@RogueScholarMDC I've "forgotten" special abilities or 'missed' a few of the goblins and they didn't do anything that round. Of course, I forget special abilities and miss bad guys all the time for reals, too, so my players have no idea when I do something on purpose or not..

@FightGuyStudio It's not unheard of for me to handwave something or forget every possible ability, but all my rolls for combat are out in the open. That's just how it is.

@RogueScholarMDC I've absolutely had times where the GM has said "I realized mid encounter I'd created something terrible and not balanced and re-balanced on the fly and fudged a bunch of numbers to make it fun" and sometimes that means toning it down or pretending you didn't just crit

@Funderstatement I am not opposed to owning up to mistakes made. Adjustments can be useful and I don't see it the same as misrepresentation of dice rolls. Hell the published encounter I just ran called for boss +4 minions but after noting the power level I gave them Boss +2 and it was still hard

@RogueScholarMDC "FELINE INTERFERENCE!!!"

@CatKyre Hmmm. Can't argue with the cat god swats

@RogueScholarMDC

@RogueScholarMDC Where's the town where there is a cleric who can raise undead? More encumbrance problems. Also, the dead player to be risen rolls up another character and tags along and get xp at the end, going from 1st to 6th or something.

@RogueScholarMDC "Roll some dice for effect and make shit up"

@RogueScholarMDC True. Even Gygax admits to doing it though, even writing off a horrible session as a bad dream. I guess it’s okay to do that if the TPK is the referee’s fault.

@RogueScholarMDC Knowing when to fold, too.

@RogueScholarMDC Cognitive dissonance 🤣

@RogueScholarMDC probably because the truly good ones are not obvious about it, but in 40 yrs I have seldom met a GM who didn't fudge, outside of convention stuff. Not sure why people think playing pretend a specific way, EITHER wat is some bdge of honor though. It's a game.

@RogueScholarMDC That's how you know the GM had a great poker face.

@RogueScholarMDC Yeah, that would suck. I think the chance of PCs dying should be real.

@RogueScholarMDC Once, in a 4e Dark Sun, I failed a saving throw against poison close to 20 times.... And since the party couldn't just go back to town cause we were trying to find a way out of the starter dungeon he just let me keep rolling till I finally saved.

@RogueScholarMDC I'm more likely to ignore bonuses. Maybe that 13 I rolled is just a plain 13, and I don't add the +5 that would make it work.

@RogueScholarMDC 'lucky' rolls on the GM's side can favor the PCs. If the GM has a screen and is rolling behind it, rare is the GM whose never fudged a roll.

@RogueScholarMDC Perhaps this is why the DM has a screen.

@RogueScholarMDC That would be a DM I wouldn't want to play with. At the end of the day the players are the heroes and the fun comes from their succeeding, that said, my players do fail and those failures are often pretty crushing.