Ever have one of those days? One of those weeks? Months? Has your D&D character? The past couple months have been really rough for me and my family, and while I was trying to put a positive spin on it, I thought about how lucky our D&D characters are – how they don’t often seem subject to Murphy’s Law.
Sure, players have a rash of bad die rolls from time to time. It seems to happen most frequently in my online games, when the dicebot decides it doesn’t like anyone, player or DM. But our characters aren’t inflicted with the petty annoyances and minor trials and tribulations that seem to mount higher and higher, growing bigger and bigger, until frustration breaks them or drives them to desperation.
We see the kinds of things I’m talking about in movies, and we read about them in books, and we experience them in real life, but as DMs we rarely take the time to add them to our games, unless it’s part of the current adventure plot. A wagon wheel breaks in the middle of nowhere. Financiers suddenly want the characters to pay up – all of them, all at once. A sudden downpour ruins the group’s clothes on the way to an important event. A horse throws a shoe. The barbarian’s axe head falls off his handle.
When reading about Numenera the other day, I saw mention of a mechanic available to the GM and players alike – “intrusion.” As I understand it, the GM can introduce an “intrusion,” a complication to the players’ plans, in exchange for awarding XP to the player or players inconvenienced. If a player rolls a 1, the GM gets to do it for free.
How hard would it be to add a mechanic like that to D&D? As I thought about it, I realized that in one aspect, I already had. When my players roll a natural 1 on an attack roll, I make them roll again. If they roll another 1, they break their weapon. A version of that complication is present in the 4E Dark Sun campaign setting as well.
So let’s apply Murphy’s Law in D&D 4E, starting with skills.
Acrobatics
Balance: This has a failure clause already stated, and it doesn’t get much worse than falling down and/or falling prone.
Escape from Restraints: Failure means the character doesn’t escape; what could be worse if a 1 is rolled while trying? Two choices spring to mind for me – wrenching a joint, imposing a -2 penalty to further attack rolls, Reflex saving throws, and Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks until after the next long rest (if you’re a cruel DM), or the loss of a healing surge until after the next long rest (if you’re slightly more merciful).
Hop Down, Reduce Falling Damage: Failure is obvious; let’s not dwell on it.
Improvising: A 1 means falling prone, in addition to failing; humiliation may last awhile, if there are witnesses to tell the tale.
Arcana
Arcana Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: Failure on a knowledge check either means drawing a blank, or remembering things wrong – either call sounds fine and dandy.
Detect Magic: I’m reminded of a rule from the 3E/3.5E spell detect magic, where powerful magic could overwhelm the caster when he or she tried to analyze it. A roll of 1 could daze (if you’re merciful) or stun (if you’re cruel), both with save ends.
Athletics
Climb, Jump: A 1 means falling prone if you’re starting to climb; if you’re midway through a climb or jump and you fail, falling is your only option.
Escape from a Grab: See Acrobatics for Escape from Restraints, and replace Dexterity with Strength.
Swim: The rules plainly state sink or swim, so if you roll a 1, you sink – maybe 2 squares instead of 1.
Improvising: This isn’t as cut-and-dried as Acrobatics; it will take the DM evaluating the action on a case-by-case basis. For the examples provided, I’d suggest losing a healing surge for letting go of the wagon and tumbling along the ground, being restrained while stuck in the tunnel, and being pushed backward 1d6 squares while flying.
Bluff
Bluff: The results of failure are obvious, and the rules even give suggestions for extreme prejudice.
Gain Combat Advantage: If you roll a 1, you grant combat advantage instead of gaining it.
Create a Diversion: Can’t think of a way to make it worse if you fail, but if you can, go for it.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy: Borrowing a page from Bluff, perhaps a -5 penalty to further attempts at Diplomacy in the same situation should arise with a roll of 1.
Dungeoneering
Dungeoneering Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: As with other knowledge checks, nothing could be worse than drawing a blank or having the wrong information.
Forage: A roll of 1 could result in the loss of 1d4 healing surges, as eating poisonous mushrooms and drinking tainted water is bad for you.
Endurance
Extended Swimming: The penalty given for failure is extremely severe – nothing more need be said.
Heal
First Aid: A roll of 1 could cost the target a healing surge if the character was trying to grant a second wind, or impose a -2 penalty to saving throws if the character was trying to grant a save, or deal 1d6 damage if the character was trying to stabilize someone who’s dying.
Treat Disease: Since failing the Heal check by a large amount results in the disease advancing to the next stage, I don’t think you should add insult to injury.
