There are many inventive and smart ways here to try to trick the cheater, or stuff like that, but if you're a grow-up and want to act the part, there really is only one solution:
Talk to the guy. In private - not necessarily the kind of private where you dismiss the rest and tell him to stay remind, like in school, where everyone knows the kid in question is going to be chewed out big time, but more the private when you talk to him apart from the game.
If he's offended, then he's offended. That's his fault for being a liar and a cheat. Maybe he isn't.
Afterwards you can still introduce the ruling that all rolls will be made where the GM can see them - if you just come out and start with such a rule, people will know there's something going on, and you apparently don't want to cause too much strife. In such a case, they'll either suspect each other, or suspect you of being paranoid, or, in case they suspect him already, they all but know that he's cheating. But if you do that after you talked to him and he apparently won't listen to reason, he has brought that unto himself.
But I definitely wouldn't start flipping the rolls (make high bad all of a sudden), or punish everyone for good rolls, or do something like editing the guy out of the action to make him feel unwelcome.
It's one thing to try curtailing cheating, but if I play a game, I play it myself. That means I'll roll my checks and saves and attacks myself.
There's always the hidden roll exception, of course, but other than that I want the fate of my character resting in my hand.
I'm with you on that.
I just wouldn't feel right not rolling the dice myself, and also if it all goes badly and I get splatted then I am much more inclined to suck it up when it's a conseqence of my cruddy roll :)
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Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response. Let me clear up a few points here.
He is a good friend regardless of his compulsive lying. We all recognize it and just gloss over the details when he does it. He has a personality disorder but is all in all a decent guy, so please be mindful of that. This is also part of why it is difficult to talk to him about it because I highly doubt he can stop himself, it is habitual and pathological.
He has been caught in the past by a previous DM and when I took the torch I was warned of it, but until recently it hasn't been overtly apparent. The idea about having a "Save Box" that everyone rolls into is something that I kinda really like, and also helps solve the problem with some players getting up and pacing around when it's not their turn.
Thank you again for all the suggestions, and feel free to keep chipping in with more.
Time the introduction of your new die rolling method to coincide with some encounters that are easy to hit and have low saving throw DCs. It's hard to complain when your character is succeeding!
"Oh crap! I rolled a 4: That comes to 8 total."
"Don't forget the +4 on fear saves because of Bob's statuette of St. Gremaine."
"OK, then it's 12."
"You saved!"
Time the introduction of your new die rolling method to coincide with some encounters that are easy to hit and have low saving throw DCs. It's hard to complain when your character is succeeding!
"Oh crap! I rolled a 4: That comes to 8 total."
"Don't forget the +4 on fear saves because of Bob's statuette of St. Gremaine."
"OK, then it's 12."
"You saved!"
We had a cheater. Not sure if it was intentional or if it was a lack of mathmatics skill. The players in my group started enforcing it before I ever noticed it. They took to rolling dice in center of mat, and doing the " dont forget to count for flanking...etc." stuff. But for me, I noticed the consistantly high rolls stopped when, quite often, the middle to lower rolls still were sucesses.
Course, that brings my pet peeve. When a player tells me the results before I even hear the amount the die rolled. "It missed dang it." What did you roll? " A twelve" Well, with your bonuses, a twelve hits.
That ended when I started agreeing with the player. " It missed dang it" Oh, sorry. Okay. Well, that was your action.
The next time you run have a general talk about honesty with all the players. Say something like:
"It's come to my attention that some of the players might be fudging their dice rolls. Cheating at playing make believe is flat-out silly. Everyone is going to fail sometimes, and that is just something we all have to get accustomed to. Please be honest with all your die rolls, and what is written on your character sheet. As much as it's important for you to trust me, it's equally important for me to trust you."
If you roll behind a screen, consider leading by example and rolling in front of everyone. It sucks when you can't fudge your way out of killing a character you like, but it does foster a sense of fair play, and add an element of danger.
Carbon D. Metric I too have to +1 the central dice box, pad, etc idea where all dice must be tossed. If you are worried about the player in question suddenly wondering why...you have a perfect reason that you mentioned in your OP. Your eyes aren't super awesome and it is perfectly reasonable that if you protect your friend despite his compulsive lying, that he indulge you with your disadvantaged sight. Enter: dice rolling box near you.
Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response. Let me clear up a few points here.
He is a good friend regardless of his compulsive lying. We all recognize it and just gloss over the details when he does it. He has a personality disorder but is all in all a decent guy, so please be mindful of that. This is also part of why it is difficult to talk to him about it because I highly doubt he can stop himself, it is habitual and pathological.
Funny that you should say that because my first thought was "narcissistic personality disorder". So yeah, I agree that talking to him about it isn't going to get you anywhere (unless you are a trained therapist and are willing to devote a few years to helping him through it). It's a game for you too, right? You shouldn't have to put yourself through a tonne of grief because you volunteered to run a game.
The suggestion I think is the best is to have everyone roll in the centre, like Anguish said, it often does help the player, and it is an easy sell. It also tends to keep the group more focused if they are closer together.
If you can't do that, the distant second choice for me would be to keep track of how well he is doing, and point out how unlikely it is in an abstract kind of way. Don't, don't, don't do it in a way that will embarrass him. Just a lighthearted running commentary on how good he is at rolling. In other words, "Wow, 18 or over 7 times in a row! That's like a 10,000th of 1% chance! That's about 4 times less likely than getting hit by lightning. Wow, you did it again! That's like lottery odds!" As long as you keep it light and non-accusatory, his rolls will probably start to level out a bit. He might still be cheating, but it will start resembling what would be expected by chance.
I agree with KaeYoss, don't go changing the rules around. It makes it less fun for everyone. It's like playing poker, but instead of looking at the cards yourself, the dealer tells you whether you win or not.
If you can't do that, the distant second choice for me would be to keep track of how well he is doing, and point out how unlikely it is in an abstract kind of way... etc.
On second thought, this is a terrible idea. Stick with the plain view dice rolling. It's the best idea IMO.
He is a good friend regardless of his compulsive lying. We all recognize it and just gloss over the details when he does it. He has a personality disorder but is all in all a decent guy, so please be mindful of that. This is also part of why it is difficult to talk to him about it because I highly doubt he can stop himself, it is habitual and pathological.
A dice box is only going to shift the behavior to some other venue, such as cheating on his character design or spell selection.
If he's not in therapy or taking meds or working on it, he's not your friend, dude. He's just using you to get his fix of whatever needs his disorder requires at your expense.
May I suggest this die? It's big, each side is nearly the size of a dime. But more importantly, it lights up when you roll a 20. It's so awesome. Thinkgeek also has a giant inflatable d20 if you just want to make him look like an ass.
I'm just gonna buy one. Screw getting cool stuff for cheaters. That's all mine. I should be rewarded for my honesty.
Here is the situation.
{stuff}
I don't want to have to babysit him or have someone else have to WATCH him roll...
If he is a compulsive liar that is exactly what you have to do, because that is the definition of 'compulsive' - he cannot stop.
I have to say, if I was one of the other players at the table this would really annoy me. I'm going to the effort of playing fair, abiding by the dice, doing it by the book, and this other player is cakewalking everything making a mockery of my PCs heroic sacrifice by cheating? Sooner or later, you won't have a gaming group.
So basically, you need to talk to him (as well as to the rest of your group separately to find out how far they are willing to go). Try not to make it confrontational, but if he turns it that way YOU ARE THE DM. Being fair to the other players comes ahead of making allowances for his problems which he should be trying to deal with anyway. Nothing wrong with you and the other players helping him deal with his problems, but you and they are not there to pander to them. If he wants to have a tantrum or a 'poor me' episode, then you have to apologise to him that in spite of your friendship it's just not going to be possible for him to game with you all.
It's not nice, but I have had to do this with players before now, and it actually usually works out for the best for them as well because they aren't left with much choice but to deal with their issues when there's no-one left to argue with.
I say tolerating it is asking for it.
If he *CANNOT* Stop, then you have to. Stop playing with him that is. Clearly you are bothered by it, or you would not have posted here.
