ThyTTY

But that’s the whole point, I don’t know beforehand what any result would mean. Yeah, generally by habit you think higher roll is good and low is bad but you can’t apply it to every scenario. Let me visualize how it works for me

“What’s in the sewers? I don’t know, let me see. I rolled 14. Maybe it’s something good? Maybe someone friendly? No, it doens’t make sense in this context. It should probably be a hideout of crocodile people gang.”

Did I know 14 would mean that? Should it? Is it good? Bad? I could also not roll. I could use a coffee stain to decide. I could toss a paper clip.

Personally I don’t consider it as fudging rolls just because dice is involved. There are no procedures. I use it to guide my imagination because I have it right here before me. Tarot deck? Usually not, but it’s also a fantastic tool to do so and you may interpret it however you want. But I agree with you that drawing death 3 times is rather self explanatory and it’s an obvious disaster (also what a fun one!). But a die result is just a number without meaning, it only gives me a starting point for my thoughts. It’s a habit; a tick; a real object that binds me with the virtual world. Not a roll to hit or a skills check.

If that’s fudging rolls for you then I guess I need to stir up some dice to get my flow going.

Because the result has no meaning, it’s not a roll in a gaming sense. It being 20 or 1 makes no difference, it’s just to spark something in the imagination.

I was worried someone might take it this way. Fudging rolls means stating the result of a secret roll was different than it was in reality. What I’m talking about is using a die to inspire you what should happen in a situation where rolling is not applicable. Players decide to go to the sewers for some reason. What’s in there? I don’t know. Yet. There are no rules on what to roll when they go to the sewers now. I may ask them what they expect to find. I may draw a card. I may roll a die. I may consult the random encounters table. It’s not a “roll” in the gaming sense, it’s a way to get some inspiration on my next description. But it’s like with a coin toss, sometimes you know what should happen when you make the roll and before you even see the result.

I’m all for rolls that make sense. If it’s an encounter, of course you should always roll. I roll in the open and players know what hit them and whatnot. The consequence is damage and/or death. But if you’re a thief and want to open a simple lock and nobody’s is trying to defenestrate you at the moment? No need to roll, failure is meaningless. You just killed a dragon? No need to persuade the king to help you. That’s a reward for doing something beforehand. But oh my if an orc swings at you with his axe I’m gonna roll the dice right in front of you so you know that critical was not fudged.

I skip rolls if players are either super prepared or their failure will not mean anything. But as I said earlier, it needs trust between players and the GM - I don’t make their lives harder as a punishment, I do that for the storytelling. And they don’t try to work around me because we skipped a roll for athletics when they had a full day to climb a tree.

Oh but that reminds me. I was metagamed recently. When the team tried to decide what to do with a defeated enemy one of them said “let him live, he will come back as a sidequest. When we kill him then that plotline is dead as well”.

Well he was not wrong but that needn’t to be said.

if the dice are the be-all-end-all, why have a GM at the table?

Well… If the story is so important why have players at all?

Where 2 RPG players meet there are 3 opinions

You can roll some dice but it doesn’t need to be a skill check (or whatever the naming is in your system of choice). When I don’t know what should happen, I may roll a die. If it’s high then it should be something good and if low, maybe it will give me inspiration to think about some new lurking danger. But I may discard the result and go with the gut feeling. Whatever, it was an “oracle roll” as I like to call it. Not tied to anyone’s statistics.

I like to use a deck of cards as well. In Savage Worlds, it is used to determine a random encounter. Clubs indicate an enemy, hearts a friebd, diamonds some good omen and spades obstacles. I like to draw a card so it inspires me on what should happen next (of course as long as it makes sense with the world)

RPGs depend on mutual respect. If you think your players will metagame you and you need to punish them then it stops being a collaborative roleplaying game.

Is this Master Chief and The Arbiter?

On a completely unrelated note, before I even started with TTRPGs I’ve played a PC game Neverwinter Nights 2. One of the first quests was to get rid of some lizardfolk in a dungeon. I’ve went there and convinced them to flee which awarded me 100exp. I was pleased. On my next playthrough I slaughtered them all and netted something around 500exp in total. I was not amused.

Sir, this is from an official rulebook

Of course outright saying no is not a good solution but having an honest conversation with your players about the tone and purpose of the game is always beneficiary. In this example though I would still prefer “no” rather than going into the technicalities of bringing another human into the fantasy world and all its consequences because one player wanted to shit around. If this is the pitch of your game then of course you’re free to do so but in this case players should already know this is allowed and intented. Most of the time it’s a simple game about a group of adventurers delving into dungeons slaying evil monsters and if some want to introduce “romance” then it should either be disallowed or be in the same tone as rest of the game. YMMV of course

I prefer the first option tbh

Even better is playing with people who don’t want to vent their sexual frustrations in a game about slaying dragons