“Dice fudging” is something that comes up in tabletop roleplaying games.  The classic example is something like this:

1. The players spend all campaign tracking down a powerful villain.  Finally they confront the villain in a decisive battle.
2. One of the players makes a bad die roll; so bad that their character will die and the entire party will be doomed.
3. The game master/dungeon master/referee rules that the die roll “doesn’t count” and that the character doesn’t die.  (The players may or may not realize that the rules are being bent.)
4. The party defeats the villain and everyone’s happy.

So, as long as everyone’s happy, things are fine, right?  Yes, but some people are against dice fudging.  Personally, I’m against it, though perhaps not for the same reasons other people are.  Basically, I believe that while you may enjoy roleplaying with the occasional dice fudging, you would probably enjoy it even more if you understood why you do it and what alternatives there are.

I’ll explain what I mean, but first let’s look at the reasons dice fudging exists.

Different People Want Different Things, and Sometimes They Don’t Know What They Want

I don’t want to go through the entirety of GNS Theory in this post, suffice it to say that people get different kinds of enjoyment out of roleplaying.  If you want a certain kind of enjoyment, you play in a certain way.  Certain rule systems make it easier to play in different ways.

The usual argument in favor of dice fudging is a narrative one.  The players have in mind a story about heroes who grow in strength and ultimately triumph over evil.  A bad die roll would ruin this story.

But some players will look at it the situation differently.  If you view roleplaying as a game, then it needs to have well-defined, unchangeable rules.  If the party dies as a result of bad luck, that’s that; they lost the game.  Perhaps they were not prepared enough for the villain.  Fudging die rolls would be cheating, akin to save scumming.

Alternately, some players simply enjoy the simulation of a fantasy world with internal logic.  To them, die rolls represent the idea that reality is unpredictable.  Fudging a die roll would cause a glitch in this simulation.  To them, having all the players die to the villain would be plausible!  It could happen in “real life”, right?

Sin Boldly

So, I believe dice fudging is the result of wanting to create an interesting story.  The problem is that players often seem tentative about it, as if it were something that detracts from “normal” roleplaying and should only be used in the most extreme circumstances.

If you want to create an exciting story while roleplaying, then go for it.  Some games have rules designed to assist this agenda, or are entirely designed with it in mind.  These game mechanics range from Conan‘s “luck points” that assist any die roll in the game, to Polaris‘ “whoever wins this conflict gets to narrate what happens, with some negotiation from the other players”.

If you know what you want, go for it.  After all, isn’t roleplaying supposed to be fun?