I have a couple of rules of etiquette. 1) Roll when asked, not before. No saving that twenty you rolled after thirty drops of the die... and 2) Leave success on the table. If you miss, grab your die and go (this can be an issue if you use Fumble Rules) and if you hit, leave it so we can all see and enjoy your Bad-Assedness :)
Talk to him outside of the game. You say he is a friend, so next time he is over playing Halo ask him! Be direct, but avoid blaming and accusations. Simply ask: "Are you cheating when we play D&D?" Remind him that it is a game and it is for fun. Like someone else pointed out, cheating at makebeleive is ridiculous.
I wish you the best of luck dealing with this issue; it can be prickly...
GNOME
He is a good friend regardless of his compulsive lying. We all recognize it and just gloss over the details when he does it. He has a personality disorder but is all in all a decent guy, so please be mindful of that.
Well, that does change things a bit.
Does he get help for this? I'm not in his shoes, but I can imagine that this gets him into trouble occasionally, and not everyone is his friend and knows (or cares) about his condition.
I say tolerating it is asking for it.
Too true. We have a serial cheater in the extended group who is a master manipulator. He twists every situation to his advantage, holds grudges for years, collects one sided accounts of incidents, propagandizes, slanders, spreads rumors, foists boycotts, lies, ...oh, yes, cheats. Looking back over 4+ decades of gaming (D-Day, 1968), every time I have run into a cheat, he has also proven to be the source of all manner of other ills. These have all too often proven to be the undoing of casual gaming and social gatherings of my experience. Several were pointedly disinvited from private groups, only to do their best to disrupt those groups. When this happened in the university 'open to all' game club, we had to have a permanant 'watchdog' cadre that policed such players, kept the new, impressionable recruits 'safe' and introduce them to healthy games.
When I was 21 and could play a 36 hour game, I could also cope with a lot of hassle from dweebs like this. I now get a 3-6 hour session maybe once a week and count myself too fortunate to have to deal with spoil sports who get off on ruining X for others. I also game at my house and certain folks just do not get invited.
He is a good friend regardless of his compulsive lying. We all recognize it and just gloss over the details when he does it. He has a personality disorder but is all in all a decent guy, so please be mindful of that. This is also part of why it is difficult to talk to him about it because I highly doubt he can stop himself, it is habitual and pathological.
This is problematic. Actually, the best would be advice from some with higher education in psychology, especially focusing on such topics. I think that compulsive lying might be connected to various disorders and the best course of action would be dictated by exact disorder he is suffering.
The safest way is giving him less opportunities to cheat in the subtle way - e.g. playing on smaller table (or on table at all if not doing it already), kept clean of obstructions with better view of dice.
If you play at your place you could change gaming place under excuse of doing some rearrangement of furnture for example, or you might be playing in different place for a change.
Confrontation about it won't help if he has actuall disorder and would advise against it without consulting specialist first.
A dice box is only going to shift the behavior to some other venue, such as cheating on his character design or spell selection.
+1.
Fixing the dice rolling is a (hopefully) easy way to cut out an obvious facet of the cheating. But, short of keeping a duplicate copy of his character sheet and maintaining it in parallel, you will still get the problem mentioned by other posters - potions not being marked off after being drunk, etc.
I had a player a few years ago in 3.0 who played an uber-archer. At high levels he was getting 4 or 5 attacks a round and doing all sorts of bonus damage (ie a mass of d20s, d6s and d8s per round). Strangely the green d20 that rolled low last round but was just enough to hit as a first attack, suddenly became the last attack when he rolled high.
I pointed this out a few times "wasn't the dice order blue, red, white last time?" and he'd pull his head in for a while but then go back to his old tricks. Even the other players were pointing it out to him! Eventually I started just ignoring half his damage each round without making it obvious to him that was what I was doing. The other players were annoyed too and started pointing out other things to him - such as adding certain bonuses to all attacks instead of just the first (can't remember exact feats etc). We knew he was fudging all sorts of other things about his character.
This player never role-played, never contributed outside combat, but he was part of a "buy one, get one free" with his best friend who also played in our group. Eventually the other guy became such a pain too that we all left the two of them and formed a separate group.
At times the benefits of having a cheater (or any other type of disruptive player), in the group are outweighed by the negatives. A happy three person group beats a disfunctional five person group.