Improvising: In most cases, wrong information is more damaging than no information.
History
Historical Knowledge: As the other knowledge checks – misinformation is your friend.
Insight
Insight: A roll of 1 might give the character the complete opposite impression of the target’s behavior, as opposed to just not knowing with a normal failure.
Intimidate
Intimidate: You can’t get much worse than making someone (or something) mad at you…
Nature
Nature Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: See Arcana.
Forage: As with Dungeoneering, gathering poisonous plants to eat and tainted water to drink results in the loss of 1d4 healing surges.
Calm Animal: Rolling a 1 would make it mad…probably enough to attack.
Train Animal: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. And it might forget some stuff you thought it had already learned.
Perception
Perceive: Can’t think of anything worse than missing what you’re looking for, but if it’s a hazard or a trap, you might give it advantage on its attack.
Find a Creature: A hidden creature already has advantage on an attack it decides to make, but perhaps if it hits, it scores an automatic critical hit.
Religion
Religion Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: See Arcana. If you allow Religion checks to detect and identify divine magic, consider the suggestions in Arcana for dazing or stunning.
Stealth
Stealth: A roll of 1 might mean the character thinks he or she was successful, but in fact all other creatures know exactly where he or she is.
Streetwise
Streetwise: A roll of 1 definitely means the character has attracted unwanted attention – the city guard!
Thievery
Disable Trap: The trap is triggered, and it deals maximum damage to the character.
Open Lock: A roll of 1 breaks the lock; it either can’t be opened conventionally, or it won’t lock any more.
Pick Pocket: The character drops the object and attracts the attention of surrounding creatures.
Sleight of Hand: Everyone knows how the character did the trick.
Improvising: This requires case-by-case analysis. For the examples given, perhaps rolling a 1 breaks something else on the wagon and increases the DC, the crafted lock looks good but is easier to pick than normal locks, and the knot looks secure but is actually loose enough to allow escape.
A lot of the above scenarios require one of two things – either the DM trusts the player to roleplay the situation according to how the dice fell, or the DM makes the rolls and keeps the results secret, so the player is as much in the dark as the character. The decision depends on your group’s play style and how paranoid you want your players. I like mine on edge.
Let me know if you’ve applied Murphy’s Law to your roleplaying game in the comments below. Happy gaming!
Sure, players have a rash of bad die rolls from time to time. It seems to happen most frequently in my online games, when the dicebot decides it doesn’t like anyone, player or DM. But our characters aren’t inflicted with the petty annoyances and minor trials and tribulations that seem to mount higher and higher, growing bigger and bigger, until frustration breaks them or drives them to desperation.
We see the kinds of things I’m talking about in movies, and we read about them in books, and we experience them in real life, but as DMs we rarely take the time to add them to our games, unless it’s part of the current adventure plot. A wagon wheel breaks in the middle of nowhere. Financiers suddenly want the characters to pay up – all of them, all at once. A sudden downpour ruins the group’s clothes on the way to an important event. A horse throws a shoe. The barbarian’s axe head falls off his handle.
When reading about Numenera the other day, I saw mention of a mechanic available to the GM and players alike – “intrusion.” As I understand it, the GM can introduce an “intrusion,” a complication to the players’ plans, in exchange for awarding XP to the player or players inconvenienced. If a player rolls a 1, the GM gets to do it for free.
How hard would it be to add a mechanic like that to D&D? As I thought about it, I realized that in one aspect, I already had. When my players roll a natural 1 on an attack roll, I make them roll again. If they roll another 1, they break their weapon. A version of that complication is present in the 4E Dark Sun campaign setting as well.
So let’s apply Murphy’s Law in D&D 4E, starting with skills.
Acrobatics
Balance: This has a failure clause already stated, and it doesn’t get much worse than falling down and/or falling prone.
Escape from Restraints: Failure means the character doesn’t escape; what could be worse if a 1 is rolled while trying? Two choices spring to mind for me – wrenching a joint, imposing a -2 penalty to further attack rolls, Reflex saving throws, and Strength- and Dexterity-based skill checks until after the next long rest (if you’re a cruel DM), or the loss of a healing surge until after the next long rest (if you’re slightly more merciful).
Hop Down, Reduce Falling Damage: Failure is obvious; let’s not dwell on it.
Improvising: A 1 means falling prone, in addition to failing; humiliation may last awhile, if there are witnesses to tell the tale.
Arcana
Arcana Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: Failure on a knowledge check either means drawing a blank, or remembering things wrong – either call sounds fine and dandy.
