Another quick plug for Simon Cornish's Tefr blog, where today he's got an interesting debate going on about the freedom to bend the rules in roleplaying games. Or possibly about freewill vs fate? Pile in and leave your mark!
Another quick plug for Simon Cornish's Tefr blog, where today he's got an interesting debate going on about the freedom to bend the rules in roleplaying games. Or possibly about freewill vs fate? Pile in and leave your mark!
What, someone is kicking the old horse of fudging again?
ReplyDeleteThe horse of fudging, isn't that a D&D magic item?
ReplyDeleteMuch as I'd like to blame D&D, I think it can be encountered in more than one system!
ReplyDeleteYou're right - I just always associate those kinds of names with D&D. It was the same when I first drove past the Little Chef of Fearing :-) http://bit.ly/i4DNJy
ReplyDeleteI agree, the name is quite D&D-like. But personally, I associate the practice of fudging with White Wolf games instead of D&D. This might be unfair to the WW, but it seems many proponents of the idea are also avid Storytellers (as they call the GM) or players of their games.
ReplyDeleteAlso, their "Golden rule" or "Rule zero" is usually invoked in discussions regarding fudging. It basically says that the ST (quite fitting, if not even the dice can stop you telling the story you prepared) can overrule the result of the dice.
Personally, I have come to consider my "golden rule" to be "do not cause upon another what you wouldn't accept to be inflicted upon you, if you were in his or her place" (I changed the wording as much as possible here).
Fudging horse? What is this fudging horse you speak of?
ReplyDeleteOMG, Jamie has worked out how to log onto Blogger!
ReplyDeleteWhat, another favorite gamebook author is here? Great!
ReplyDeleteTo answer the question mr. Thomson, the link in the post above is to an article bearing the title "Please Feel Free to Cheat". "Fudging" is the shortname for the practice of Game Masters disregarding dicerolls, altering the results of player dierolls, or outright lying what said dicerolls are. I think it's an obsolete practice, and one that makes for worse games. The article there advocates that style of gamemastering, hence my reaction to it.
(My reaction in the first comment was due to leading a discussion like this last month on a major RPG forum. I thought it wouldn't surface at least for a couple more months...)
I was wrong. There is the post above, and another discussion on the same forum.
OMG, another favourite gamebook author!
ReplyDelete...but it seems my comment was too havy for the system, or something. Still, fudging in RPG slang is generally lying about your die roll or scores, usually done by the Game Master.
We've had a couple of players over the years who fudge their dice rolls too. That's really disrespectful to the other players, and in the end we had to institute a rule that all dice had to be rolled on a tray in plain view. I hated that, as it meant treating the other players like children just because one player couldn't be trusted. But in the end I relized that those players who cheat don't actually know they're doing it. They kind of believe their own lie!
ReplyDeleteFudge: 50% sugar 50% condensed milk. Delicious, but very very bad for you.
ReplyDeletePlease, Simon. I'm on a diet till Sunday :-)
ReplyDeleteMmmm... fudge.
ReplyDeleteI have sort of worked out how to post but I still hvae to type my name in and then do the annoying letters they throw up to make it hard for you. None of my ids seem to work. I hate blogs.
So... not getting a Google ID any time soon? :-)
ReplyDelete