Opera glasses?
I sympathise with the GM that this is an otherwise OK guy with an 'issue', so can only suggest the GM avoid some of the hardline responses and just quietly sort the guy out.
By making a big song and dance it will cause the guy to feel he has lost a lot of face and now cant build a bridge and move on - so just tread lightly, get the rolls in the open and be calm and gentle in your approach and things will work out well.
Everyone wins.
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If you really want to stop 'this' - go sit next to them.
Watch them like a hawk.
Typically, cheats only cheat if they think they can get away with it.
Optional: Shout 'HA!' every time they fail a save/check. If they're prone to tantrums then soon enough they'll leave the area in an entertaining manner..
True, or park them next to you, and dont cop any excuses. :)
BIG DICE, I call them JonDice...guess the name of the cheater...
Barring that, put hero points in the game, if other players call him out for cheating, they're heroes, extra hero point...
For saves, institute a 4e style attack roll versus their saves...lame but effective.
BIG DICE, I call them JonDice...guess the name of the cheater...
lol I still refer to writing in extras as "the Levon Pencil" geuss the name of that cheater :p
GNOME
BIG DICE, I call them JonDice...guess the name of the cheater...
Barring that, put hero points in the game, if other players call him out for cheating, they're heroes, extra hero point...
For saves, institute a 4e style attack roll versus their saves...lame but effective.
Hero points also give cheaters an out. They don't want to fail the important save? Spend a point instead of cheating. It also gives the honest players the same abilities that cheaters always have, but in a controlled, official manner. Helps level the field.
We have a cheater in my group. Different DMs deal with him in different ways. Higher DCs is one way. Another thing is "wandering damage" If there are a few extra goblins in the back with javelins, who are they going to toss them at? Well, the big lug there has been one-shotting their fellows with "lucky" crits for the last 2 rounds, he needs to die before he gets around to them... So instead of "everyone gets a shot at them" cheater is eating 4 pointy sticks. This has worked to keep our cheater in check. He still makes all the important checks (and any that would make him look bad) but keeps the showboating in check. Giving the monsters cheater resistance also helps. Bonus on saves, shave a few points off damage taken, etc.
I say tolerating it is asking for it.Too true. We have a serial cheater in the extended group who is a master manipulator. He twists every situation to his advantage, holds grudges for years, collects one sided accounts of incidents, propagandizes, slanders, spreads rumors, foists boycotts, lies, ...oh, yes, cheats. Looking back over 4+ decades of gaming (D-Day, 1968), every time I have run into a cheat, he has also proven to be the source of all manner of other ills. These have all too often proven to be the undoing of casual gaming and social gatherings of my experience. Several were pointedly disinvited from private groups, only to do their best to disrupt those groups. When this happened in the university 'open to all' game club, we had to have a permanant 'watchdog' cadre that policed such players, kept the new, impressionable recruits 'safe' and introduce them to healthy games.
When I was 21 and could play a 36 hour game, I could also cope with a lot of hassle from dweebs like this. I now get a 3-6 hour session maybe once a week and count myself too fortunate to have to deal with spoil sports who get off on ruining X for others. I also game at my house and certain folks just do not get invited.
Sounds like you have an X to grind with someone.
I think that you should really make sure that he's cheating before you accuse him of anything. There are a lot of d20 rolls in the game. If all of them, attacks, skills, saving throws, ability checks, initiative, etc. are all higher than average then he is probably cheating. He could still be cheating if he makes every save but if he is also rolling low often, then it could be just a mistake on your part. Of course you know your players better than I do.
I was thinking of this because one of my players seems to always roll in the 20's for his initiative. He does have a +10 so that already makes it seem like he's rolling high. His next d20 rolls are lower, or at least look like it.
I would just write down every d20 result (don't tell your players you are doing this), without bonuses, for every player. Do this for each session. At the end of the session, check the average roll for each player. You can do this for each session and you can even extend this out for each adventure, each adventure arc, and the whole campaign. It's possible that his results are actually closer to average.
Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response. Let me clear up a few points here.
