Remnants of the black half-dragon’s acidic breath fade from the air as Qoyish attempts to mount his injured shadow wyvern. If she succeeds, she’ll be able to stab the beast where his wounds are already dire. If she fails, she risks falling directly under the wyvern’s venomous stinger that drips black venom. And if she truly stumbles, the wyvern might immediately lurch at the already hurt ice elf, leading to her demise.
As the debate with the human lord grows more and more heated at the grand feasting table, a minotaur rebukes him with a firm statement. If his words land, the lord will cow to their demands. If they fall flat, he might order his dragonborn guards to carry them to the dungeons below his keep. If they sting the lord’s fragile ego, he could order the party’s death on the spot.
Hearing his water nymph companion’s call for help down the tiny passage, a minotaur forces himself into the hole. If he succeeds, he’ll squeeze through the stone, sahuagin corpse, and sharp spike trap. If he fails, he’ll cut himself on the spikes and reach his companion far more slowly. But if his strength and dexterity completely fail him, he’ll be a big cow caught in a small hole.
Last week, I read an article written over at Improved Initiative that caught my attention. It discussed the concept of failing forward which is incredibly important in a game like Dungeons & Dragons. In a pinch, failing forward means that even if a PC fails a check, especially a skill check, something still happens. Sure, if a half-orc fighter bashes down a wooden door with a successful Athletics check, it’s self explanatory, but what happens if she fails? Do you have an alternative besides letting the door remain intact? Do you have multiple scenarios? If not, this article might help with that.
The goal of this article is to get you in the mindset of setting up multiple reactions to your PCs rolls. They might not always be mechanical; in fact, most of the time they won’t be. Instead, they’ll progress the story, ensuring the engagement doesn’t go down as the half-orc tries to bash the door down again and again with her metal shield or just-as-hard fists. At the same time, you need to be cognizant of the fact that sometimes you need to let the PCs try other plans. Let’s roll.
The General Mindset
Skill Checks
A few sessions ago in my Karlith Straits campaign, a water nymph, Na, was trapped by a portcullis in a small passageway; duergar were en route to her. The party’s minotaur cleric, Alovnek, desperately needed to get to her and break down the portcullis. However, the tunnel was quite small plus a spike trap and a sahuagin corpse was in his way. I gave his player the choice of making an Athletics or Acrobatics check to get to the portcullis. For both, I had the following thought out depending on how he described his action:
- Major Failure: He gets stuck in the beginning of the tiny tunnel, becoming restrained. This lets the duergar get to his party member before him.
- Failure: He squirms his way through the tunnel slowly, but cuts himself on the sharp spike and gets sahuagin blood on his armor.
- Success: He progresses through the tunnel without touching the sahuagin corpse or spike and reaches Na before the duergar do.
- Major Success: He reaches the end of the tiny tunnel quickly long before the duergar do and uses his momentum to break down the shabby portcullis with his horns.
Ability Checks
Attack Rolls
For example, my party was fighting an island-sized earth elemental in the Astral Plane in my latest Enoach Desert session. I had lots of fun designing that encounter, and knew the characters could pull off some awesome moves on this enormous elemental. When a character hit, depending on the attack roll/damage, they could do the following:
- Major Failure: The earth elemental grabs the attacker’s weapon and thrusts it forty feet off the platform or absorbs a missile/spell and regurgitates it onto people standing on the island.
- Failure: The attacker’s weapon is stuck in the earth elemental.
- Success: The attacker causes one of the throwing boulders to no longer be of use (breaking it, moving it off, causing the earth elemental to pivot, etc).
- Major Success: The attacker cracks one of the earth elemental’s limbs off, causing it to topple into the Astral Plane, useless.
In Summary
- Remember all rolls in D&D should have reactions, otherwise why roll?
- Skill checks should have multiple outcomes that can significantly help, harm, or hinder the PCs based on their actions.
- Ability checks are more black and white rules-as-written, but you can design mechanics with varying die rolls in mind. What if the wizard fails his Intelligence save by more than 5?
- Failed and successful attack rolls can have a plethora of outcomes other than simply being a hit. Does the sword barely scratch along the armor’s weak point? Does the maul’s mighty blow shatter the ogre’s knee cap?
Next time — I promise — will either be an article about my new favorite unused D&D monster or a remix of a loved and hated artifact found in 3.5’s Races of Eberron.
Until then, farewell!
Eager for more RJD20? Begin here, subscribe to the RJD20 newsletter, and explore RJD20 videos on YouTube.
Check out Villain Backgrounds Volume I, a supplement that crafts compelling villains.
Please send inquiries to rjd20writes@gmail.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment