| Mage Evolving |
Personally, I don't see the point in cheating. I'm not trying to "beat the game" or win. I'm just playing through the life of a character and if he happens to fall in a battle swarmed by kobolds so be it. But, I know cheating happens. I've seen people fudge rolls or try to bank a roll. I've seen people snatch up dice as soon as they hit the table and proclaim "18" but tonight I saw something utterly improbable.
In a game lasting no more than 4.5 hours I saw a single player (newish to our group) roll a 20 on 10-11 different occasions. At first I thought it luck but the more I thought about it the more suspicious I became. Even our GM said something along the lines of "why don't you just roll another 20 finish this thing."
I want to say something to the player or at the very least bring my concerns to the gm but I have no real proof other than statistics. I thought perhaps he was using one of those d20 without a 1 but I saw the 1 on the dice so either it's weighted or he was just really lucky.
Do I wait to see if this becomes the norm?
My friend was saying I should ask to use his dice when I roll. To see if it feels weighted or how he reacts to the request.
Should I even care?
Has anyone dealt with this?
| Aleister Bastian |
Lucky streaks happen man. Personally i've got a DM i play with that will consitently roll nothing but 1's, 2's, 19's and 20's, and i know these are legit rolls since he doesn't use a screen to hide what he rolls. Only by giving him what are known as "The Cursed Dice", ie noone can roll above a 6 on them, can we get him to roll normally.
Thod
|
Odd dice rolling does happen. I just GMed several slots at a CON. In the very first encounter against one of the toughest characters I rolled 2 claw attacks. Double NAT 20. Roll to confirm - a NAT 20 and a 19.
You could hear the players around the table breath in and going pale.
Another memorable string of good dice rolling was an attempt to trap my large Ape in a pit trap followed by some grease. I announced that you just can't trap an ape like that. He's immune to it. I followed it up with a string of five rolls, the worst being a 17. It was banter and I just got extremely lucky I could pull it off.
But in he end stats will prevail. These are the two memorable strings of strange dice rolls I remember - and in 10 slots I rolled a lot. If this happens too often and is due to cheating then it's bad.
I also had strings of rolls where I couldn't hit at all.
Weird dice rolling can cause some of the most memorable situations. At the same time - if it's done due to loaded dice / rolling techniques / other cheats than it sours everyones experience.
Thod
| Ice_Deep |
My best friend at the gaming table is a classic "dice fudger"
1. Does the person roll more than they "need to", and generally announce they are doing something after they rolled?
2. Do they pick up there dice quickly when it's in a place where everyone can roll?
3. Do they roll the dice, or does it slide, or just fall out of there hand?
Those to me are classic things people do with real dice, if it's a weighted dice the only thing I can say is use there dice, and the GM use there dice to prevent it from effecting anything.
Also if you tell people they have to announce before they roll, allow everyone to see the roll (and it had to be a real roll) it fixed 1, 2, and 3 for the most part without singling one person out.
Also strings can happen, once night I seemed to roll nothing but 1's, 2's, 3's for a NPC, and every other roll for the Monsters from the same dice was a 18/19/20.
Good luck, hope it works out!
| Emanonpf |
Yeah, I suppose I could cheat since I sit and my desk by my comp while the rest of the group sits at the table (small room). They can see what I roll if I stand up but meh they trust me. And besides how then would I have rolled about ten 1s over the course of our first night, almost drowning in at the hight of it. Though I do have to admit that it was a tad tempting when I rolled a 2 on an important roll (my last roll before passing out and almost drowning), I slammed my fist down a little and it rolled to a 20 >.>. But hey my party saved me with one round to spare and I didn't die!
| DungeonmasterCal |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
In a game lasting no more than 4.5 hours I saw a single player (newish to our group) roll a 20 on 10-11 different occasions.
He didn't bring his own special rolling surface (a small metal tray with inch high sides), sit hunched over it while rolling and then shout "Critical success!!!!" after every roll, no matter what the roll was for, did he?
Because that guy played in one of my games once. ONCE.
| Phneri |
I had an earthdawn character that regularly rolled 20-40 on skill checks.
The best step check he had was 2d12, and most were closer to 2d8.
Open-ended dice and I rolled ridiculously well often. Across d6s, d8s, and d12s. Weird statistics can happen.