He is a good friend regardless of his compulsive lying. We all recognize it and just gloss over the details when he does it. He has a personality disorder but is all in all a decent guy, so please be mindful of that. This is also part of why it is difficult to talk to him about it because I highly doubt he can stop himself, it is habitual and pathological.
He has been caught in the past by a previous DM and when I took the torch I was warned of it, but until recently it hasn't been overtly apparent. The idea about having a "Save Box" that everyone rolls into is something that I kinda really like, and also helps solve the problem with some players getting up and pacing around when it's not their turn.
Thank you again for all the suggestions, and feel free to keep chipping in with more.
If it really is compulsive and he really has a personality disorder, confronting him won't help. I think you should toss the dice in a common rolling area, for all players and not just him. If you have to sell it, sell it as a way to sell party cohesion. You want everyone interested in everyone else's rolls. And if it's a compulsion, he may actually find it a relief to have an external mechanism keeping him honest rather than psychological effort.
If you're worried about the cheating going to the character sheet, have the players hand them in periodically so you can make up to date copies for your own reference when building adventures for them.
And if you're at one end of the table and he's at the other, move to the center of the table. I did that not long ago and it generally improved my connection with all of the players and my ability to manipulate elements on the table (minis, maps). It was such a simple thing to do, I'm amazed it took so long to realize the benefits.
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The seating arrangement thing is something you can circumvent by co-opting him into your assistant of sorts... in my group we have one of those Paizo combat tracker boards (shows party/opponent inits, current round of combat etc) that one of the players keeps track of to lighten the load for the GM. Said player has to sit next to the GM to keep things moving along, of course. We rotate this duty, but you could pretty easily designate this player as your init guy (and just have him scratch that info out on a bit of scrap paper, needn't buy the board - though it is a pretty cool product). Then he's right at your elbow, and if he's touching dice after the fact just be like 'Sorry friend, I didn't see that one before you grabbed it, could you roll that one again?' in as non-confrontational a manner as possible.
I currently do not have any "cheaters" that I know of in my game but have had some in the past.
At my current location I generally do not have enough space on the table for players to roll their dice. So I got one of those felt dice trays that I require my players roll in. My players love it as we pass the tray around and it becomes their turn. I also have a set of over-sized dice that I have sometimes required be the only dice used. This usually happens when I'm a little behind on my sleep and it makes it easier for me to keep track of things.
In larger groups I've thought about a house rule that table speak be kept to a minimum except for the person who has the tray. So far though I've not had a group large enough that this is needed.
Have the player who sits next to him keep an eye on his dice rolls and work out a signal. Catch him red-handed, in the act, and instead of getting angry embarass him.
"Wow Joe, this game is really important enough to you that you have to cheat."
If he does it again continue to make fun of him.
"Joe, roll initiative." *Rolls a fake nat 20
"Oh, bummer, we were rolling low this time."
The most important thing is that you get the other players on your side first. Play to the mob.
I've seen someone who would let the last number that was up be the number of the roll, as it rolled off the table.
Any idea how annoying that is?
I've seen someone who would let the last number that was up be the number of the roll, as it rolled off the table.
Any idea how annoying that is?
I'm sorry, but you can't just make up random numbers unless you have nothing riding on the outcome. Still, they have quite the imagination.
:)
I'd tell him to "grow up".
If it's really that obvious I'd call him on it. Make him start rolling in front of you and prove that his rolls are as good as he says. If he throws a tantrum I'd tell him to "grow up" again. Alternatively, you could tell him to "man up".
If he persists that he's either not cheating or simply pissed that you noticed, tell him that you're "not impressed" and ask him again if he'll play by your rules and roll in front of you. Make everyone do it so that it doesn't look like you're forever scorning him.
If he doesn't like it at this point, "boot him".
The conversation as it would go by me:
Cheat, "Hey I got another crit!"
Me, "Bulls***, I saw that s***. Grow up, b'y. We're tryin' to play a game, I want you to start rollin' in front of us all."
Cheat, "No way, man, totally not cheating!" *gets all angry*
Me, "Dude, you better man the f*** up. We got a good thing goin' and we don't need it messed up."
Cheat, "Screw you! I haven't cheated this whole time!" *Still angry*
Me, "Not impressed, dude. From now on everyone rolls in the middle where I can see it, if you don't like it, get the f***."
