tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801483473113363785.post5201335256080708665..comments2023-05-12T05:10:20.941-04:00Comments on Raven Crowking's Nest: Fudging & the Aleatory Elementravencrowkinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09315630554847698555noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801483473113363785.post-55380318689941533732014-06-03T14:44:19.617-04:002014-06-03T14:44:19.617-04:00And yes, Ookla, you are right. I also thought tha...And yes, Ookla, you are right. I also thought that you saying cheating is born out of low self esteem was ironic. I was fairly sure, following web traffic, that most of the people reading the comment (at least this week) would know where it came from. Or, at least, you would.<br /><br />But, if you want to say I have very low self-esteem, who am I to argue? I'll accept your judgement that I am really just the humblest of guys. No real sense of self-importance at all. Actually....thanks!ravencrowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09315630554847698555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801483473113363785.post-12928015392098633082014-06-03T13:30:30.055-04:002014-06-03T13:30:30.055-04:00Yes, Mock26, I am quoting you in the first two sen...Yes, Mock26, I am quoting you in the first two sentences of that last paragraph. You were jumping around on Dragonsfoot trying to get my attention, and I though you needed a little love.ravencrowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09315630554847698555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801483473113363785.post-52756331350366645172014-06-02T22:33:05.507-04:002014-06-02T22:33:05.507-04:00Well, it should be pretty obvious that there are a...Well, it should be pretty obvious that there are a few people on Dragonsfoot who would prefer not to address the topic honestly, and who would like to see the thread shut down. Nor is it unexpected. <br /><br />There are no conservation laws for identity; if someone feels a need to validate their game by claiming that it is the same in kind as a game where there is no fudging, that is their prerogative. If someone feels the need to "win" the argument so much that they will claim that they just can't grasp the difference between the GM fudging in secret and a player openly making use of a Luck-type system, that is also their prerogative. <br /><br />Cheating is born of low self esteem. The cheater tries to validate his life by "winning" at something, and if need be, he will cheat to achieve that. That goes for discussions as well as it does for anything else.ravencrowkinghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09315630554847698555noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1801483473113363785.post-27657562574119325372014-06-02T09:53:25.135-04:002014-06-02T09:53:25.135-04:00Fudging is about fear. Fear of what the dice can d...Fudging is about fear. Fear of what the dice can do to a game. Fear of losing control of it. I would posit that anyone arguing in favor of fudging has two lists. One is a list of things that can't happen. The other is a list of things that must happen. On the former, that item is almost always PC death. On the latter is PCs winning. <br /><br />It doesn't have to be this way. The players can lose, they can go to 0 HP (or whatever your game's equivalent is). Most unimaginative GMs think that means the end of the game. Sometimes, that's appropriate. The Funnel is one instance where handing out death mercilessly is fine. Climactic moments can be another another. But I often find that there are fare worse things you can do to characters when they lose than simply kill them. <br /><br />What's worse than death? Losing all of your gear, being tortured and disfigured in a permanent way, being captured. Revenge is a great motivation for players and, if they succeed, it creates a nice dramatic arc that they'll be talking about for a long time after the game does end. If they fail at exacting revenge, their death will sting that much more, and they'll be talking about what a bastard your villain was long after the game ends.<br /><br />Vanguardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02787858605708891457noreply@blogger.com