If you were to go by the book, a Critical Fail when rolling to attack is, “If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target’s AC.” Pretty straightforward but lacking any real flavor. Most DMs enjoy taking this opportunity to describe the character’s epic failure, but this usually stops short of much more than some humorous insults.
My proposal is nothing new. In fact, I was toying with the idea when I happened upon the podcast Dungeon Master’s Block and their own spin on Critical Fails. (Check our their show. It’s great and they have a HUGE catalogue of episodes.) While I don’t remember exactly how they structured Critical Fails, I believe it was pretty similar to what I’m about to outline. Continue reading “Mechanic: Critical Fails!”