We also had the player in my games who could not roll dice. Ever. In one game I killed his druid an animal companion in one round with a bodak.
At character level 12. With a druid with 18+ con.
Dude could not roll dice...
| Kolokotroni |
I've had strings of good and bad rolls, but I have also seen non-modified (weighted) dice roll improperly. My friend has a die I saw him purchase and bring to the table, and the die, either because of rounded corners or imperfections that rolls rediculously high. He is actually forbidden from using it because it has a habit of killing PCs. Sometimes its manufacturing and not cheating. But ofcourse sometimes people are cheating as well.
Eric Clingenpeel
|
A few months ago I had borrowed a set of my wife's dice. As the GM I rolled at least 6-7 20s in one fight alone. Did the same thing the next session and again rolled great. The last few PFS sessions I used them in they've rolled like CRAP! So, just wait... probability means a 1 in 20 chance of rolling a 20, but also a 1 in 20 chance of rolling a 1, so you might just see him getting his later.
| J.S. |
Wait to see if it's luck. It seems like the DM is cued in on it, so that should resolve the problem one way or the other.
There's one of us from the group whom I first started RPGs with who, to this day when we happen to get together, will still always cheat. It's turned to a point of mutual shrug for the rest of us.
| Mr. Damage |
The die will noticably wobble when rolled, such as roll forward as normal and then roll backwards to the 20. I drilled out the 1 on a D20 all the way to the 20 and then packed a .22 caliber bullet a third of the way in on the 1 side. It rolls 20s consitantly on a soft surface such as a paper towel or napkin on a table top. otherwise, it's unreliable but still hits to 20 often.
It is also very obvious because in the place where the 1 shoud be is a large silver circle where I filed the bullet flush with the die face. I use it when I run a game for players to accomplish something spectacular. Like when there is an iminent party wipe I will allow someone to roll the "special" die to see if their action can save the group, doesn't always work but it sure is fun.
| Bruce Snow |
I roll openly, so my players can see everything I get. This is good and bad. It means that 'fudging' a success is nearly impossible. Unless I distract them with candy while rolling. 8)
That said, I played an entire combat heavy session a few weeks ago and rolled nothing under a 15. I used 5 different d20s, rolling multiple dice for multiple attacks. And nearly every roll was 17+.
A couple weeks before that, though, I had a night where I didn't have a single roll in the double digits.
Strings happen. I'd keep an eye out for it in the future, if it happens every week, then it is time to question things.
One of my players had a lucky die. Rolled 20s all the time. I bought two more dice just like it, threw them in a bag, and gave 1 back to him. The 'lucky' die has ceased to be so lucky.
Of course, I have the other two and neither of them rolls particularly well for me. So, maybe he was just lucky. There's no other evidence that he cheats or would even want to do so. Quite the opposite, in fact. He's one of my go to players if there's a rule clarification that I need help with.
But I am glad that I no longer have to deal with 20, 20, 20 insta kill on a regular basis from that supid d20.
| Ice_Deep |
I gotta agree with Bruce Snow on about everything he said, dice are odd at times.
One thing I wanted to mention is that Gary Gygax used other dice before for the father of D&D, and he hated that there was a bell curve for D6's.
He ended up using a hat with poker chips and numbers in it for players to pick from to give them a truly random chance of having any number.
Then he found the D20 and his game changed and he started using that, just a bit later D&D was born.
I just find it interesting that it's been a part of the game so long, and yet we still have these issues.
| Fnipernackle |
Personally, I don't see the point in cheating. I'm not trying to "beat the game" or win. I'm just playing through the life of a character and if he happens to fall in a battle swarmed by kobolds so be it. But, I know cheating happens. I've seen people fudge rolls or try to bank a roll. I've seen people snatch up dice as soon as they hit the table and proclaim "18" but tonight I saw something utterly improbable.
In a game lasting no more than 4.5 hours I saw a single player (newish to our group) roll a 20 on 10-11 different occasions. At first I thought it luck but the more I thought about it the more suspicious I became. Even our GM said something along the lines of "why don't you just roll another 20 finish this thing."
I want to say something to the player or at the very least bring my concerns to the gm but I have no real proof other than statistics. I thought perhaps he was using one of those d20 without a 1 but I saw the 1 on the dice so either it's weighted or he was just really lucky.
Do I wait to see if this becomes the norm?
