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Step 1: No snacks. Distracts from playing.
Step 2: If a player ask if he can do something, say no. Assert dominance. Maintain order.
Step 3: Buy chairs used in public schools to keep everyone alert.
Step 4: Keep the house at a balmy 80 degrees to give the session a tropical feel.
Step 5: Take a long time to describe each room. If you make it look like your looking up something, party will think you planned everything out.
Step 6: In response to any complaints, pout immensely.
With these steps everyone will have roughly the same attitude.
We all have those bad dice nights, and they take a toll. It's really, really hard not to just unplug and wait till the encounter is over, especially after the third round where you roll, miss, and move on.
For players and DMs who want to add some spice, I've created a simple guide. In short it says that everyone should get a moment in the spotlight on their turn, regardless of whether they hit or miss, succeed or fail. Don't make other people's characters into fools taking pratfalls, but rather incorporate every action into the greater story that's being told.
How to Keep a Positive Attitude at The Table (Even When You're Rolling 1's)
Nice post. My favorite GMs and gaming groups have done this. Now I do it, and encourage my players to get into it as well, in the games I run (for both hits and misses). I have never thought of it as a practice for maintaining the morale of a table, rather a practice of good story-telling. Although, good story-telling and keeping players invested even when they aren't performing their best does go a long way in keeping morale high around the table. It makes combat run a little longer, but the encounters are much more memorable.
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I usually accept the fact that I'm cursed when I'm rolling poorly, and tend to ham it up.
Swing and a miss? My fighter trips and slams face first into a nearby wall, rebounding with a loud clang and regaining his footing. No mechanical penalty, just a funny description.
Failed a save against a fireball? Hair blown back, eyebrows removed. No biggy, magical healing will regrow it (we just state that all magical healing prevents scarring and fixes cosmetic stuff like hair).
Just keep a positive attitude really. It sucks to be sucky, but sometimes the dice just hate you.
Sometimes I will have my characters actually give up in-game, go to the back of the group and start drinking with the bard.
Oh man... those nights when the dice are against you? Some of the most memorable, sometimes.
My first time back after a 10-year hiatus from gaming, I was just starting 3.5 and was playing a rogue - dashing, impulsive, and - as it turned out by the rolls that evening - a total klutz. My first roll of the night: a natural 1. I rolled 6 1's that evening, all of them on things that mattered. LOL
Yeah - nothing like going out in a clatter of pots and pans before you stumble down some steps and break your neck as a DEX-based character!
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Oh man... those nights when the dice are against you? Some of the most memorable, sometimes.
My first time back after a 10-year hiatus from gaming, I was just starting 3.5 and was playing a rogue - dashing, impulsive, and - as it turned out by the rolls that evening - a total klutz. My first roll of the night: a natural 1. I rolled 6 1's that evening, all of them on things that mattered. LOL
Yeah - nothing like going out in a clatter of pots and pans before you stumble down some steps and break your neck as a DEX-based character!
I recall rolling a 1 on a saving throw against Disintegrate... got turned to dust...
So did my cloak of resistance +5. :(
^alexd1976 - that is too funny, dude! +5 Cloak turned to dust - lmao!
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I saw one of my players roll a natural one against an adult green dragon, only to have his lowly cohort charge in and follow up with a natural 20, a confirmed crit, and dealt just enough damage to force the dragon to roll versus death against massive damage.
The dragon likewise rolled a natural one.
The lowly porter did what no one else in the party could. XD
To stop players from "saying" they rolled something other than a 1, we give extra XP for those 1s that players roll. On the other hand, we have an Oracle that has a thing that allows a reroll once per character until she can sleep again. This takes the edge off of low dice rolls and those 1s. On the other hand, I rolled a 3 last week and asked for a reroll and got a 2 so I used up my reroll until her character can get some sleep. The plus side is that no one is cheating on their dice because they know they will get the XP or the reroll.
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Im proud of the fact I can roll three 1"s in a roll. Yes I toss the flask of Burning oil , On the mule, that belong to the Gunslinger, which was carrying supplies of blackpowder to the garrison at the pass.
