I started a new chapter for my library Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game using a module called A Boy and His Modron today, and as often happens in a session, a running joke developed as a result of unfortunate dice rolls.
After being sent to the start of the adventure by their patron wizard's teleportation spell, they met Tobbi the farm boy who had been sent to seek help for his pa's farm, and has his own secret quest to help his strange friend who seems to be in trouble. He asked them to take a shortcut through the woods, whereupon they were attacked by wolves.
The players took defensive positions and battled a Dire Wolf and its pack of five normal-sized (but still dangerous) wolves. One player excitedly rolled a natural 20 on her attack, scoring a critical hit. In 5th edition, this means rolling double the normal number of damage dice before adding any bonuses. Unfortunately, those dice each rolled a 1. She called her minimum damage from what should have been a massive attack a "boop," leading to everyone else declaring their attacks for the rest of the game a "boop" as well.
They kept Tobbi safe, fought off the wolves, and got him home to his family unharmed, where they met... well, I can't give everything away for this story, can I?
Ah man the dice can be so cruel. Nice way to turn it around to something fun though. I've seen people get mad when this happens enough times :P
Fortunately, the people who come to game at the library take such things in stride. I try to keep things calm even when frustration mounts, so it's not usually an issue. I have played in games where people got mad at the clicky-clack math rocks though.
Hello, nice to greet you. We'll keep an eye on the outcome of the story, it's interesting. 😊
I can only run games once a month based on my library schedule and other events, but if anything amusing occurs, there might be a followup story.
If I got Hive Power every time this sort of thing happened to me... well my vote might be worth something! 🤣
I do like some of the Home Table Rules that fix this. The one I use is "On a critical hit, the base dice of the attack are maximized." An example would be I critically hit with my Longbow, its 1d8+8+Mods instead of 2d8+Mods. It is definitely overpowered but it makes the Critical Hits feel substantial, as the hits should.
I get the point of house rules, but rolling more of those math rocks is fun even when they fail you, too. !PIZZA
Ha, ha, ha, ha. A critical boop sound like a cool blooper for any DnD battle.
DnD is one of those dreams of mine. Hopefully, I'll get to play it sometime.
If you ever get a chance to play online, I suggest using RPG Sessions to coordinate. It works especially well with Genesys and the Star Wars RPG. Dungeons & Dragons is great, but there is room for innovation after all these years.
Great suggestions. I'll keep them around and check once I have a computer again.
RPG Sessions is functional on a smartphone, although it works far better on desktop. Since it is browser-based, it runs on Windows, Linux, or Mac.
I don't like doing stuff on the phone. I'm sick of posting with it. But it is what it is. 😅
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