My friend was saying I should ask to use his dice when I roll. To see if it feels weighted or how he reacts to the request.
Should I even care?Has anyone dealt with this?
I agree with you 100% on playing through the characeters life. thats how i view role playing. im playing a character and not only seeing what he does in his life but seeing how the story changes with him in it.
Now onto your subject. I have seen this countless times. we actually have a player that does this all the time. every game he plays in he always hides his dice and always fudges his roles. its like he never misses. luckily for us, we dont have to bring it up too often because he isnt very consistent in showing up.
as a gm, i have fudged dice before depending on the situation, although i try not too. now for such things as mirror image and concealment miss chances and stuff like that, i roll openly and let the players see the result. if i get a crit, i have a player sitting next to me look behind my screen to see that it is a confirmed crit.
i dont like cheating nor do i like cheaters. theres now reason for it. its not a competition between players, its a team building game with a story. i view fudging rolls a little differently to make the fights more of a challenge of more interesting depending on if its a boss fight or was supposed to be much harder than it was, but now ive learned to make encounters harder so i dont have to fudge much anymore. hopefully i wont have to do it at all.
| Ice Titan |
I hate cheating but the topic of unbalanced dice made me want to share how I roll.
I noticed that my favorite two dice are weighted off of 20 and onto 8. Like, one session I rolled a straight set of 8s for a Use Magic Device check to use a wand (something like six 8s in a row) when my bonus was +11 and 9 or above succeeded.
After that, I asked my DM if I could permanently make this character get 20s on 8s and get 8s on 20s. We agreed.
The amusing thing is that I have only once rolled an 8 without a matching 20. The player who sits next to me sees my full attack and is always ' NATURAL TWENTY!' and then I say, 'Not really. This 20 is an 8, but this 8 is the 20, so yeah you're right wow okay.'
I've briefly considered even going backwards dice just to be goofy, but decided it would take too much cross referencing (I rolled a 4! Uh, 16? Or is it 17? Let me check my notes).
| erik542 |
Now there is a way that he could be getting "luckily" in a manner that is of very arguable legitimacy (saying it's illegitimate is equally arguable). Check his dice. There are two qualities to a properly distributed dice. Opposite sides should add up to 21. The 1 should be opposite the 20, 10 and 11 etc. Second no region of the die should be weighted in one direction. I don't mean physical weight, but rather like a clump with 13, 15, 16, 10, 19 all close to each other. This is why people don't like spin down dice. A quick check that usually shows that it is a fair die is that the 2 and 20 should be adjacent to each other with the 1 and 19 on the other side. This matters because while they may appear to be rolling completely legitimately, a few hours of practice one day can cause someone to be rolling an average of 15 instead of 10.5 (note: Vegas doesn't go after people who learn how to do this to craps interestingly).
On a side note, my DM also had a psychic d20 (interpreting high numbers as yes, low numbers as no and middle numbers as maybe). It was surprising that it gave consistent results even when asked "are you psychic?"
| Foghammer |
I have played with a guy who, in one session rolled 8 natural 20s on a single attack (we were using house rules for massive criticals, which were amended after the topic session). He was running a DM PC, but rolled openly for her.
In the same campaign, my dragon shaman had been rolling terribly, more frequently hitting single digits in combat than anything and critting skill checks whose impact on the game was minimal. I made an attack roll during a climactic point in the adventure, and the die went off the table. Standing rule was that it had to be rerolled. The DM picked it up and tossed it on the table. A freakin' 20. He let me take it since my rolls were garbage most of the time.
How do you guys feel about digital dice rolling at the table (for instance, on a Droid)? We have allowed it when we didn't have many dice, but that isn't a problem now. Also, I will be checking out these Game Science dice.
| karlbadmanners |
This is not entirely on +opic but meh-
I am currently running a game with two brand-new players. One of the new players rolled a d12 instead of a d20 on a heal check to get the party meat-sh1eld up an runnin again. She rolled an 11 and was reminded by a fe11ow party m3mb3r that she was supp0sed to roll a d20 and could get much higher, she picked up a d20 and promptly rolled a 5!
I bought a set of Game Science dice they are on their way to me now. Seeing the pictures of how badly misshapen most dice are was eye-opening.