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Im proud of the fact I can roll three 1"s in a roll. Yes I toss the flask of Burning oil , On the mule, that belong to the Gunslinger, which was carrying supplies of blackpowder to the garrison at the pass.
Mule Salsa
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Bad dice rolls is when you need to look at the humor in it all. Been far more memorable bad rolls of the die than 20s roll.
I was in the one game were my barbarian was climbing a bell tower stair case. It was old and steps would break. Had to make reflex saves and I rolled 1 not once, not twice but 4 times. So I fell 3 times, then I finally get to the top the they drop the bell on me, my final 1. 4 in a row but I survived it. Had high con and ton of hit points as used up all my CLW potions. We've laughed about that for years.
While not quite in the same league, my ninja was doing some unarmed fighting against a werewolf, and on a hit did 1d3+5d6 vs. DR 10/silver. One hit I made did no damage, since I only did 10 points which did not penetrate DR. :-(
Still was fun.
/cevah
Oh man... those nights when the dice are against you? Some of the most memorable, sometimes.
My first time back after a 10-year hiatus from gaming, I was just starting 3.5 and was playing a rogue - dashing, impulsive, and - as it turned out by the rolls that evening - a total klutz. My first roll of the night: a natural 1. I rolled 6 1's that evening, all of them on things that mattered. LOL
Yeah - nothing like going out in a clatter of pots and pans before you stumble down some steps and break your neck as a DEX-based character!
Seriously, you take a ten year hiatus, and you are surprised the dice hate you???
Keep your head up and believe there will be better rolls is one way to play this, but the groups I'm in generally seem to prefer schadenfreude. Perhaps this is why we use a Fumble deck.
I'd guess that my PCs are known as much for their comical failures as anything else. One PC got partially eaten by a shark during a 1st level adventure when I failed to roll 8 or higher on 6 consecutive Swim checks to get over a reef to safety. Only magical healing saved him. The same PC later rolled a nat 1 against Symbol of Death but was brought back to suffer even more low rolls. With another PC I once rolled 7 nat 1's out of 15d20. In a recent campaign my low level PC with Skill Focus in Knowledge (Religion) rolled a 2 and failed to identify a statue of Erastil, instead proclaiming him as "Stag God" and converting to his worship on the spot.
I did have a seemingly "lucky" d20 which was rolling crits for a while, but it rolled away in a basement and was never seen again (possibly having gone down a French drain). On the flip side, when my PCs draw AoOs their DMs often seem to roll nat 20s. The d20 I use for my Feral Gnasher is notorious for going on both low and high streaks (though mostly low)
I rolled three 1s in game last night. Two in a row on saving throws that I would've made with a 2 or higher.
Had fun.
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One of my best D&D stories stems from a nat 1. Nearing endgame and our party is something like level 16 or 17. I'm playing a sorcerer specialized in force spells. We're fighting a giant sentient temple containing one of the mcguffins and my monk friend decides to dimension step both of us to the top of this multi-story behemoth. I proceed to aim down directly at my feet and cast an empowered Orb of Force.
Nat 1.
Meanwhile, a mile or so away, little Timmy is having his birthday party. He just wishes something interesting would happen for once in his life.
Cue Orb of Force slamming into his cake a disintegrating the table, with people screaming in horror. Little Timmy simply smiles.
How to Keep a Positive Attitude at The Table (Even When You're Rolling 1's)? As a gamer who is known for bad luck, just smile and realize it's the dice. Seriously, I play with a guy who said he never believed in luck, until he met me.
Caffeine and Vicodin.
To be honest, I find that in these kinds of situations its the rest of the party's reaction to my dice roll that determines my mood. If I attempted a saving throw and the rest of the party were all like "never mind kid, happens to all of us" the most annoying thing is when everybody mocks you in game for f@!@ing up.
I mean once or twice is fine, but if it happens a lot because you just had a really bad night or couple of nights none of which is your fault. that sucks. because I think most people want to play a badass and it sucks if you get relegated to the joke of the group and thats not the role you want. So basically my opinion is that its the players that make a good night and not the roles.
also, its kind of a cheat but you could always give your character a tricky knee lol, every time you fluff a role just blame it on your old war injury.
