Dungeons & Dragons players reach verdict on if it\u2019s okay for a DM to \u201ccheat\u201d Wizards of the CoastIn response to a DM\u2019s question, the Dungeons & Dragons subreddit has largely agreed on what constitutes cheating and whether it\u2019s okay. In Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPGs like it, the role of the Dungeon Master is crucial. It\u2019s up to the DM to prepare for and run the session, which includes planning encounters, roleplaying NPCs, adjusting to their players\u2019 behavior, and more. The number of moving pieces DMs have to keep track of makes it a challenging but rewarding way to experience the game. Luckily, there are plenty of online spaces where newcomers can get advice and discuss ideas with more experienced DMs. Now, it seems the community has generally agreed on the topic of \u201ccheating\u201d as a DM, and their reasons for it are incredibly helpful for anyone trying to improve their skills. D&D players discuss if & when it\u2019s okay for a DM to cheat The discussion started with a question from Reddit user Imaginary-Wasabi-370, who asked, \u201cIs it bad as a DM to cheat a bit ?\u201d They explained how, during a recent session, they noticed the party was having a \u201cpretty fair fight\u201d against what was supposed to be a difficult boss. To address this, the DM chose to increase the creature\u2019s HP and damage output, making for a \u201ca close call\u201d that the party said was \u201cfun for them.\u201d However, the feeling that they may have cheated led them to seek insight from others in the D&D community. Overall, the consensus is that this DM didn\u2019t really cheat, and even if you were to count their decision as cheating, it would still be acceptable. As one commenter explained, \u201cCheating? Yes, it\u2019s bad. Adjusting the difficulty of an encounter on the fly because you overestimated or underestimated the difficulty of that encounter is not cheating as far as I\u2019m concerned.\u201d Another concurred, saying, \u201cEncounter design doesn\u2019t stop after you roll initiative,\u201d a quote attributed to writer and D&D YouTuber Matt Colville. Others, still agreeing that what the player did was fine, even encouraged, provided additional insight on how to handle on-the-fly changes and where to draw the line. \u201cNo judgement here, just advice: never cheat any numbers the players see,\u201d suggested one player. \u201cIf you change things the players know to be true you will lose player trust, immersion, and buy-in.\u201d As an example, Armor Class shouldn\u2019t change mid-battle outside of certain circumstances, such as a preplanned multiphase fight or an action players see (like a monster picking up a shield). At the end of the day, D&D is meant to be fun. To deliver that experience, it\u2019s important to know what your players want from the game. While some rules-focused groups may see something like this as cheating, for the majority of tables, making these kinds of changes mid-game keeps things enjoyable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dungeons & Dragons players reach verdict on if it\u2019s okay for a DM to \u201ccheat\u201d Wizards of the CoastIn response to a DM\u2019s question, the Dungeons & Dragons subreddit has largely agreed on what constitutes cheating and whether it\u2019s okay. In Dungeons & Dragons and other TTRPGs like it, the role of the Dungeon Master […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80128\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}