Critical failure or how your character was secretly an incompetent moron the whole time!
This has become one of my least favorite things about role playing games. What is worse about it is that I catch myself doing it all the time. I’m running a game that’s going great, I am excited to see what these epic heroes are going to do next, then one of them rolls snake eyes. Something bad should happen to the player, or some new danger or change should be added to the world. But instead the Yuck-Yuck part of my brain takes over and I tell the previously competent hero that they just slipped on a banana peel, their sword goes flying into the air and then buries itself into their leg or shatters in a thousand pieces. Insert cartoon sound effects.
Now there are certainly games with lighter or even cartoonish tones. There are also games were the characters are supposed to start off as incompetents who have to suffer and survive to become adventurers. But outside of those games, when I hear about or see this I always think “That doesn’t sound like they are fans of the character” and I would want to ask the GM to try another way or suggest some less comedic explanation for the mechanical effects of the failure.
Unfortunately, several times after running a game I immediately regret how I treated someone who rolled poorly. It’s never hard to imagine a number of interesting and epic ways that could have been used to reach the same conclusion. But in the heat of the moment, the image of that character stepping up to do something cool and then looking like a goofball (womp womp) is to easy and immediate to pass up. A lot of players accept this as tradition and maybe some look forward to it, but I am always worried afterward that I have discouraged them. Maybe they won’t step up next time, maybe they won’t show up to the next game.
As an example: I recently ran a game of Traveler where the party had tracked an alien menace to a reactor room. Most of the party was behind cover pouring bullets into the seemingly unkillable alien. One character, the noble face of the party realized he wasn’t going to be much use with a gun but he carried a dueling sword and the room was full of pipes. He was also wearing a very expensive vac suit with thrusters. So he describes to me his intention of jetting in close to the beast and cutting a pipe that would spray it with hot steam, or coolant, ect. Very cool I think, but he fails and its the monster’s turn next. In the moment I could not imagine anything other then your sword, which you thought was a well crafted masterwork that you paid a lot for, bounces off the pipe and cracks, the monster stabs you and you die (the monster made his attack roll and it turned out that the character had pretty poor stats and wasn’t able to dodge or survive the hit). I wasn’t really making fun of the character, and the player seemed to accept it at the time.
But A moment later I could easily see that this was a lame outcome, the character looked goofy and was “punished” for trying to be cool. I could easily see a number of ways to give them the spotlite, make them look awesome and still take the mechanical outcome of death in an interesting way. The most obvious would be to let them have the cut pipe. The creature disappears into a cloud of steam with a roar (mechanically no damage though). For a moment the character thinks it worked when a tallon rips from the cloud and impales them.
I could have also told the player they had failed and were going to die, then asked them to describe their final act.
It should also be noted that the player’s plan was exactly the sort of epic desperation effort I want to see in my games. Much of the rest of the game was about the party trying to avoid conflict and danger. And otherwise most of the combat consisted of very routine waiting for turns and shooting from cover. These are smart policies but not the golden nuggets of story we are (I am) looking for.
So not much of a rant this time. I don’t like critical failures that reveal the player to be incompetent (even if their stats are awful), but others might. What about you? Are these the highlight of your games? Or not? Personally I am going to try to do better and encourage my players to always speak up if they have a better idea or want me to try harder.
I personally tend to gravitate towards games with a strong sense of the bathetic; critical failures that puncture a character’s dignity and gravitas are all good by me. I’ve never seen it as a character being incompetent, but a recognition that sometimes stuff goes pear-shaped in a way heedless of dignity.
But that’s the tone I go for; if people want a different tone at their table, that’s entirely legit.
I personally tend to gravitate towards games with a strong sense of the bathetic; critical failures that puncture a character’s dignity and gravitas are all good by me. I’ve never seen it as a character being incompetent, but a recognition that sometimes stuff goes pear-shaped in a way heedless of dignity.
But that’s the tone I go for; if people want a different tone at their table, that’s entirely legit.
I think this is a good thing to include in a tone discussion at the beginning of the game — just say “how should we handle it when a character totally fails a roll — is it OK for them to look like a doofus?” I personally am a big fan of these kind of failures both as a player and a GM, but I also wouldn’t want to inflict them on players if it would ruin their fun.
I think this is a good thing to include in a tone discussion at the beginning of the game — just say “how should we handle it when a character totally fails a roll — is it OK for them to look like a doofus?” I personally am a big fan of these kind of failures both as a player and a GM, but I also wouldn’t want to inflict them on players if it would ruin their fun.
when I play i am generaly not overly invested in my own character’s awsomeness or even their safty. i might be to prone towards comedy and one liners. but when i run games i am really interested in achiving that epic fantasy ideal and general discourage goofyness. maybe unfair. “Get your cartoon out of my Conan”
when I play i am generaly not overly invested in my own character’s awsomeness or even their safty. i might be to prone towards comedy and one liners. but when i run games i am really interested in achiving that epic fantasy ideal and general discourage goofyness. maybe unfair. “Get your cartoon out of my Conan”
I know the problem and am battling this myself. There are failures that are kinda funny without totally thrashing a character’s dignity, but usually I try to make failures more about circumstances and bad luck than a lack of competence.