Casinos use strict specifications for their dice, while I don't think dnd dice need to be casino quality I do think it's only reasonable to expect that the tools we have all been using for DECADES ought to reliably emulate random number generation.
| Ice_Deep |
This is not entirely on +opic but meh-
I am currently running a game with two brand-new players. One of the new players rolled a d12 instead of a d20 on a heal check to get the party meat-sh1eld up an runnin again. She rolled an 11 and was reminded by a fe11ow party m3mb3r that she was supp0sed to roll a d20 and could get much higher, she picked up a d20 and promptly rolled a 5!I bought a set of Game Science dice they are on their way to me now. Seeing the pictures of how badly misshapen most dice are was eye-opening.
Casinos use strict specifications for their dice, while I don't think dnd dice need to be casino quality I do think it's only reasonable to expect that the tools we have all been using for DECADES ought to reliably emulate random number generation.
Sorta like how we have been communicating in the form of written word, and we still can't get it right? You know, people using "leet speak" or "txt speak" in forums and such..
W E Ray
|
I have a d20 that for years rolled 20s, 18s, 12s and 9s almost exclusively. I'd say nearly 50% of the time. I swear sessions would go by where I had to roll the thing in front of my Players just to show them I wasn't fudging for the monsters. There were a number of times whern I rolled a 20 and told my Players I missed just cuz I felt bad. I never rolled more than three 20s in a row but I can tell you I rolled nothing but 20, 18, 12 and 9 for several rolls on many occassions. ... In the last couple years, though, that d20 has started to roll more equally. I think maybe in the years of rolling it the manufactured edges that use to make it unbalanced have finallly worn even.
I've got another d20 that rolls a 3 probably 20% of the time. Back in the 80s and 90s I would switch d20s, when I needed to roll low I used the one that often came up "3" and for the others I'd roll the "good" one. I swear I have not rolled my "rolls a 3" d20 once since the d20 system came out. I have, hehe, loaned it to others for a session or two.
| Lazurin Arborlon |
Also be aware, Magic the gathering and similar games use " spindown " dice to track health etc. These dice have all of the high numbers on one side, making them easy to roll high with at all times with a little dexterity. I know for a fact I good friend has had a player in his game pull this off for a few sessions before it was caught.
Conversly odd things happen that arent really cheating. We have a player that always roles bad results...it is a meme with us a this point. He doesnt really give things a proper shake, more like just grasping the dice and dropping them, but that is all we can identify to explain this phenominon. He has used others dice etc, but the results get no better...one of lifes mysteries.
| Ksorkrax |
Make a quick guess about the total amount of rolls he did and computing the probability of his 20s should be easy.
P(X>=k) = 1 - sum i = 1 to k-1 : (n over i) (1/20^i)(19/20^(n-i))
(where k is the amount of 20s and n is the total of rolls)
I´d say that a good significance niveau would be something like 0,5%. (Strange rolls do happen)
Snorter
|
Make a quick guess about the total amount of rolls he did and computing the probability of his 20s should be easy.
P(X>=k) = 1 - sum i = 1 to k-1 : (n over i) (1/20^i)(19/20^(n-i))
(where k is the amount of 20s and n is the total of rolls)I´d say that a good significance niveau would be something like 0,5%. (Strange rolls do happen)
That's a very long-winded way of saying they should happen 1 time in 20, don't you think?
| Foghammer |
After reading this thread, I decided to check out the theory on baking dice.
Apparently, baking a couple of d6s on whatever side you like at 250 degrees for ~10 minutes will make them consistently roll those numbers. This information is easily attainable through a google search.
The same cannot be said for a d20. I baked one at 250 for ~14 minutes, and there was absolutely NO change in the way the thing rolled, and there was no visible change in the shape of the die. I have no reason to believe that a d20 can be weighted by tampering now. Trick d20s, sure, but a random die that someone decides to make into their "lucky" die by tampering... I don't see it.
Could be the plastic content though. Perhaps some other level of heat or extended baking time is required, but since the information for it isn't readily available online, I don't have any reason to think that some random person would sacrifice any number of dice to perfect this technique when he could just buy a weighted d20 "novelty" die.
| Sigfried Trent |
Honestly, I expect a bit of cheating during a game as a GM and I honestly don't mind it so long as its not done in such a way that a character never fails at anything meaningful.
I don't mind players taking a little bit of control on when they have a heroic or life saving moment or when they succumb to the dread talons of fickle fate. Its entertainment and not competition, so long as they feel challenged and some drama I don't mind if they fudge a bit of something to save their bacon or have a heroic moment.
Now if they ruin everyones fun by hogging every moment with stupid good dice rolls or erasing any sense of challenge in the quest, then they are a problem and I don't want them in my game.
As a player, I've occasionally tipped the dice in my favor on rare occasion as I just didn't feel like dying that night. On plenty of other occasions I've taken my medicine and let fate deal me a fatal blow. I've never faked a crit that I can remember though. Saving throws tend to be my temptation of choice.
I'm actually kind of a stickler for rules, but more because I find rules fun than I can't stand any bending of them. I'm solidly a neutral good kind of fellow. Rules can be bent so long as you do so for a just cause and in the name of fun for all.
---
I do sometimes scoff at cheaters who complain about cheating. I once jumped in an "old school" 1st edition game where they were "rolling characters straight!" meaning 3d6 in order on the sheet and no re-rolls. Well I rolled up my character, my stats were what you would expect, a 15 high and a 6 low, with a range of 12-8 being predominant. The DM looked at it in horror, "you cant play that, its terrible!" "Its average I said." You don't have a single 18" he said. "What?" I asked, "Who has an 18 here?" "I have 3", says one. "Strength and con here" says another and sure enough everyone had one and nary a score below 10 on any of them.
"B*$#*!%*" was my only thought but I remained quiet and rolled up 3 more "gimps" before they just gave me numbers they though were serviceable.
| Cathedron |
A guy in my 3.5 group got in the habit of rolling the dice and then making up a number. He did this for a couple months. As DM, I caught on right away because the numbers he was giving were always a little off. I would say, "Are you sure that's right?" or something to that effect and he would just lie. So, rather than call him out, I just made everything much, much harder for him (he was the rogue) as long as it didn't effect the rest of the group. He had a lot of traps explode on him, a lot of failed stealth checks, etc. We had just hit, the entire group called him out on it when he claimed his Lvl 12 Rogue just got a 35 to hit for a sneak attack which meant that he had to have rolled a 21. Oops. Math. He stopped cheating after that.
So basically, an experienced DM will usually have no trouble spotting a cheater and dealing with it. Cheaters are usually easy to spot (though they often think they are fooling everyone) and they end up embarrassing themselves. If it doesn't disrupt the game, I wouldn't worry.
| Mage Evolving |
I'm going to have to wait until this weekend to see if his lucky streak stands.
I figure if I can keep track of his rolls I should be able to come to some sort of conclusion. Whether it's a poorly constructed die or an actual cheat die I don't know but from what I could tell it looks legit (it had a 1 on it and there was no bullet)... and after a quick Google search I couldn't find any website, vendors, or youtube videos on how to either make or buy a loaded d20.
Anyway, if he comes to the table and every 5th roll is a critical (again) I'm going to tell him that I think the dice are probably weighted to favor 20. I don't want to call it a loaded die because I know that manufacturer errors can occur but I think it needs to be said. Maybe we can limit it's use to special rolls or something.
I honestly don't know how I feel about it but I do know that it's not fair and that makes hesitant to just turn a blind eye.
| Phneri |
I'm going to have to wait until this weekend to see if his lucky streak stands.
I figure if I can keep track of his rolls I should be able to come to some sort of conclusion. Whether it's a poorly constructed die or an actual cheat die I don't know but from what I could tell it looks legit (it had a 1 on it and there was no bullet)... and after a quick Google search I couldn't find any website, vendors, or youtube videos on how to either make or buy a loaded d20.
I'm confused as to why you feel the need to make this your concern. You're not running the game, or becoming arbiter over the laws of probability. You've also seen a variety of anecdotal evidence that supports the fact that weird things happen with series of dice rolls. A sample of four dozen rolls over a session is not necessarily any sort of evidence. It is, in fact, another anecdote.
If I were the player I'd be annoyed at the implication that I'm cheating my rolls, whether I'm doing it or not. I'd probably pack and go if I knew other players were tracking my rolls and trying to build a case to call me a liar.
| Phneri |
I'm confused as to why you feel the need to make this your concern. You're not running the game, or becoming arbiter over the laws of probability. You've also seen a variety of anecdotal evidence that supports the fact that weird things happen with series of dice rolls. A sample of four dozen rolls over a session is not necessarily any sort of evidence. It is, in fact, another anecdote.
If I were the player I'd be annoyed at the implication that I'm cheating my rolls, whether I'm doing it or not. I'd probably pack and go if I knew other players were tracking my rolls and trying to build a case to call me a liar.
Squeatus
|
If I were the player I'd be annoyed at the implication that I'm cheating my rolls, whether I'm doing it or not. I'd probably pack and go if I knew other players were tracking my rolls and trying to build a case to call me a liar.
Yeah but you'd definitely do it if you were a loaded dice cheater.
| Mage Evolving |
I'm confused as to why you feel the need to make this your concern. You're not running the game, or becoming arbiter over the laws of probability. You've also seen a variety of anecdotal evidence that supports the fact that weird things happen with series of dice rolls. A sample of four dozen rolls over a session is not necessarily any sort of evidence. It is, in fact, another anecdote.
If I were the player I'd be annoyed at the implication that I'm cheating my rolls, whether I'm doing it or not. I'd probably pack and go if I knew other players were tracking my rolls and trying to build a case to call me a liar.
Fair comment. As I've said I am not sure how I would feel if he was cheating... And as I've said I don't even know if he is cheating. Thus I am going to wait and see. But I don't see how respectfully voicing my concerns is somehow insulting.
Sure, if i flipped over the table, pointed at him and screamed "Cheater!!" it could cause a problem... but saying "I think that dice might have a design flaw that has it roll more 20s than anything else" is just a statement of fact. Especially if he has just rolled 3 straight 20s...
| Foghammer |
Sure, if i flipped over the table, pointed at him and screamed "Cheater!!" it could cause a problem... but saying "I think that dice might have a design flaw that has it roll more 20s than anything else" is just a statement of fact. Especially if he has just rolled 3 straight 20s...
Three straight 20s is nothing (well... relative to the discussion here). Try 6, or 8, or 10.
In my last post, I relayed my results for baking dice to weight them on one side. Please go back up to it and read it if you missed it.
If he's using trick dice, then you'll find out more easily by asking him to loan it to you for a couple of rolls since it's "so lucky."
If it's a factory defect on a normal die, it's a major one, and I would think the die would be obviously deformed in such a manner that it would be obvious what the problem is.
My last DM could take any d20 at the able and roll high teens and 20s all night. The man is just lucky. We all swore he was cheating for the longest, and once we swapped DMs (the new DM using the same dice as the first) everything changed. The new DM, using the same dice was less consistent, and far more random, but favored lower numbers. The once-DM-now-player was using one of our sets of dice and was still rolling high.
I'm not saying you have no right to be suspicious, but be subtle in your approach to figuring it out. No sense in ruining a good time over someone being lucky with dice, because it could just be dumb luck; sure the chances are astronomical, but there's a chance!
"Wow, that leprechaun gave me eternal good fortune for my birthday! Sweet. I bet tonight's pathfinder game will rock!" [3 hours later...] "Damnit, Jimmy, that's the 53rd 20 you've rolled tonight, give me that die, cheater!" [5 minutes later...] "Jimmy, we have to ask you to leave because your good luck is killing our game." [Jimmy runs out of the house crying.] "Stupid leprechaun!"
| karlbadmanners |
karlbadmanners wrote:Sorta like how we have been communicating in the form of written word, and we still can't get it right? You know, people using "leet speak" or "txt speak" in forums and such..This is not entirely on +opic but meh-
I am currently running a game with two brand-new players. One of the new players rolled a d12 instead of a d20 on a heal check to get the party meat-sh1eld up an runnin again. She rolled an 11 and was reminded by a fe11ow party m3mb3r that she was supp0sed to roll a d20 and could get much higher, she picked up a d20 and promptly rolled a 5!I bought a set of Game Science dice they are on their way to me now. Seeing the pictures of how badly misshapen most dice are was eye-opening.
Casinos use strict specifications for their dice, while I don't think dnd dice need to be casino quality I do think it's only reasonable to expect that the tools we have all been using for DECADES ought to reliably emulate random number generation.
Yes sort of like that, except in this situation I am using leet as a form of subversive humor, it's just a little personal joke I enjoy.
| Bruunwald |
To paraphrase Vincent Vega, "the sh**t's crazy, but it happens." I've seen some pretty insane luck with the dice. Scary luck perpetrated by good, honest girls with my own dice.
