In D&D and some similar tabletop role playing games, when you roll a 20 sided die to see if your action succeeds or fails, rolling a 1 is the worst result. In some cases, it will even automatically fail. This is called a Natural 1, or Nat 1 for short.
Basically, she did as bad as it is possible to do.
a reader among thousands
It’s more than the worst result. It’s not just a failed test, it’s a critical failure, it will have consequences, bad consequences… To take a practical example for those who, like Ranb, don’t know, if you try to run away for some peoples and fail the test, it would mean that they are faster than you and will catch you. But if it’s a nat 1, it will looks more like:
[deep Dungeon Master voice] You starts to run, but you clearly forgot that you’re in the middle of a forest. It’s not the low branches that were your fate, you got few scratches on your face, but you achieve to avoid most of them. The problem is that, in order to do that, you had to looks in front of you, not at the ground, and there’s roots there… You hit one with your left foot and twisted your ankle. This and your high speed made you fall, but don’t worry, you didn’t hit the ground… A tree was there to stop you, breaking your nose in the process. And it’s like that, the ankle twisted, the face bruised and you nose bleeding, that they caught you… I can’t tell for sure, but I guess that their laughter will haunt you for years.
mneme
For an awful GM, sure.
A natural 1 isn’t actually a critical failure in modern versions of D&D anyway; it’s just an automatic failure (on a skill check, it’s not even an automatic failure).
But if one assumes that Noah’s using a critical failure rule (from the next comic, I don’t think he is; the 1 was just a failure, rule of cool still applies — no good GM will make the PCs look like fools unless “I’m a fool” is actually part of their idiom; instead, you want to keep the character’s core competencies intact while still palying into the crit success = “yes, and,” success = yes, failure = “no”, near failure/near success = “yes, but” (not in D&D by default but it’s great), critcal failure = “no, and” approach.
So a failure on “run away!” might be “You turn, and sprint for the hills, using all your parkour skills. Unfortuantely, the chasers also seem to have learned parkour, and while you’re pulling away from them, it’s only a moment too late that you realize that a group of them had circled around and you’re running right at them!” while a critical failure might be “You turn, and sprint for the hills, using all your parkour skills. You are pulling away from the chasers, when you realize another group has circled around waits in ambush! With a burst of speed and creativity, you turn and climb onto a building, undergoing a frenzied chase upon the rooftops, until, gasping, you pull yourself to safety! You have lost them! But it seems you have also lost yourself–you have no idea where you are.”
As in my example, a critical failure might actually make a character seem -more- competent than a failure (or even a success) but will leave them with a worse/more complicated outcome, regardless of how it turns out.
Never say “I’ve got this!” or anything similar right before rolling. The Dice Gods cannot resist using their power to insert some irony into your campaign.
11 thoughts on “The Shrieking Mires #8”
Witch of Many Jobs
I can literally hear the BG3 lady in my head when she rolled that Nat 1
Dyamonde
Authority… not recognized.
Ranb
BG3 lady? Nat 1? Can anyone explain this to a non-D&D person like myself?
The Occupant
In D&D and some similar tabletop role playing games, when you roll a 20 sided die to see if your action succeeds or fails, rolling a 1 is the worst result. In some cases, it will even automatically fail. This is called a Natural 1, or Nat 1 for short.
Basically, she did as bad as it is possible to do.
a reader among thousands
It’s more than the worst result. It’s not just a failed test, it’s a critical failure, it will have consequences, bad consequences… To take a practical example for those who, like Ranb, don’t know, if you try to run away for some peoples and fail the test, it would mean that they are faster than you and will catch you. But if it’s a nat 1, it will looks more like:
[deep Dungeon Master voice] You starts to run, but you clearly forgot that you’re in the middle of a forest. It’s not the low branches that were your fate, you got few scratches on your face, but you achieve to avoid most of them. The problem is that, in order to do that, you had to looks in front of you, not at the ground, and there’s roots there… You hit one with your left foot and twisted your ankle. This and your high speed made you fall, but don’t worry, you didn’t hit the ground… A tree was there to stop you, breaking your nose in the process. And it’s like that, the ankle twisted, the face bruised and you nose bleeding, that they caught you… I can’t tell for sure, but I guess that their laughter will haunt you for years.
mneme
For an awful GM, sure.
A natural 1 isn’t actually a critical failure in modern versions of D&D anyway; it’s just an automatic failure (on a skill check, it’s not even an automatic failure).
But if one assumes that Noah’s using a critical failure rule (from the next comic, I don’t think he is; the 1 was just a failure, rule of cool still applies — no good GM will make the PCs look like fools unless “I’m a fool” is actually part of their idiom; instead, you want to keep the character’s core competencies intact while still palying into the crit success = “yes, and,” success = yes, failure = “no”, near failure/near success = “yes, but” (not in D&D by default but it’s great), critcal failure = “no, and” approach.
So a failure on “run away!” might be “You turn, and sprint for the hills, using all your parkour skills. Unfortuantely, the chasers also seem to have learned parkour, and while you’re pulling away from them, it’s only a moment too late that you realize that a group of them had circled around and you’re running right at them!” while a critical failure might be “You turn, and sprint for the hills, using all your parkour skills. You are pulling away from the chasers, when you realize another group has circled around waits in ambush! With a burst of speed and creativity, you turn and climb onto a building, undergoing a frenzied chase upon the rooftops, until, gasping, you pull yourself to safety! You have lost them! But it seems you have also lost yourself–you have no idea where you are.”
As in my example, a critical failure might actually make a character seem -more- competent than a failure (or even a success) but will leave them with a worse/more complicated outcome, regardless of how it turns out.
Dyamonde
and the BG3 Lady would be the Narrator in Baldurs Gate 3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YG0Fd63_70
The Occupant
Thanks, I don’t own BG3, so that part I did not know.
BossBoro
Hey, she did try to talks things out but parts of the group didn’t look very open to discussions.
Oh boy, that natural 1
The Occupant
Even Steven looks shocked at that Nat 1.
X Marcs the Spot
Never say “I’ve got this!” or anything similar right before rolling. The Dice Gods cannot resist using their power to insert some irony into your campaign.
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