Thinking about starting ACKS got me remembering the "Melvek Wilds" game, which used the Basic/Expert/Master version of D&D as presented in the "Rules Cyclopedia." It was way back in 2000, the second or third campaign we played with what eventually became our current "Lords of Hack" group. It was the first game where Bob joined the crew, and no one else in the current line up was with us.
I had started the group with a fellow from Lancaster, we would alternate between his house and mine (although his house kind of sucked because you had to climb two flights of stairs to get from the game site and the bathroom).
This dude always seemed kind of "lucky", rolling a lot of "20"s to hit. It was when whe started this campaign that I became definitely sure that he was a compulsive dirty cheat. I mean all of us have fudged a die roll here and there, it's only natural, but this guy apparently never would roll honestly when cheating would do.
The proof came when he rolled his character for the D&D campaign. The method was to roll 3d6 in order for the scores. Well, shut my mouth if he didn't end up with 4 "18's" and 2 "17's". And then he rolled a character for his wife, and son of diddly she ends up with 4 "18's" too. How much of psycho or an infant do you have to be to do this with a straight face and then look your fellow players in the eye? Douche.
For reference purposes, an 18 on 3D6 is a 0.5% chance (1 in 216) and a 17 on 3D6 is 1.4% chance (1 in 72). So really, really not believable. I've never, personally, actually rolled an 18 on straight 3D6 dice rolls. I've had a couple while generating stats on dice rolling websites, but never at a table.
ReplyDeleteI gritted my teeth and dealt with him. I think the quality of your game overcame his lousy cheating.
ReplyDeleteI would watch him roll dice. He always rolled a d6 and d20 together. I think he multiplied the two together, or by 10. Can't say I miss him.
Now, I can explain the d6 and d20 at the same time, because there was a time in my life I did the same thing. The first d20's that came out with the Holmes Basic D&D set were marked 0 through 9 twice. So, you had to roll a d6 along with the d20, if the d6 came up 1-3, then you read the d20 result as coming between 1 and 10, if the d6 came up 4-6, then you read the d20 as 11-20.
ReplyDeleteHe was still a dirty cheat.