I would be cautious about accusing anyone of cheating. Lately in our house, everybody's been rolling low. Like, epidemic low. Over and over. Nobody would accuse any of us of cheating by rolling ten critical misses in a row. The other day, I bought a bunch of really cool d20s for my wife to give as party favors to friends. We kept five of them to stand in as Lucky Dice. To be kept separate in case somebody is rolling low, and then brought in as emergency dice. After declaring that I could "feel" that they were good dice and on our side, I rolled them for the first time, all together, and what did they come up? Two 15s, one 16, one 19 and a 20. It happens.
We definitely have had a cheater at our games. We don't play with him anymore. The most obvious thing he would do was to roll the dice during somebody else's turn until he got a result he liked, then when his turn came, would claim to have just rolled it. It amazes me that he thought I didn't notice that. Sometimes he would lie about how much gold he had. He would lie about what spells he had prepared.
The weird thing is that cheating wasn't the only way he removed challenge for himself. He seemed to do everything he could, from over optimizing to cheating, to teleporting around everything, to just not have to deal with any kind of challenge. It makes you wonder why he was playing at all.
Because he was the boyfriend of a good friend of ours, I could not be too obvious with confronting him. But I did get the other players involved in keeping an eye on him, and keeping him engaged and occupied, and the cheating did lessen pretty much to nothing before we ended that campaign.
| fantasyphil |
I believe in luck, good and bad. A friend of mine rolls consistently high when DMing and low when playing,leading to undesired character death in both cases. He rolls openly and uses large dice that show the numbers clearly. When he suffered a particular run of bad luck which seemed to be infecting everyone at the table I bought him some new dice - which behaved exactly the same way, plus the identical set I bought nearly got my character killed after a string of the lowest rolls I've ever seen! I also play with A DM who consistently crits my characters over everyone else's through no fault of his own. I truly believe that the more you want your dice to roll a certain number the less likely you are to get it. The magic moment is when you succeed against all the odds with a lucky roll, the exception that proves the rule. Gary Gygax famously said that it is up to the players to balance the game in their favour and there are times when it is tempting, especially when it is the fate of the entire party at stake. But once you start down that road it's hard to stop and it certainly can lead to bad feeling if one charcter gets to hog the limelight thanks to consistently 'lucky' rolls. I've played diceless games but I still like the element of random chance dice give. As DM I sometimes moderate the dice to give players a break but I also use hero points to let them buy off their bad luck when it matters. As DM I usually don't worry about cheating at my table unless it is clumsy or rampant and gets in the way of everyone enjoying themselves. Calling someone a cheat is a big step and not to be taken lightly. In a game I ran questions were raised about how one player had built their character and was running it. I followed this up and it created bad feeling which escalated into that player leaving the group. Basically, it cost me a friend, but not calling it might have cost me more. You just have to decide what your level of tolerance is.
| lastblacknight |
You can buy a set of cheating dice; that is a set of dice that have extra numbers, the d20 for example doesn't have a 1 and has two 20's instead.
Now I am not saying your bloke is cheating, I don't know but there are some simple ways of fixing the issue.
Firstly; make sure you only count rolls made when asked for. Every other roll doesn't count - I myself roll out the bad luck of a dice on occasion as a PC and a GM (mind you as a GM it's nice to roll the dice occasionally to add to flavor or suspense).
Next make the players declare what the roll is for. Perception check to act in a surprise round, Initiative for the combat or a Reflex save as a pit trap opens under his feet (joking on that one kinda - 20ft is a nice wake-up call and does non-lethal).
Give some direction and stability you need to act on this one now before it becomes an issue for the other PC's (cause they will have noticed) so make some rules for the group that is fair for everyone and doesn't single the player out - the idea is to get him to change his behavior and for you to be able to relax and worry about the important parts of a game.
as a GM, it's your table, don't be afraid to mix it up and has some fun. The more secure you can make this guy the better it will be.
| gbonehead Owner - House of Books and Games LLC |
You can buy a set of cheating dice; that is a set of dice that have extra numbers, the d20 for example doesn't have a 1 and has two 20's instead.
It was a bit disheartening to me last year at Origins, when I found out that the first thing the Chessex table sold out of was cheating dice.
| Rapthorn2ndform |
it goes both ways
I have watched the paladin in our party (using elven curve blade)roll a crit threat every round in one of our sessions. but he never once confirmed the crit.
