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An Enemy Spy
2011-12-21, 11:27 PM
I was DMing a battle recently where the bad guys had surrounded the good guys and were about to lay the smack down on them when I rolled a few critical fumbles on the same turn, causing the enemy force to all fall over and drop their weapons. It got me to wondering, what is the worst turn of luck any of you have had? A roll so bad and at such an inopportune time that it completely alters the battle, allowing you to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory?

The one that comes to mind for me didn't happen to me personally. My friend was playing Warhammer 40k and he rolled twenty dice at once.
They all came up as one.

Every.

Single.

One.

I'm not a statician, but I'd say that the odds of something like that happening on a practical level are so remote that you can basically write it off as an impossibility.

What's your story?

Delwugor
2011-12-22, 01:22 AM
A 20 on an attack roll!
The explanation is that I can't crit with my namesake character. So a couple of months ago I roll a 20 Woooot a Threat - Woot a Crit with an Axe. Against a Xorn - Crap!

NikitaDarkstar
2011-12-22, 01:28 AM
A jump check in a d100 system. I had 99 I jump, could only miss my jump ona 100, and it was only a 5ft jump. a 5ft jump over a very deep and deadly chasm cure, but still a silly jump. I roll a 100 and fall to my death, even left a bloody little crater at the bottom. (Lets put it this way, it was daylight.. and the others needed torches to find my characters broken body at the bottom, that's how deep it was.)

Mastikator
2011-12-22, 01:31 AM
I'm currently playing a character that has had the worst, or almost worst on every single stat roll.
HP, roll 1 (1d6),
Raud, roll 1 (1d5) (raud is basically "destiny points")
Abilities roll 20, 17, 11 (1d20) (high means bad, I arranged it so it's +1, +1, -1)
Social success roll 5 (1d20) (category: failure)
Money, roll 3 (1d20) (category: poor)
Etc.

At least I rolled high on 3 skills, mind you, these are all only indirectly and contextually useful at best (smithing, geography, culture).

Luckily I suffer from characteritis, so if he dies I won't be too disappointed :P

Crossblade
2011-12-22, 01:32 AM
Last sunday's game of Pathfinder, had one of the BBEG's minions turn on him to assist the PCs. Unfortunately the turncoat's rolls weren't too impressive. He had more than his share of misses. His presence did at least save the PCs though from the BBEG's pet monster.

Another game (called Corporation), the group played over a year ago, we restarted about 4 times because we kept losing players or since we were new, people re-stat'ed; but all my non-combat PCs would critically fail ANY perception check. I was either the most attentive driver, watching out for pot holes (while parked) or so very suspicious of the carpet when looking for shady characters on a train.

My gf seems to have odd luck with dice as well in the above mentioned Pathfinder campaign. A trend seems to be emerging; the first week she rolled 2-3 criticals. Two weeks ago she rolled 3 critical failures (I don't use fumbles though), last sunday she had 2 criticals. Sadly, she's not much of a role player, because she's so shy and the other group members over extra out spoken; so it seems to me she's only having fun with good dice rolls (and laughing at the crazy plans and jokes made by the group, I suppose).

erikun
2011-12-22, 01:50 AM
2nd edition D&D character. For those who remember, you needed to have minimum stats to qualify for a class - 9 for the basic classes. The character failed to qualify for any class.

After the DM allowed a one-time point exchange so that I could actually qualify for something (I picked Cleric), we rolled HP... and I rolled a natural 1.

So now, we had the party Cleric with only a single HP, and no stat above single digits. :smalltongue: Of course, the party Fighter had 2 HP and the Wizard 3 HP, so I don't know how we would have managed much if the game had gone anywhere...

Dr.Epic
2011-12-22, 01:54 AM
Statistically speaking, the worst roll you could get is a natural 1.

Draconi Redfir
2011-12-22, 01:54 AM
3.5, I’m playing a bugbear cleric and one of my allies just fell into a pit and impaled himself on a spike. i climb down to heal check him.

"Hmm lets see now"

*Rolls a four*

"Well THERE’S your problem! That fall dun put your heart on the wrong side of your chest! just let me fix that for you!"

*Ally dies*

"Wait... don't humans have a different... crud."

TheFallenOne
2011-12-22, 03:43 AM
Saw a level 1 druid die to a scroll mishap

natural 1 on DC 3 caster level check
natural 1 on DC 5 wisdom check to avoid mishap
2d6 damage ==> down

Incanus Kindler
2011-12-22, 03:54 AM
Statistically speaking, the worst roll you could get is a natural 1.

Unless you are playing in a d100 system. Because then its the best possible roll you could ever get.

