse make ridin' rolls for every day that they are travellin'.  At some 
point somebody will going go bust. . .  and die in the hands of this GM it 
sounds like.
This is where a D20 mechanic I like is useful - the taking 10 or the taking 
20 option.  As a mechanic it avoids the randomness of daily tasks, like the 
cobbler who can only make shoes 6 out of 10 days. . .

But you have to respect the let the dice fall attitude as well.  In terms of 
long-term trust and excitement it adds to the campaign.
For example, in one DnD game I was in, the party eventually got to the evil 
castle and had to figure out how to enter.  We chose to scale/fly one of the 
three towers and sneak in from the top, assuming that all the defenses would 
be aimed towards preventing the ground attack.  We just happened to pick the 
master bedroom where the arch-villian, a half-vampire mage/fighter (don't 
ask), was sleeping.  It was daytime that we did this, you see.
The resulting combat was short and brutal as the villian was caught without 
his armor, his spells, his guards, and was weakened by the daylight.  And we 
found the evidence of evil-doing in that room as well.
Did we turn what was going to be a 4-5 session dungeon crawl into a 1 
nighter?  Yup.  Could the GM have easily said that instead we came in by a 
"different" tower then the master one?  Yup.
But - do we now respect that GM far more for giving us the fruits of our 
labors?  Yup.  Do we now trust that the GM is not a railroader and that we 
have free will in his games?  Yup.  And I can't speak for the others but I 
assume that, since he's willing to assume the way the "dice fall" when they 
go against him, is he going to enforce them same dice when they go against 
the players?
Oh hell yes.  And I tend to be a bit more careful when it's his turn to run 
then I am with the other GM's in the group.
AND let me tell you, when we earn a victory in one of his sessions it means 
just a little more than when we complete an adventure under one of the 
dice-fudgers.

Without real risk, you can't be a hero.


-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com

Man developed in Africa. He has not continued to do so there.
                 -P.J. O'Rourke


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