The gm final said you've got to be cheating.
i chime in "I've been watching, and if he were cheating he'd be rolling Crits, not crit threats"
some people are just that lucky
| Skaorn |
I have a d20 that has gained infamy in my gaming group. It was my very first d20, a smokey clear one that can be down right blood thirsty. It doesn't just favor 20, but 17-19. It seems to only roll 1s when my roll doesn't matter at all or when it would be hillarious. I've seen it roll (and others too) 5 natural 20's in a row. I never use it when I GM but in the last game I was running It kept showing up in the dice I was rolling even though I kept putting it in my dice box. It start rolling for NPCs and one would come up 20 and I'd realize it was my evil black d20. I never kept the roll and would put it back in my dice box and close it but it kept happening. it was trying for a TPK.
I have played with some one before who had nearly every roll come up a natural 20 before. Eventually a giant threw his character off a cliff as his "natural 20" met the DM's natural 20 rolled in front of everyone on a grapple check.
I have cheated before, but never for myself. It's always been like the example I gave above when my dice are really gunning for PC blood, so I ignore them.
Belafon
|
A lot of it comes down to psychology. If you watch a baseball game you remember the homeruns and the streak-ending strikeouts, not the grounder to second for the first out of the inning. Human beings tend to remember the unusual. In a game with a lot of rolling all those 20s stick out.
That said, the other week in PFS I was known as Mr. all-or nothing for my inability to pass a single stealth, swim, or diplomacy check but critted so much that I did over three quarters of the damage to every single enemy we faced (with the exception of the undead horde the cleric cleaned out in one round). No one remembered that I made about half my perception checks and once slipped climbing down some stairs. I personally remember that even with my +4 to initiative I was dead last among the good guys every combat but one and the guy across the table with a +6 never had a final initiative below twenty.
THAT said, when the GM said "give me a perception check" the guy sitting next to me would roll a die - that I couldn't make out the faces on when I held it - behind a handy pile of books, grumble about not using that die again, then roll another die towards the middle of the table. He did this about half the time. The rest of the time he proudly declared "16 plus 6, 22!" It annoyed me more than the GM, who quickly realized his character was so poor he would need a twenty to even hit.
THAT said, it's important for GMs to cheat often. Unless you're playing cutthroat, the GM sometimes needs to fudge things to keep from accidentally killing a player. One GM uses these itsy-bitsy dice for damage that you just can't see. He announces the damage and even when it puts someone in the negative it's somehow never so bad that they can't be stabilized. I really hope I'm never at a table where some rules lawyer calls him on it and demands to see the dice, I have a feeling TPK would be right around the corner.
Andrew Besso
|
I have a d20 that seemed to produce bad rolls consistently. I mentioned to one of the Probability & Statistics teachers (I work at a high school) that I was going to perform a Pearson's chi-squared test on the die to see if it were fair. She told me that some of her students needed ideas for their class projects, so one of them actually did the test. I must have been a tad overdramatic when I wrote up the request for the test, because the teacher told me that the student was on the verge of tears when she determined that the die was fair. Hey, good streaks and bad streaks happen.
| Shoga |
Wow, I have never understood cheaters.. they always get caught..
As for me, I figure I should cheat.. I have played D&D since 2nd edition and now playing PF. My group learned pretty quickly to give my "area" a wide berth. And additionaly, they won't let me touch their dice. EVER.
Once I forgot my dice, they made me go home and get em. One of the other players once rolled a die into my dice.. he rolled it after that and consistently got crit failures almost every time. He spent the next week exorcising that die of my taint.
I have given up on making any decent type rolls. Sometimes I do get into a "lucky" streak but that means double digits 10-16.. never more than that.
I've tried changing dice and changing my place at the table.. no changes.
I remember playing 2nd ed.. we were running an epic homebrew adventure. I was playing a human ranger, like 14th level. I had a special spike I had to hit the boss with. It was magical +3 silver. I had cast keen on it so I only needed a 16 to hit. At the time my DM let us use something like Hero points and he would give em out for xmas and bdays so I had save up a bunch knowing we would face the boss after awhile. It took us over a year to get to him.
It took me 27 rolls to get a 16... and then I barely did that. to make matters worse, when I did my first attack I did a crit fumble and fell at his feet.
Top that folks.