Heard a guy at my FLGS say "nat 1 roleplay should be a thing" and it stuck with me

I was at Dragon's Lair in Austin last Saturday picking up some minis, and this dude at the next table rolled three nat 1s in a row on perception checks. Instead of being mad, he roleplayed his character having a sudden headache and missing everything. My group usually just laughs off bad rolls, but I took that idea home and now our cleric has a "bad luck prayer" that she stumbles through on crit fails. Has anyone else tried giving their failed rolls a story twist like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

faithb7822d ago

Oh man, "phantom curb" is hilarious, that's exactly the kind of thing I mean. I've been trying this at my table for a few months now and our barbarian started doing this thing where every time he misses an attack he yells "wrong sword!" and draws a different weapon out. It started as a joke but now he's got like six different swords on his character sheet and it actually adds to his whole "raging idiot" persona. The little stories we build around bad rolls end up being way more memorable than the times we just steamroll everything. Plus it takes the sting out of a bad dice night when you can all laugh at your wizard who suddenly forgets how doors work.

iris_mason8822d ago

It's funny how we see this same kind of thing in everyday life if you pay attention... like how some people just own their mistakes at work or in traffic. I had a buddy who would blame his terrible parking on a "phantom curb" that only he could see, and it became a running joke that actually made car rides way more fun. The best stories come from leaning into the weird stuff instead of brushing it off. It's like that little spark of creativity that turns a boring moment into something you remember for years.