Dice fudging in DnD and, generally, has been a controversial topic since the dawn of time. Well, since the dawn of dice-based board games. In short, it describes when someone in the game reports a different result of a dice roll than the one faith had in store for him.
Most often, the term is referred to the GM since he is the one whose dice rolls aren’t always visible, and as I will further explain, he is the only one with a reason to fudge dice.
Is dice fudging cheating?
Here’s a situation: Dungeon Master (DM) rolls his dice behind a screen or on his laptop and lies to you and your team about the outcome of that roll.
That’s cheating 101, right? Well, there’s much more to it than meets the eye.
When you look at the overall average game of DnD, you will notice that DMs are doing quite a bit of lying. He talks about dragons, trolls, wizards, and resurrection spells, and as much as some of us would like them to be real, they’re not.
If you try running a game yourself, you will soon realize that DMs are rolling dice for all NPCs and enemies of the party, which puts them in a tricky position.
What if the dice rolls allow a low-level party to kill three monsters in a row without a hassle, or if those monsters own them without batting an eye? That wouldn’t be much fun, would it?
As I have been in these situations myself, I decided to sometimes upgrade the defense throw for a monster if the team rolls severe damage to kill it too quickly. At the same time, I lower monster damage if a couple of consecutive rolls strike them so hard that some of them would die or result in a Total Party Kill (TPK).
Even though you could say that I “cheated,” I did it so that the game would before everything be fun for the players and not be too difficult or too challenging. So, yes, guilty as charged.
Dice fudging is here to save the adventure
Designing an adventure isn’t an easy job for DMs. Even though I have a fair amount of games behind me, I often unintentionally create an overpowered encounter for my players.
At other times, what was supposed to be a relatively easy encounter for my players, turned out to be their worst nightmare due to dice rolls. In that situation, I fudge dice once more and help everyone have a great time.
So, DnD dice fudging is here to fix those DM mistakes, not the ones players made. Also, new editions of DnD released will have a lot of new rules for which your DM wouldn’t be prepared, and that’s when he will probably fudge some dice.
To keep you in perspective, dice fudging isn’t something that occurs every other round. Most often, DM will use it once per session or even once or twice during a whole adventure.
You don’t have to fudge dice if you don’t want to
If you are somewhat of a rules lawyer and would like to stick strictly to the numbers given, of course, you can do that. Just talk with your players about it, and if everyone agrees, then it will probably be for the best!
This is the way to go if your party is looking for a survival, brutal and unforgiving game with intense combats. It will slow down the game and focus on various tactical and strategic decisions you and your team make.
We’ve all been in situations where one of our friends likes to attack every NPC we meet, but even that guy will think twice in this kind of game.
Just keep in mind that in that way, some games can finish sooner than you’ve expected and leave your players frustrated if you don’t have everyone being ok with it.
Weigh in the pros and the cons
Ultimately, it’s best to talk to your friends about it and see how they feel. This doesn’t mean telling them, “hey, I fudged some dice right now” each time you do it. Just ask them if they’re ok with you as a DM doing it in general (and promise to use it only when necessary).
For me, it all comes down to a simple question “Is a dice fudge going to ruin my game and all the fun, or will it increase it?”
When you answer that question, you will know the best way forward.