FeetUpsideDown
2011-12-22, 04:52 AM
Shadowrun game, our dumb but super-strong street samurai got into an argument with a security guy, and punched him. Rolled 17 successes from 17 dice, right off the bat.

Cue security dude's head exploding, entire party legging it, and the entire organisation as relentless enemies from that day forth...

W3bDragon
2011-12-22, 04:54 AM
Shamefully there were too many to really count, but I'll relate a couple off the top of my head.

2nd Ed D&D, we were playing an arena style pvp game. 8 players in total, around 15th level. It was my first ever high level character. It took me several days to make him, several hours to write, audit, and rewrite his sheet.

Game starts. It took a few hours before I finally got enough rounds of action to have left the starting buffing room and entered the arena proper. An invisible flying PC casts hold person on me, I can only fail on a 1. My very first roll with that character. A one, naturally. I got unceremoniously slaughtered some time after.


Another one was a horrible set of player rolls and just a bit of general idiocy when I was GMing CoC. The PCs had just finished discussing over dinner their plan to deal with an assassin. After a long discussion, they decide that the best plan of action is to stick together at all times, never leaving anyone alone for even a moment. Happy with their plans, they then carry on with their dinner. One of the PCs then decides to rest for a while in his room, alone. Yes, he forgot the plan that they just finished discussing. Yes, the rest of the PCs ALSO forgot and didn't say anything. The PC walks to his room alone. The assassin was watching them and quickly went to that PC's room and hid.

The PC reaches his room. I decide that his character, who had very high intelligence, wouldn't be that stupid. So I gave him an idea roll to remind him of the plan. His success chance was 90%. He failed, so he entered the room. I then gave him a spot check to see the assassin as he was walking in. His spot was around 96%. He failed. The assassin attacked. I gave the PCs outside a chance to hear the fight. They had success chances between 50%-75%. They all failed. The PC died.

caden_varn
2011-12-22, 05:08 AM
DMing Torg, the party had picked up an ally (a campaigned Romance card had her married to one of the PCs). She had an unfortunate reputation when using area of effect spells/miracles for rolling just well enough to affect any allies in the group, but not the bad guys.

The group was in the jungle, planning an attack on an enemy village. SHe suggested using her Earthquake miracle (from a homebrewed Aztec cosm), which creates a small localised earthquake (about 100 metres wide), with the bonus from her roll going to the radius.

As soon as she suggested it, the party werewolf announces that if the priest is going to use it, she is going to run in the opposite direction. I thought she was being a bit dramatic, but hey, up to her.
The miracle takes a fair while to invoke, so the werewolf is several miles away by the time it goes off. So I make the roll (in Torg you roll d20, and roll again and add if you get a 10 or 30 in a trained skill). 10. 20. 20. 10. 10.

In the end, the earthquake had an 8 mile radius. The werewolf just about managed to get out of the area in time...

It did knock the enemy village down, though.

Ancano
2011-12-22, 05:34 AM
Me and two teammates were jointly trying to influence a guard's attitude and all rolled natural 1's on our diplomacy checks. It didn't help that we'd all dumped charisma.

Mastikator
2011-12-22, 05:35 AM
Statistically speaking, the worst roll you could get is a natural 1.

Not if you're playing with open ended fumble rolls. I once rolled three 1s in a row, needless to say, my character died horribly.

Kesnit
2011-12-22, 06:14 AM
Vampire: the Requiem LARP. My character had made his haven in the rarely-used utility closet of a building. Of course, the ST decided that maintenance chose that day to come in.

Pull to hide. Got a 1. Pull to hit the employee so I could run out. Got a 1. The ST ruled that the employee got a grip on my pants. Pull to get away. Got a 1, so my pants were ripped off. Finally I activated one of my powers to scare the employee and succeeded.

Friv
2011-12-22, 09:32 AM
It wasn't technically my roll, but it was a roll against me, so I'll count it.

New D&D game, 3.5. I was playing a ranger. The DM decided to start the game in medias res, with us attacking an orc camp. We got the basic background, built our characters, and got started in the middle of a battle against a few orcs.

Initiative roll. I rolled very poorly. An orc rolled well. He charged me.
Natural 20. Critical confirm? Success. Damage against me is now 4d4 + 8. Total damage: 22. My HP? 10.

Instant death, before I had a chance to take a single action, or speak. Earliest I've ever died in a game.

Nerd-o-rama
2011-12-22, 09:51 AM
One time at the end of a murder-mystery NWoD mortals game, the climactic showdown came down to a shootout between my character and another PC, the more-or-less mastermind of the plot who was going to bring a demon into the world and destroy the town. We were the last two characters standing, each with a handgun, some Willpower, and not much else left.