Detect Magic: I’m reminded of a rule from the 3E/3.5E spell detect magic, where powerful magic could overwhelm the caster when he or she tried to analyze it. A roll of 1 could daze (if you’re merciful) or stun (if you’re cruel), both with save ends.
Athletics
Climb, Jump: A 1 means falling prone if you’re starting to climb; if you’re midway through a climb or jump and you fail, falling is your only option.
Escape from a Grab: See Acrobatics for Escape from Restraints, and replace Dexterity with Strength.
Swim: The rules plainly state sink or swim, so if you roll a 1, you sink – maybe 2 squares instead of 1.
Improvising: This isn’t as cut-and-dried as Acrobatics; it will take the DM evaluating the action on a case-by-case basis. For the examples provided, I’d suggest losing a healing surge for letting go of the wagon and tumbling along the ground, being restrained while stuck in the tunnel, and being pushed backward 1d6 squares while flying.
Bluff
Bluff: The results of failure are obvious, and the rules even give suggestions for extreme prejudice.
Gain Combat Advantage: If you roll a 1, you grant combat advantage instead of gaining it.
Create a Diversion: Can’t think of a way to make it worse if you fail, but if you can, go for it.
Diplomacy
Diplomacy: Borrowing a page from Bluff, perhaps a -5 penalty to further attempts at Diplomacy in the same situation should arise with a roll of 1.
Dungeoneering
Dungeoneering Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: As with other knowledge checks, nothing could be worse than drawing a blank or having the wrong information.
Forage: A roll of 1 could result in the loss of 1d4 healing surges, as eating poisonous mushrooms and drinking tainted water is bad for you.
Endurance
Extended Swimming: The penalty given for failure is extremely severe – nothing more need be said.
Heal
First Aid: A roll of 1 could cost the target a healing surge if the character was trying to grant a second wind, or impose a -2 penalty to saving throws if the character was trying to grant a save, or deal 1d6 damage if the character was trying to stabilize someone who’s dying.
Treat Disease: Since failing the Heal check by a large amount results in the disease advancing to the next stage, I don’t think you should add insult to injury.
Improvising: In most cases, wrong information is more damaging than no information.
History
Historical Knowledge: As the other knowledge checks – misinformation is your friend.
Insight
Insight: A roll of 1 might give the character the complete opposite impression of the target’s behavior, as opposed to just not knowing with a normal failure.
Intimidate
Intimidate: You can’t get much worse than making someone (or something) mad at you…
Nature
Nature Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: See Arcana.
Forage: As with Dungeoneering, gathering poisonous plants to eat and tainted water to drink results in the loss of 1d4 healing surges.
Calm Animal: Rolling a 1 would make it mad…probably enough to attack.
Train Animal: You can’t teach an old dog new tricks. And it might forget some stuff you thought it had already learned.
Perception
Perceive: Can’t think of anything worse than missing what you’re looking for, but if it’s a hazard or a trap, you might give it advantage on its attack.
Find a Creature: A hidden creature already has advantage on an attack it decides to make, but perhaps if it hits, it scores an automatic critical hit.
Religion
Religion Knowledge, Monster Knowledge: See Arcana. If you allow Religion checks to detect and identify divine magic, consider the suggestions in Arcana for dazing or stunning.
Stealth
Stealth: A roll of 1 might mean the character thinks he or she was successful, but in fact all other creatures know exactly where he or she is.
Streetwise
Streetwise: A roll of 1 definitely means the character has attracted unwanted attention – the city guard!
Thievery
Disable Trap: The trap is triggered, and it deals maximum damage to the character.
Open Lock: A roll of 1 breaks the lock; it either can’t be opened conventionally, or it won’t lock any more.
Pick Pocket: The character drops the object and attracts the attention of surrounding creatures.
Sleight of Hand: Everyone knows how the character did the trick.
Improvising: This requires case-by-case analysis. For the examples given, perhaps rolling a 1 breaks something else on the wagon and increases the DC, the crafted lock looks good but is easier to pick than normal locks, and the knot looks secure but is actually loose enough to allow escape.
A lot of the above scenarios require one of two things – either the DM trusts the player to roleplay the situation according to how the dice fell, or the DM makes the rolls and keeps the results secret, so the player is as much in the dark as the character. The decision depends on your group’s play style and how paranoid you want your players. I like mine on edge.
Let me know if you’ve applied Murphy’s Law to your roleplaying game in the comments below. Happy gaming!
