D&D 5E To fudge or not to fudge: that is the question

[Cody C. Lewis]

Hey guys,

My younger (though still legal drinking aged, 20-something year old) brother and I will be discussing tabletop gaming on a new youtube channel we are putting together. One of our first topics out of the gate is going to be fudging.

The intricacies, whether you should do it or not, handling lethal damage etc... So I thought I would pop on and ask the community if they fudge rolls when they DM or not.

Just for the record, fudging can be considered lying about a roll, changing a DC after you have mentally set it/pre-determined it, or raising/lowering a monsters health in the middle of combat.

 

[iserith]

I do not fudge. If I'm going to engage the game system to help me determine an outcome, then I'm going to abide by what the rules and dice tell me. Or else I wouldn't have brought the rules and dice into play in the first place.

 

[The Human Target]

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?433680-Would-you-change-a-monster-s-hit-points-mid-fight

A fairly recent thread on the subject.

 

[DEFCON 1]

I do fudge, because I play with a bunch of improvisers and theater people, and for us the dynamics of a fun and engaging story trump mechanics. We use dice as an improv aid (despite being able to completely improvise the entire session if we really wanted to), and when the dice get slightly off in giving us that aid to create the fun and engaging story, I'll fudge them. So for instance... the sneak attack by the rogue that snuck up on the guard did 23 hit points and the guard has 24. Since it was close enough to be an insta-take out, it's close enough for our story to just have the guard go down in a heap rather than waste time for the rogue to make a second attack just to take off that one remaining hit point. By the same token though... I wouldn't make that fudge if the differences were starker than that. The guard has 24 and takes 17... yeah, he's staying up and the players have to react to it.

And that pretty much goes for all dice across the board. If the rolls are almost good enough to create those occasional moments of coolness, I'm not so precious about the numbers to worry about it and will sometimes give it to them (or by the same token give them to myself and make them suffer the consequences.)

And quite frankly I don't give a rat's ass if some people find that method of DMing horrifying. They're not at my table.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I do not fudge. If I'm going to engage the game system to help me determine an outcome, then I'm going to abide by what the rules and dice tell me. Or else I wouldn't have brought the rules and dice into play in the first place.

Pretty close here too. I'm not gonna say I've never fudged (I'm sure I have over 35 years at some point), but pretty much almost never for the same reasons. If I'm not going to go by the dice rolls, why bother rolling them in the first place? You can't just go by them when it works out the way you want.

 

[S'mon]

I don't fudge, although sometimes I don't have a monster stat block fully worked out before combat begins - in most editions this means creating something reasonable. In 4e it means creating something that would make a good fight, which is non-simulationist and so can feel a bit close to fudging.

 

[AriochQ]

I make all rolls in the open whenever possible (In some cases, like searching for a trap I roll behind the screen since the player would not know if they succeeded or not).

 

[Cody C. Lewis]

So for instance... the sneak attack by the rogue that snuck up on the guard did 23 hit points and the guard has 24. Since it was close enough to be an insta-take out, it's close enough for our story to just have the guard go down in a heap rather than waste time for the rogue to make a second attack just to take off that one remaining hit point. By the same token though... I wouldn't make that fudge if the differences were starker than that. The guard has 24 and takes 17... yeah, he's staying up and the players have to react to it.

This is almost exactly to the letter what I was planning on talking about. I completely agree here.

And that pretty much goes for all dice across the board. If the rolls are almost good enough to create those occasional moments of coolness, I'm not so precious about the numbers to worry about it and will sometimes give it to them (or by the same token give them to myself and make them suffer the consequences.)

I would cautiously agree here. This is not something I would make a habit, but say once every 4 or 5 sessions I might do something along these lines.

 

[iserith]

I do fudge, because I play with a bunch of improvisers and theater people, and for us the dynamics of a fun and engaging story trump mechanics. We use dice as an improv aid (despite being able to completely improvise the entire session if we really wanted to), and when the dice get slightly off in giving us that aid to create the fun and engaging story, I'll fudge them. So for instance... the sneak attack by the rogue that snuck up on the guard did 23 hit points and the guard has 24. Since it was close enough to be an insta-take out, it's close enough for our story to just have the guard go down in a heap rather than waste time for the rogue to make a second attack just to take off that one remaining hit point. By the same token though... I wouldn't make that fudge if the differences were starker than that. The guard has 24 and takes 17... yeah, he's staying up and the players have to react to it.

This is almost exactly to the letter what I was planning on talking about. I completely agree here.

For me, the uncertainty is this situation appears to be whether the rogue can take out the guard with violence before something happens (e.g. the guard gives away the PCs' presence). That uncertainty is resolved by invoking mechanics related to damage versus hit points. If the hit points are not reduced to 0, then the rogue failed and the guard shouts for help or the like. So even if it's just 1 hp off, it's still a failure in my view.

If I thought that the rogue could definitely take the guard out based on the player's chosen approach, then I wouldn't need to bring attack rolls, damage rolls, and hit points into play. The rogue just succeeds in his or her goal.

 

[ccs]

I do not fudge. If I'm going to engage the game system to help me determine an outcome, then I'm going to abide by what the rules and dice tell me. Or else I wouldn't have brought the rules and dice into play in the first place.

Exactly. If I want a specific result, then that's what'll happen. If dice are involved it's because we're ok with leaving the outcome to chance.
As the DM I also roll my dice (bright yellow with black #s) in the open. Because I'm A) too lazy to hide them, B) fine with whatever the result is.