Cheats

From: martin <102541.3423_at_CompuServe.COM>
Date: 19 Jul 96 12:53:34 EDT

I had one player in the Garhound contest who rolled several specials and criticals in a row, an impossible amount. He won the contest but in the next melee they entered, he was criticalled and specialed several times in a row, fatally as it happens.

He said "How, how come they hit _me_ so much, with all them criticals and stuff?!?"

I said "Guess they must be using the same dice as you eh?"

He got the point. Besides, if I think a player is doing that, I assign another player to watch him, determine which dice they roll first and to read out their dice rolls for them. Its usually so embarrassing they have to stop.

The secret for dealing with this behaviour is TOTAL ruthlessness. Its like dealing with a child. The professional cheater is always testing the GM just like a child tests its parents so just nail em hard and let them know where you (and they) stand. They either stop coming to your game (no loss) or they buckle down and play properly.

As for character sheets, never leave em with the players. Not just for cheatings sake but I find it useful to scan the players progress every few sessions to make sure I'm giving them worthy opponents.

Martin Laurie

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