My character - a stoner who had never fought before, mind - is holding his own against the arrogant son of a bitch, but down to his last lethal hitbox. As a last gasp, he fires one more time, blowing a Willpower and throwing all the pointless death this guy had caused back in his face.

And after all that, the roll is one success short of dropping the guy and letting my character save the day and the town. Despite wound penalties, he easily dispatches me on his turn, my character falls dead in the mud, the demon is born, the town is destroyed, and everything sucks forever.

Losing the whole "adventure" by one point/success is far more terrible to me than any dramatic/critical failure ever could be.

Talesin
2011-12-22, 11:14 AM
In my game last week the party comes up against a 5 ft wide 10 ft long pool of water that sits between two walls. We need a jump check, DC 5, to cross the water. The first 2 attempts to jump roll a 1 and a 1 so the paladin falls on his face and the sorcerer falls on to his face. They made their reflex saves so didn't end up in the water.

The next three characters make it across and end up getting stunned in the next room. In order to move them back across the water the paladin hoists my fighter on to his shoulder, makes a running jump to cross this tiny river and rolls another 1, falling flat on his face and making his reflex save by 1 to keep myself and him out of the pool of water.

Still got no idea what the pool of water does, if anything, but no way in hell we're going near it again.

Jay R
2011-12-22, 11:27 AM
In a dungeon crawl, our low-level party saw a hole in the wall above a ten-foot pile of rubble. This was such an easy climb the DM gave my thief roll a 95% chance of succeeding. So I rolled the dice -- 00. He stood up, dusted himself off, and climbed again -- 00 again.

(It turns out my dice were trying to save me - there was a Grey Ooze in the hole.)

Volos
2011-12-22, 11:39 AM
In my very first game as DM ever I ended up killing the entire party with a d20 that rolled nothing but 20s a few moments after the players agreed to using the 'three-20s-in-a-row-equals-instant-kill' optional rule. They were killed by a twig blight (yes, I was running the Sunless Citadel).

Later in the same campaign the PCs were in the middle of a huge naval battle with the BBEG. The druid got the smart idea to turn into a huge flying creature of some sort (she had alot of wild shape feats) while holding onto the barbarian. He, being so massive, was wielding the balista (a huge size siege crossbow). And the rogue, being so insane, was going to ride the balista bolt all the way down. The wizard of the party kept the BBEG busy with her pet dragon and a ton of control spells I had pointed out to her when she leveled up. So what it came down to was the rogue shooting himself from orbit on the back of a balista bolt with a true death crystal attached. He wanted to hit the BBEG vampire wizard who was not only blurred but had mirror image up at the time. I had to roll randomly to determine which of the many images of the vampire wizard was the true one, and it turned out it was the one the rogue picked. So then I rolled for miss chance, and it was still good. Finally I rolled a concentration check for the BBEG for a immediate action spell I had ready... and rolled a nat 1. So the rogue PC not only got a bucket of sneak attack dice off on the vampire BBEG, but he also critted and got damn near max damage, plus the 20d20 for a falling object. When the Vampire came back from that, having been healed in his coffin by his cohort, he was rather pissed.

LibraryOgre
2011-12-22, 11:50 AM
Not one I saw, but one I heard of (http://web.archive.org/web/20061206053759/http://archive.dumpshock.com/CLUE/ShowCLUE.php3?page=casefile25.htm).

28 dice. All ones.

Nerd-o-rama
2011-12-22, 12:01 PM
Later in the same campaign the PCs were in the middle of a huge naval battle with the BBEG. The druid got the smart idea to turn into a huge flying creature of some sort (she had alot of wild shape feats) while holding onto the barbarian. He, being so massive, was wielding the balista (a huge size siege crossbow). And the rogue, being so insane, was going to ride the balista bolt all the way down. The wizard of the party kept the BBEG busy with her pet dragon and a ton of control spells I had pointed out to her when she leveled up. So what it came down to was the rogue shooting himself from orbit on the back of a balista bolt with a true death crystal attached. He wanted to hit the BBEG vampire wizard who was not only blurred but had mirror image up at the time. I had to roll randomly to determine which of the many images of the vampire wizard was the true one, and it turned out it was the one the rogue picked. So then I rolled for miss chance, and it was still good. Finally I rolled a concentration check for the BBEG for a immediate action spell I had ready... and rolled a nat 1. So the rogue PC not only got a bucket of sneak attack dice off on the vampire BBEG, but he also critted and got damn near max damage, plus the 20d20 for a falling object. When the Vampire came back from that, having been healed in his coffin by his cohort, he was rather pissed.

