“It’s possible he’s rolling one of those old school d20s numbered 1-10 twice...” this has happened to me... can confirm, had a bad night until I realized that.

"Indy's on a Solo adventure..." I see what you did there.

"They might give a good speech, but this is not someone you can convince to abandon his way of life and everything he believes in just because some annoying stranger said something clever".

While DMing my daughters and their friend, they managed a series of 1s and 2s for saves and checks at a critical junction. They didn't die, but the warehouse they were investigating burned down, their possible evidence is lost, and they're on the run. Square one. Now they need to find new leads, be rid of their burned clothing evidence, and pursue the leads they did get. Drama.

The most relevant statement I’ve heard in a while.. “D&D is not a war game.”

Jerry killed it with the video clips! I laughed several times at my own video! :D

Reminds me of having different DCs for skill checks. DC 15 to leap over the pit. DC 12 to miss and grab the ledge. DC 10 to fall into the pit but grasp a rock 10 feet down. DC 5 to plummet 30 feet and take a bunch of damage.

Man alive! Matt Colville's... alive.

YOU ARE ALIVE.

You're basically describing what writers refer to as "try-fail cycles". Those are narrative beats that describe failed attempts from the hero that move toward (or away from) but don't achieve success or which achieve partial or flawed success and require further attempts. When people feel frustrated by books or movies with "Mary Sue" heroes who are too perfect and succeed at everything without trying, it's because there aren't enough try-fail cycles. Multiple fail states lets you build try-fail cycles into the stories you're writing together.

Risen from the deep, Matt arrives to deliver us deep knowledge from his travels to the far realms of existence.

Re: "Watch Raiders of the Lost Ark".

This is a great reminder that the game doesn't need to have a loser; it just needs interesting situations. I think for a lot of DMs, there is this sense that they are letting their players off easy by not killing their characters for failing, but really, that is just how the game should be played.

10:37

This should had been like your second video of the series. Third at the latest. Best dnd advice on the whole of KZfaq

Failing forward and fail states are some of my favorite house mechanics, even if they can be hard to implement.

We start combat with an initiative roll, so maybe we should start negotiations with an insight check. On a good roll, players would learn the NPC's attitude toward them, their values, and what they could hope to achieve by negotiating. On a bad roll, some of that information would be missing or even wrong!

That actually reminds me of one of my favorite mechanics from Call of Cthulhu: Pushed Rolls. Basically in the event of a failed roll, the player can "push" the roll and reroll their result, but the consequences for failing a pushed roll are much higher than what you'd normally get out of a normal attempt. To give a few examples...

I love how FATE builds this into the system. The section on skill rolls outright says that a normal failure means succeeding at a minor cost and a critical failure means you ask the player whether they succeed at a major cost or fail.

I love the choice of Dragon's Lair for the animation of binary live/die. Classic