Fudging Dice Rolls

I don’t fudge dice rolls. 

Obviously I completely understand why you would and should. 

And I know it’s the word die and not dice, but I want to use the word dice, so I will. 

Now that the games are online, because I live in Germany away from most of my friends (all of my roleplaying friends), people are obsessed with tipping their camera to show the dice, especially when it is a 20 or a 1. 

You don’t have that problem if you are using a random dice simulator on Roll20 or some other Roleplaying app. Everyone can see it unless the Game Master makes it a secret roll. 

But we are already not playing around a table, I don’t want to take the actual dice rolling out of the equation. It takes away the feeling that you are wielding the sword, the feeling your dice are halfway in charge of your destiny. 

I never fake dice rolls (har-har). 

I used to, and it resulted in way fewer deaths, but a lot less enjoyment for me, and believe it or not, the players aren’t the only ones who are allowed to enjoy themselves. 

Now I mix it up between rolling all my combat dice from outside the screen (when in person) and all of my secret random encounter and perception rolls behind the screen. 

Often I get the players to make my monster perception rolls for me without them knowing, I just ask a certain player to roll a d20 or a d100 and tell me the result. 

The reason I don’t fudge my dice rolls is because whilst this may be a story, it is also a game and I never want an RPG to lose that gamey-element - that feeling of fear or triumph. 

Anything can go wrong (or right) at any moment. It makes the decision to flee more meaningful, it makes the decision to stand and fight, to what they think is certain death, more meaningful. 

I see all over the internet, in very respected roleplaying corners, that fudging dice rolls is just part of the game, you want to keep your friends’ characters alive, you want your well crafted story to stay on course and you don’t want to lose your players beloved characters to a nasty random encounter. 

I get all of that. 

I’d just rather the PCs know at every moment that it is the dice and the game trying to kill them, the monsters trying to behead them and burn them, not me trying to kill or save them.

Because conversely, if a Dungeon Master can fudge a roll in the player’s favour, they can also give that monster a critical when they want it to, to punish a player who has been annoying them all night, or to ensure their demon saves against that damn-piss-annoying Banishment spell. 

I just don’t do it anymore. I see all the enormous benefits of faking dice rolls, but I tell my players before every new campaign in a solemn promise - I won’t fudge any dice rolls, it’s you against the world now, not you against me. 

That isn’t to say I’m true neutral, I want the players to win. I want my villains schemes to come to fruition. I want my villains to escape at the last moment to come back and fight another day. I want my players to roll that magical 20 to bring their character back to 1 hit point. 

If the players can’t fudge their dice rolls, then neither can I. 

For the DM is also playing this game, even though they are the referee and the world-builder, and the NPC creator, and the narrator and the storyteller… they want to have fun with the dice too. 

If the DM is constantly worrying about all of that, and then has to worry about fixing dice rolls in either their favour or the players favour, then it loses so much. 

So I build it how I want it, THEN I let the dice do the talking. 

You didn’t really defeat the Lich if Dom fudged the Lich’s rolls to miss.

I’m sure people will have contrary opinions to that statement. It’s about the fun everyone has. The Lich has a bunch of made up stats in the book, and it is also your prerogative to change those if you want to (I do all the time, hardly any monster is the same as written in the book). 

It’s all made up, so what’s wrong with making up a little bit more? 

Conclusion

Wow! We managed to kill that coven of witches, how did we do that? I thought for sure we were goners?! We saved the prince! We found the amulet! We didn’t die! You were on 3 hit points for 3 rounds! 

Dom didn’t fudge anything, so they did it. They are heroes and they earned it. 

The fact that I don’t fake dice rolls makes their defeats so much more bitter… and their victories so much sweeter.