Was the rogue named Slim Pickens? Because that would explain it.

koscum
2011-12-22, 12:04 PM
First session with my Catfolk Rogue. Critical moment at the beginning of the campaign.

DM: Now let's see how I'm going to mess you up. Roll a Will save.
Me: *rolls*
d20: 1
Everyone: Ouch!
DM: Ok, roll again...
Me: *rolls again*
d20: 1
Me: *rolls again*
d20: 1
Me: *rolls again*
d20: 1
Me: *rolls again*
d20: 2
DM: *jawdrop* I never expected something like this to happen... EVER! I'll figure something out for the next session.



Worst stat roll (on 5d6): 3
Other stats were: 4, 4, 6, 6, 10.

Tyndmyr
2011-12-22, 12:24 PM
Statistically speaking, the worst roll you could get is a natural 1.

Your positive-integer-only dice disgust me!

In seriousness, I've actually seen some dice with negatives on them. Not a clue what actually uses them. Well, other than the FATE dice, but those are just minus symbols.

I've done the giant handful of 1s thing before on 40k...thing is, the "rolling a handfull of dice" happens so often in that system that everyone is bound to have at least one mindbogglingly lucky or unlucky roll.

Edit: Last session, I had a monster alive with what, 1 hp, for something like three rounds of attacks. Something like that anyhow. Everyone was invariably failing the miss chance vs incorporeal undead. One guy rolled the same number on a d100 a few times in a row doing this. It got quite hilarious.

olthar
2011-12-22, 12:39 PM
Playing a hybrid 1/3.5 game. My wizard (a class I chose because of its lack of rolling due to a number of hilariously horrible rolls) lost his spellbook and backup. He was rolling to rewrite his book and crit failed twice on the same spell, invisibility. Also failed on his favorite/strongest spell polymorph self, and managed to only scribe 15 spells with the 10 quills he bought (each quill is good for 1d6 spells).

With a previous character. My poor thief failed a dc10 reflex save to avoid falling rocks. His reflex save was +9. Next game he fails an untrained dc5 balance check with a dex bonus of +4. A few weeks later he fails a listen check and then a dc15 reflex save against a basilisk (save is to close eyes, petrify automatic if sees).

"Single roll?" I was DMing a game and the PCs found the BBEG. They were just beginning the fight when the party mage cast phantasmal killer at him. Both rolls for the save were 1 under the BBEG's save. With the BBEG down all his minions had to make moral checks that about half of them failed.

Reynard
2011-12-22, 12:39 PM
In Exalted, one of my players rolled 30-something dice, and failed to get a single success. On 30-odd dice, not a single one was 7 or above.

Knaight
2011-12-22, 01:08 PM
In seriousness, I've actually seen some dice with negatives on them. Not a clue what actually uses them. Well, other than the FATE dice, but those are just minus symbols.

It's Fudge dice, not FATE dice. FATE simply built upon Fudge, borrowing the dice in the process, along with a whole bunch of other things (e.g. the trait ladder).

Andreaz
2011-12-22, 01:29 PM
My friend was playing Warhammer 40k and he rolled twenty dice at once.
They all came up as one.

Every.

Single.

One.
What's your story?
I did the same, but in an exalted game, with an elder solar.

Rolled 73d10
All 1s

Best Limit Break ever.

Tempeststurm
2011-12-22, 04:02 PM
I did the same, but in an exalted game, with an elder solar.

Rolled 73d10
All 1s

Best Limit Break ever.

I think your dice roller is broken. That's so staggeringly unlikely that if you tried to write each possible ordered combination of 73d10 onto an atom, by the time you had used all of the atoms in our galaxy you would be less than a thousandth of the way through your task.

Toofey
2011-12-22, 04:21 PM
Last night the Party I Dm (2nd ed) squared off with the BBEG, First round they came very close to killing him with their surprise action, but he wormed away and healed himself (with heal, so he was back at full) the party mage goes first the next round and opens with Disintegrate. MR roll: 97 Save: 1(crit failure)

bye bye bbeg

FFKonoko
2011-12-22, 06:26 PM
Worst stat roll (on 5d6): 3

...wait, what? :smallconfused:

Knaight
2011-12-22, 06:36 PM
...wait, what? :smallconfused:

5d6 drop 2. Which means a roll of 1, 1, 1, 1, and 1 all on d6.

beamersrq
2011-12-22, 10:12 PM
2e game I'm playing a thief/ranger. Each party member was inflicted with a cursed mark on his forehead by a runemaster which we must save against in combat (different effect for each rune/character). We run into a group led by a bad guy named Time Flies, who sends a swarm of flies against each of us. These can change how time behaves for the character they're around based on d% roll - normal, faster (haste, so we get another attack), slower (so we lose an attack), stop (so no actions), and reversal (so we undo our last round), with the last 2 having much worse odds than the others.