Cheat, "Fine whatever, I don't give a s*** anymore." or "Fine, f*** you guys I'm out of here."
Me, "Go on then, stop wastin' our time with this child s***."
1 month later you're all wasted at a bar and you offer up some good ol' DnD fun and as long as he doesn't hold a grudge you guys are good again.
Good times...
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for the loss of friends. This approach relies heavily on you having a similar group dynamic as I do.
Thanks to everyone for the overwhelming response. Let me clear up a few points here.
He is a good friend regardless of his compulsive lying. We all recognize it and just gloss over the details when he does it. He has a personality disorder but is all in all a decent guy, so please be mindful of that. This is also part of why it is difficult to talk to him about it because I highly doubt he can stop himself, it is habitual and pathological.
He has been caught in the past by a previous DM and when I took the torch I was warned of it, but until recently it hasn't been overtly apparent. The idea about having a "Save Box" that everyone rolls into is something that I kinda really like, and also helps solve the problem with some players getting up and pacing around when it's not their turn.
Thank you again for all the suggestions, and feel free to keep chipping in with more.
If he is a good friend you should encurage him to get professionel help, and im not kidding! My sisters boyfriend had the very same problem, and she got him some help, after comfronting him with his lying problem. He was very relived and it actually help him in other parts of his life.
Short answer...
You can't.
Not without confronting them. I had a guy who cheated constantly, and I got tired of it, so did the other players. I finally quit inviting him to any games for over 2 years. When I finally agreed to let him play again (nobody else would let him play either), I told him up front that the rule was he had to sit next to someone, and they had to see his rolls to confirm them.
Sounds like you have an X to grind with someone.
Three, in fact. Each has crashed other people's games, ruined sessions, etc. None are worth a spit, but act as 'psychic vampires', to use a friend's term.
One is particularly loathesome, actually formenting discord between married couples, slighting an insecure gay in the group and playing on the weaknesses of others. His blatant cheating is one of the lesser points, but one that seems ingrained in all three.
Edit: Lokie wrote: "So I got one of those felt dice trays that I require my players roll in. My players love it as we pass the tray around and it becomes their turn."
The dice tray is also a great way to control the pace of the game and draw 'quiet' players out of their shells.
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Be VERY careful with confrontations. If you don't have CONCRETE evidence, I can almost guarantee it will end poorly... and by concrete, I do not mean "lots of people witnessed it." That's not good enough. In this day and age, you may have to had recorded evidence... because the offender is likely to NEVER admit guilt and have a choice set of names for all of the people "falsely accusing" him. I speak from experience... I've had to deal with a share of cheaters in my games over the years. Three, to be exact. I suppose that's not bad for 32+ years of gaming.
In one case, I was direct with the player in question. In another, I was subtle but left no doubts about what I was seeing. Both times, the players who were cheating (in various ways) NEVER came out and admitted anything or agreed to any sort of resolution (like, "You sit next to Fred and he has to verify your rolls.").
In the case where I was direct and privately confronted the cheater, he carried on about how insulted he was, that I was questioning his honor, etc. I stuck to my guns, however, and because it was obvious he was never going to admit to anything, I asked him not to play. It caused us to drift apart. There had to be other reasons for us not to remain friends but, still, I look at that confrontation as a catalyst for our losing touch and, eventually, not being friends at all.
Years later, when I was faced with another player cheating, I tried to be subtle and indirect. Once again, it didn't work out well. Again, he wouldn't admit anything and even admitting he got my hints would have been an admission of guilt... so we never addressed it and I guess a growing resentment settled in between us. Once again, I look back on it with some regret because it served as a catalyst for our drifting apart and losing touch.
The third case? I had hard evidence. He was using loaded dice (d6's in a Shadowrun game). There was no denying it. That was the only one that ended well. I called him out on it. He confessed... he had no choice... the dice were BADLY and so obviously loaded. We laughed - even if my laughter was tinged with anger. I confiscated the dice and promised that if he ever brought loaded dice to my game again, he would have to pay a proctologist to extract them.