I don’t always succeed, though. Recently, when a magical dancer in my group fumbled a dancing roll, my first idea was “she stumbles and falls down”, but my player didn’t buy that. So we decided that she took her dancing a bit too far and entranced not only the audience but herself as well, resulting in her being very exhausted and unable to do anything with the fascination she had evoked in the people watching.
I know the problem and am battling this myself. There are failures that are kinda funny without totally thrashing a character’s dignity, but usually I try to make failures more about circumstances and bad luck than a lack of competence.
I don’t always succeed, though. Recently, when a magical dancer in my group fumbled a dancing roll, my first idea was “she stumbles and falls down”, but my player didn’t buy that. So we decided that she took her dancing a bit too far and entranced not only the audience but herself as well, resulting in her being very exhausted and unable to do anything with the fascination she had evoked in the people watching.
There is an undeniable “oh shit” sensation to rolling snake eyes/nat 1 or boxcars/nat 20. Even if there is no mechanical function to it beyond failure/success. I like to play off of that sensation at the table. But, I also have a bad habit of pulling punches at the table. So when a character rolls a critical failure in a dire moment, I hesitate to create drastic repercussions. Sometimes this hesitation leads to a goofy banana peel moment. No insight here, just wanted to let you know you aren’t alone.
There is an undeniable “oh shit” sensation to rolling snake eyes/nat 1 or boxcars/nat 20. Even if there is no mechanical function to it beyond failure/success. I like to play off of that sensation at the table. But, I also have a bad habit of pulling punches at the table. So when a character rolls a critical failure in a dire moment, I hesitate to create drastic repercussions. Sometimes this hesitation leads to a goofy banana peel moment. No insight here, just wanted to let you know you aren’t alone.
I think that the way Trollbabe (http://adept-press.com/games-fantasy-horror/trollbabe/ ) address this is absolutely brilliant.
The GM only narrates successes and totally absolute failures (it requires a succession of failed rolls that the player can stop at any time simply accepting and narrating a “normal” failure), but all other failures are narrated by the player of the character who failed. Not only that, but there are no HPs, and the mechanical consequences of the failure are independent from the narration (in other words, you are not penalized for narrating an epic failure, and you are not encouraged to minimize the fictional consequences)
The effect is that if you fail in a combat roll, you didn’t slip and crash on the ground: you can narrate that you were hit from behind by a cowardly attack, wih a spear that emerged from the other side of your torso, but you with a growl took the point of the spear with your hands and broke it, took the coward and threw him away to the ground, and jumped in the rived while your enemies try in vain to hit you with their arrows.
You still fail and you can’t avoid the mechanical effect, but in fiction, you can narrate your failures as heroically as you want.
adept-press.com – Trollbabe
I think that the way Trollbabe (http://adept-press.com/games-fantasy-horror/trollbabe/ ) address this is absolutely brilliant.
The GM only narrates successes and totally absolute failures (it requires a succession of failed rolls that the player can stop at any time simply accepting and narrating a “normal” failure), but all other failures are narrated by the player of the character who failed. Not only that, but there are no HPs, and the mechanical consequences of the failure are independent from the narration (in other words, you are not penalized for narrating an epic failure, and you are not encouraged to minimize the fictional consequences)
The effect is that if you fail in a combat roll, you didn’t slip and crash on the ground: you can narrate that you were hit from behind by a cowardly attack, wih a spear that emerged from the other side of your torso, but you with a growl took the point of the spear with your hands and broke it, took the coward and threw him away to the ground, and jumped in the rived while your enemies try in vain to hit you with their arrows.
You still fail and you can’t avoid the mechanical effect, but in fiction, you can narrate your failures as heroically as you want.
adept-press.com – Trollbabe
Statistically it seems like CF, even on a d20, are way too common, even moreso for supposedly ‘realistic’ systems. Experienced warriors are not cutting off their own toes 5 percent of the time.
There are some games where CF completely miss the tone of the setting, ICE’s MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing) comes immediately to mind but there others, like the black comedy of Paranoia or the literally cartoonish TOON, where it could work really well.
Statistically it seems like CF, even on a d20, are way too common, even moreso for supposedly ‘realistic’ systems. Experienced warriors are not cutting off their own toes 5 percent of the time.
There are some games where CF completely miss the tone of the setting, ICE’s MERP (Middle Earth Role Playing) comes immediately to mind but there others, like the black comedy of Paranoia or the literally cartoonish TOON, where it could work really well.
If I’m narrating a critical failure in an actiony type game I try to think of how an action hero would have a major setback at this point, and narrate that.
If I’m narrating a critical failure in an actiony type game I try to think of how an action hero would have a major setback at this point, and narrate that.
Honestly what I’ve enjoyed doing is giving them what they want, and either using it for off-screen nastyness once the battle is over, or “oh you’ll get it all right, you’re getting ALL of what you want!” and going overboard with their ask, and making it a new issue. It’s very hard when it’s the heat of the moment though, improv is a skill, and it’s ok to still be working on parts of it.
Honestly what I’ve enjoyed doing is giving them what they want, and either using it for off-screen nastyness once the battle is over, or “oh you’ll get it all right, you’re getting ALL of what you want!” and going overboard with their ask, and making it a new issue. It’s very hard when it’s the heat of the moment though, improv is a skill, and it’s ok to still be working on parts of it.