Memebase

Dungeon Master Confesses They 'Cheat' at D&D, Sparking Mixed Reactions

Advertisement

“I cheat at DnD and I'm not gonna stop” —u/gimmemoneez

OP confesses to improvising everything

Hey, as long as everyone's having fun, right? 

Is OP cheating or just playing the game in a different way?

Fellow D&D players share their thoughts

With any fandom you can usually find some extremely opinionated people, but this poster's comment section was surprisingly supportive. Many made the point that improvisation isn't necessarily “cheating.” And as long as the game works, then you're doing something right. Other redditors offered tips and pointers on how to optimize a more improvised game.

“Who are you so wise in the ways of science” replied OP. 

“Players, waiting expectantly for the encounter after rolling initiative. You, the best DM in the world: ...a duck!” Joked u/WolfgangVolos.

“Sometimes I make puzzles that I don’t even know the solution.” Said u/RengawRoinuj. “But my players always come with a plausible way to solve it. Then I turn it into the ‘solution’ of the puzzle. They always says things like ‘How can you think about this kind of thing?’ They will never know that they make all the traps. They are the architects of their own destruction!”

“Yeah I keep small notes keeping track of basic details (once I make them up)” clarified OP. Then (in classic Reddit fashion) several redditors replied “this is the way” to OP's comment.

u/formesse laid it all out and very wisely explained how a DM could optimize their bullshitting skills to make that sort of game more fun for the players. "This just means you need to make up some new BS as to why they are able to later succeed what they failed earlier. Book of knowledge about the McGuffin. A Map that shows the illusion they failed to realize was an illusion. An immovable rod, able to be used as a make shift support for a bridge. Sometimes failures are good—they force an alternative to success, the party is pushed to earn the success in a way that a flat successful roll does not require them to—and this, can make it feel more rewarding. Failure can lead to tension, that tension if ratcheted and eventually released creates an excitement, a feeling of relief, and a feeling of overcoming. Failures, in a way, are where the story truly takes hold - it's where it goes from being a predictable flow, to being something memorable."

“I suppose that's fair. Guess I'm still getting used to this.” Replied OP. 

Another wise redditor chimed in to elaborate on why OP wasn't cheating. “To expound on this a little more, the only way to truly cheat as a DM is if your players aren't having fun.” Said u/secretpandalord. “If you're breaking every rule in the book you can think of, but the players are still having a great time, you're not cheating them out of anything. Now, with that having been said, some players (especially experienced ones, or ones who have themselves DMed) consider the DM playing fair to be important, so if you're playing with these kinds of players, it's better to limit yourself to more subtle cheats, like fudging rolls.”

 

Read the original thread here

Tags

Next on Memebase

Scroll down for the next article

Comments