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Three, in fact. Each has crashed other people's games, ruined sessions, etc. None are worth a spit, but act as 'psychic vampires', to use a friend's term.
As you describe them, cheating was the least of these players' affronts. None of them sound salvageable. If they were the most honest players in the group, they still deserved a boot to the head... and a stick for ye olde Fishy.
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Back on page 1 of this thread I mentioned a technique I used prior to going electronic (ask the players to roll in advance of the game and jot those rolls down to be used later).
When I went the laptop approach, I hooked an external monitor to it and used MapTool (disclaimer: I'm now a contributor on the MapTool project). I ran it twice, once as a server (and the GM) which stayed on the laptop monitor and again as a client (and player) which I dragged to the external monitor. Now the players could see the battlemat directly and I used a set of macros I created to roll monster attacks and saving throws. (The player view didn't show the actual numbers rolled by monsters, just the results.)
Later we graduated to each player having a laptop and we networked them together. This was much nicer as each player had their own "virtual battlemat" and they could pan and zoom as they wanted. I provided macros for the players to use to roll attacks, saves, and so forth. The macros generated output that the players couldn't fake so I could trust the results of the rolls.
As we transitioned to the electronic era we lost a player. Given the focus of this thread you can probably guess what the punch line here is going to be...
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If your friend/player is compulsive you can't change him. The best you can do is force him to roll his dice out in the open. As others have said, his focus will simply change to fudging the numbers on his charsheet. Do you really want to be in the position of verifying his char build?
You either need to ignore his cheating (i.e. let him get away with it) or uninvite him from the group. The former will alienate the other players and the latter with alienate him. Your choice.
The first time I encountered cheating in any serious manner was 20-some years ago when I was in grad school and running for a group of college students. This guy had a paladin (oh, the irony) character that never, ever missed a save or an attack roll. I started keeping track, and he would have entire nights when he rolled nothing less than a natural 15. I did not handle it well. Instead of doing any of the mature and logical things others have mentioned in this thread, I ignored it for a while as frustration gradually built up in me until one night, I just exploded all over him and ripped him a new one in front of the rest of the stunned group. Surprisingly, he didn't deny it, yell back, or leave the group. He basically just took it, got this hangdog "busted" look on his face, and agreed that all his rolls would have to be witnessed from then on. I got lucky and my poor DMing didn't end in disaster as it well might have. (Although looking back on it with the experience I have in life now, if someone regularly uses the righteous indignation card to escalate things into a conflict and deflect attention from their own misdeeds, they can sometimes be disconcerted and at a loss if someone else escalates first - use with extreme caution, though.)
Since then I've focused on prevention, rather than cure, by establishing set rules for everyone that make it more difficult to cheat and thus take away some of the temptation. For example:
-- Character creation rolls have to be done in public - no showing up with a chatracter with all 18s and maximum wealth
-- No rolling until I call on you to roll
-- All rolls have to be in the center of the table and left to sit so everyone can see
-- If you touch the die before the roll is confirmed, roll again
-- I periodically audit the character sheets of everyone involved to make sure their modifiers are correct
-- More that I can't think of now
It's much easier to set these rules when you are beginning a game and make them apply to everyone than to try and correct mid-stream or single someone out for special treatment.
This is definitely an instance in which an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Anyway, good luck with your cheating friend, and if he is a valuable friend, don't ever let him play in a cash poker game or he's likely to end up dead or in a hospital.
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As soon as I have a chance I will go back and read all the way through this thread. Here are my initial thoughts.
You might eventually have to talk to him about it. Before you do I would require each player to report both what they rolled on the die and what their total was after modifiers. Write the numbers down that he reports during a session or over the course of a few sessions. After a while you will be able to demonstrate that he is benifiting from something other than a random 1-20 distribution.
You can be like, "Hey, look at this, these numbers don't make sense to me. How are you rolling this well?"
Shane
Buddy system.
I suggested in a grp that we make up our minds what we're doing and roll ahead and have the results ready when our turns came around, just roll in front of the guy next to you.
This eliminated one cheater from the group, as karma caught up to him and he couldn't roll above a 7 it seemed for several game sessions.
When he said he wasn't having fun anymore and wanted to leave, we said "Sorry man", and let him go.