The Critical Fail

Everyone gasp in horror.  Players, sigh in dread at the GM's delight.  For you have rolled a Natural-One - and something prolifically stupid is about to happen.  In the past, I've seen everything from player characters "accidentally" shooting or stabbing themselves and each other, to spells and bombs blowing up in our faces, and more than once has it resulted in the death of a character.  Also more than once has it resulted in arguments, frustration, dice flying in the air...

You're telling me my level 8 fighter, who's trained and experienced and has wielded a sword since he was a kid, somehow 'goofed up' and stabbed himself in his own leg?  How does one even do that?!  John McClane never accidentally shot himself.  Luke Skywalker probably should have run his lightsaber through a limb or two, but he managed to avoid self injury.  No one in Lord of the Rings ever swung a sword, missed, and chopped off their own heads.  So you're telling me the best we got when I roll a critical failure is I've stabbed myself and now I'm bleeding to death?

There had to be a better way - a solution that was less likely to cause players to want to cheat, felt more in-game and less like a punishment.  While watching Star Wars Episode III (don't judge...), during the dramatic lightsaber duel at the end when the bridge collapsed and the tower fell, I thought, "Huh.  Someone rolled a 1." - and that's when it hit me.  A new concept that would later become a house rule and forever change our gaming group's view of the Natural-One / Critical Failure.  No longer would anyone dread the failure, fearing their character was about to act completely out-of-character and do something monumentally stupid.  I give you THE ENVIRONMENT CHANGE.

Maybe we should get down first?  No?  Yeah, let's just keep going.

The house rule is simple, and I encourage you to try it yourself at your next campaign.  When someone rolls a natural-one on the D20 (or whatever the equivalent of a critical failure is in the system you're playing), something dramatically changes in the environment to make things more difficult.  It effects everyone, and increases the challenge just a little bit, but that's usually enough to make the players pause and re-think their strategy.  Maybe your arrow triggered a rock slide, and now some people are stuck while the area is "difficult terrain".  Maybe your wild shot ruptured the water tank, and now everything is flooding.  Maybe the bridge is crumbling and about to fall.  Maybe your sword shattered a lantern and started a fire, and it's quickly spreading.  Make it dramatic, make it feel like that cinematic moment when the heroes go from the frying pan into the fire, get creative.  It makes victory feel so much more rewarding. 

Just don't go overboard.

I welcome your comments below.  If you try this technique, let me know how it goes and what your players thought of it.  If you have your own methods for dealing with the critical failure, let me know that too.