Skill checks are a fairly ubiquitous feature in RPGs. Whether they’re called “Skills”, or “Abilities” or “Talents”, in the end, your character is going to have to roll one. You may be rolling hot all night, but then, at that one fateful moment, the DM tells you, “roll for your Acrobatics check” and you roll… a 1.
What happens from there? It’s entirely up to the machinations of your DM. Some may simply say, “you don’t succeed” and you move on. Others, depending on the degree of failure, make you really fail.
I’m of the view that if the player attempts to do something that is potentially life-threatening that involves a roll, I warn them. “If you fail this check, you will probably die. Are you sure you want to do this?” If they do, it’s on their heads, not mine.
Here’s an example: It is the Star Wars galaxy, six months before the Trade Federation’s invasion of Naboo. One of the heroes is on the roof of one of the Coruscanti skyscrapers, miles above the surface of the earth. On the floor below, the rest of the heroes are engaged in combat with a group of smugglers, fighting for their lives. The rooftop hero, (we’ll call him Mike, because, ironically, that’s his name) decides that instead of taking the stairs, he’s going to do something heroic.
Him: “I want to jump over the edge of the building and swing in through one of the windows.”
Pause.
Me: “Are you serious?”
Him: “Dead serious.”
Me: “You do realize that if you fail this check, you’re going to fall. And fall. And fall.”
Him: “I do. But what an awesome way to die, huh?”
Me: “Roll.”
He rolled. He succeeded. With flying colors. Swinging in through the window, he took down one of the smugglers with a boot to the head. And play progressed.
There is of course, the flip side of the coin. What happens when players fail? Badly?
The player is warned that this dungeon is full of fatal traps, and fails to disarm one of them, causing massive wounds to themselves or other members of the party. They fail a critical piloting check, and now their A-Wing is barreling towards the side of a Star Destroyer. There’s no walking away from a fighter exploding in deep space.
Is it simply a risk that comes with the territory? Or is it something that should be mitigated by the DM? After all, Luke Skywalker never blew up and died. Should death be reserved for moments that matter, dramatic points in the story, or should that be left up to the dice?
I think that failures can lead to some great moments in RPGs. I’m not talking about a skill check failure that ends with someone’s death. I’m talking about the Rogue pickpocketing the city guard and rolling a 1. When that guard turns around and sees you, you’re going to have a decision to make.
When you are meeting with the king of some far-off kingdom and roll a 1 on your Diplomacy, you’re going to have a decision to make.
When you are trying to sneak into a room to steal a priceless artifact, and roll a 1 on your Sneak, alerting the guards, you have a decision to make.
How do things go in your game? Do you warn players about the consequences of failure? Have they ever surprised you with their successes?
3 comments
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August 20, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Argent
Generally for me following the release of 4e I institute skill challenges rather than skill checks. Its one of the concepts (rather than necessarily the mechanics) that I’ve really embraced and fully intend to implement in some form in other RPGs.
As a player I’ve been really frustrated in some games when exactly that kind of thing has happened – and rather than through poor strategy or lack of preparation – something has fallen through due to one bad die roll.
As a GM I look now to let the party mitigate for the bad roll with more options – not letting them off the hook because something bad has happened – but at least putting them in a position where they can influence the outcome more than the dice do.
So the leaping rooftop hero might have taken damage equal to a fall as he slammed into the window which failed to break, and he’d lose at least one combat round, but another check to push himself back out before swinging in whilst firing his blaster at the window would still be fairly cool.
The meeting with the King would always be a detailed and important skill challenge. A 1 on the first diplomacy check though might lead to a -2 on the next few checks because the party failed to show due deference or came across as incompetant. I’d make sure the PCs knew how they’d come across and let them address that through roleplay with the next check – either grovelling and sycophantic praise maybe or using other skills to demonstrate knowledge – to get them back on track. Even if the entire skill challenge was failed that would just lead to further skill challenges as they worked with the chamberlain, or had to borrow money from a friendly, but profit minded merchant and found a way around their earlier failure.
I think the key is that a failed roll or skill challenge should never be the end. There should alwsys be another option – it may be harder, cost more money, take more time or involve more risk but it should never be a dead end. I think death in combat is something players accept but failure on a die roll or a story dead end just increase player frustration and unhappiness.
August 20, 2009 at 2:28 pm
GameGorilla
I think it depends on where you are in the plot of a campaign. In most stories, characters come and go. And in party stories, eventually one character turns out to be the main character, sort of. Take Tanis Half-Elf of Dragonlance. Is he the main character? Somethimes. If it is early on, and the rogue epically-fails to pickpocket a lvl one city guard, you can give the player a choice. “Okay, it’s early in the game. You care about your rogue much? You can see if you can get out of this, but at your risk. You did, afterall fail to pickpocket a Private lvl guard. PRetty bad. Or, you can turn the character over to me, the DM.” Then, if they make it out, you grant them to some cool prestige points. If he turns over the Rogue, the fates take the character into the realm of NPC. Maybe the rogue becomes an investigator who will show up at a later date. Maybe he becomes a bad guy, who knows? Lleldorin, on the new characters in the second book of Berlgariad. He was a Noble Scout who within one hundred pages left the party. He was a bit obnoxious, and could only be taken in small doses. And he failed some saves against Algoroths. He made the decision, as an archer, to get in close combat with poisoned taloned monsters to save his friends. A sacrifice like this deserves preservation through being removed, temporarily from the story.
That’s my opinion.
August 25, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Talmerian
One thing I noticed in your article is that you equate rolling a one with a failure. This is not so for DnD 3.5 I am not sure about Star Wars but since it is OGL, I think, it should also be possible to roll a one and not fail. The SRD and the PHB agree: “Unlike with attack rolls and saving throws, a natural roll of 20 on the d20 is not an automatic success, and a natural roll of 1 is not an automatic failure.” (PHB, 63)
Its good info to know, especially as a DM because someone who roles a one on that d20 might still get a respectable amount, and sometimes you can skip the roll if 1+Skill Modifier is greater than the DC (this happens a lot with rogues and tumbling to avoid Attacks of Opportunity).
The good thing is that this also allows for some flexibility in skill checks. I have a player who has been exclaiming “Natural 20!” when rolling skill checks for over 5 years now. However, sometimes those fail too. So I like to tailor the failure to the ability.