Mocking failures and bad decisions can be one of the most sublime pleasures of tabletop gaming. People reminisce about success once in a while, but failures become legends which live forever. For instance, if the Ranger fails a save and falls into a pit with acid at the bottom and then we levitate him out and urinate on him "to wash off the acid" that's a classic moment (for some definition of "classic" at least - people still laugh about it years later though)
In a 3.X game, I had a character, that while not so unlucky as to get lots of "1"s, was unlucky in that he almost never made a perception DC. While not perception focused, he did have a reasonable score. Just that the dice hated that check.
It became something of a joke throughout the campaign.
/cevah
In a 3.X game, I had a character, that while not so unlucky as to get lots of "1"s, was unlucky in that he almost never made a perception DC. While not perception focused, he did have a reasonable score. Just that the dice hated that check.
It became something of a joke throughout the campaign.
/cevah
If you don't max it, don't take it.
Perception is weird that way.
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I have a friend whose husband GMs for their group. When someone rolls a 1 on an attack, he tells them "Your bowstring broke" or "Your sword blade snaps" or something similar.
I would personally be really frustrated by that kind of response. Rolling a 1 shouldn't mean something horrible happens to your character or her equipment every single time. When you make a critical success you don't get to dictate what happens. You still have to roll for damage, and your opponent may have enough HP that your critical damage doesn't hurt much.
The same should go for a failure. The GM doesn't get to arbitrarily decide that something awful or embarrassing happens to your PC. Sometimes a 1 is just a l. Don't penalize players for something over which they have no control.
That said, it is fun occasionally to make rolling a 1 a momentous scene. But it should be done sparingly. Having your failures constantly pointed out can be really irritating for some players and deprive them of a lot of the fun of the game.
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I don't use critical failures, and I avoid using slapstick or character incompetence as the reason for failure.
Try to punch someone and roll a 1? The foe catches your fist in a badass way (now the bad guys are a THREAT rather than an obstacle).
Your Dwarf Barbarian rolls a 1 in a drinking contest? You swig deeply, and as you drink, you realize that this isn't the Dwarven Ale you were expecting, but foul goblin toilet grog, sure you could stomach it, but dwarven honor demands that you heave it up immediately!
But sometimes I just put it in the player's hands.
Why do you fail?
Let the player do a bit of narrating.
I have a friend whose husband GMs for their group. When someone rolls a 1 on an attack, he tells them "Your bowstring broke" or "Your sword blade snaps" or something similar.
1) That is unrealistic.
2) That penalizes martials more than casters.3) That penalizes higher levels more than lower levels because they make more rolls.
Tell him that all his NPC's have the same rules, and then use a caster that does not ever make an attack roll, only save or X spells.
/cevah
I have a friend whose husband GMs for their group. When someone rolls a 1 on an attack, he tells them "Your bowstring broke" or "Your sword blade snaps" or something similar.1) That is unrealistic.
2) That penalizes martials more than casters.
3) That penalizes higher levels more than lower levels because they make more rolls.Tell him that all his NPC's have the same rules, and then use a caster that does not ever make an attack roll, only save or X spells.
/cevah
It would be more hilarious to play a nigh unhittable character and just run around fishing for natural 1s from AoOs. It's actually a pretty classy way of revealing the flaws in a GM's critical failure rules. Run circles around your foes, and stop when they have sufficiently crippled/killed themselves.
Snowblind we actually had a guy who did that in the game of a GM who lived for critical tables. It was pretty funny till the GM got pissed and did the whole 'rocks fall' routine on his character.
One guy we play with has caused several monsters to fumble and die while attacking his PCs. The effects of this on the PCs aren't as bad since we allow you to bypass the effects of a crit or fumble card for a Hero Point. Often folks keep their hero point and let the fumble play out, especially if it is an inconvenience rather than a disaster. Even when somebody spends a point so that something "doesn't really happen" folks generally get a laugh out of what "almost happened" though.
If you're going to use fumbles and crits they should require confirmation though, especially for fumbles. Otherwise things become farcical as you gain levels, especially for folks using Rapid Shot or TWF.