First round I attack with my bow, but also fail my rune save, causing all my allies to be angry at me (which is what my rune does). Cleric casts heat metal, fails his save to realize I'm an ally & hits me with the spell instead of the enemy.

Second round swarm has arrived & I roll for faster time on d% (so I get extra attack). Meanwhile I take damage from my metal heating up so I drop my bow, gauntlets of ogre strength, and throw 2 daggers at the worg attacking me, killing it.

Third round for d% time effects I roll a 17, reverses last round. So my daggers fly back into my sheaths, the worg un-dies, I pick up my gauntlets and bow, and take more heat damage.

Fourth round I roll for normal time, so I take more heat damage, drop my bow & gauntlets, and throw 2 daggers at the worg, killing it again.

Fifth round for d% time effects I roll.... another 17, reverse last round. Daggers back in sheaths, worg un-dies, pick up gauntlets & bow, take more heat damage.

At this point we're all gasping from laughter, as my character is saying "Ouch, too hot. Wait, I need those. Ouch, too hot. Wait, I need those."

Sixth round I roll for slowed time, took more heat damage, but spell was waning so I just kept the metal on & attacked the worg for 20hp (didn't kill him this time).

Seventh round for d% time effects I roll... another reversal, undoing the damage I did to the worg.

Eighth round time stopped so no actions.

Ninth round time slowed, attacked the worg for 20hp (again not killing him).

Tenth round time sped up so I got 2 attacks on the worg, killing it for good. A few rounds later we mopped up the minions but the Time Flies dude ran off.

Ulysses WkAmil
2011-12-23, 12:19 AM
My friend rolled a precentage roll for some table on some homebrew "random effect" wand. Most of the wand powers were pretty fair effects, and he rolled, and the effect was "Magical rabbits sput uncontrollably from the end of the want." It didn't help, considering they were fighting carnivores.

Skelengar
2011-12-23, 12:43 AM
I think your dice roller is broken. That's so staggeringly unlikely that if you tried to write each possible ordered combination of 73d10 onto an atom, by the time you had used all of the atoms in our galaxy you would be less than a thousandth of the way through your task.
Every single possible combination has an equal probability of happening. By that logic, his dice roller would be broken if it got any specific combination.

As for my story:
The party was infiltrating the duke's manor (I swear we had a legitamate reason! The duchess was in league with a crime lord!) and I was making good use of my rope of climbing and maxed out climb. We climbed up the wall and took out the guards. At this point I explained that I could send the rope across to the roof of the manor, and we could shimmy across it. I'd be fine, of course, since I'm practically a monkey, but if you guys don't want to risk it we can find another way. They decided to go for it.

They made it across just fine. I rolled a natural 1. Fortunately, I survived the fall, although my badger did not.

It all worked out fine in the end. They used the rope to climb down to the duchess's window (it was unlocked, so the crime lord could get in), while I escaped the guards by diving through a window and hiding in a closet.

Adindra
2011-12-23, 02:44 AM
My party in a 4.0 game we are just finishing up gained a healthy fear of rats and other vermin.

First battle against giant rats and a rat swarm they roll around 10 20's we get about the same number of ones

second battle against giant rats the entire party spends a full round rolling nothing but ones while the rats once again get 20's

third time around exact same thing happens

we have almost lost or have lost party members every time we fight any kind of rat its horrifying

Infernalbargain
2011-12-23, 03:40 AM
I'm not going to forget my -1 on a perception check.

Vacant
2011-12-23, 03:48 AM
Not really the worst roll, but the worst series of rolls was in a simple skill challenge type encounter very early in a campaign. It was designed to set up the plot and not be terribly difficult, much as the first few fights had led us to the challenge and not been too difficult. With the skill challenge, though, that turned out to be anything but the case. Some animals had escaped from their cages in a sorcerer's lab, and the assistant tasked us with recapturing the creatures roaming about the one-room cabin. For a party of adventurers, this seemed simple enough. Oh, how we were wrong. Of the three players present, I think we managed a total of three or four rolls above a ten (on a d20) over the course of about twenty rounds; I rolled above five only once, and it was a seven. Other than that, I had two fives and no other roll above a three. By the end of this debacle (which also included the only DM roll-fudging of that entire campaign, as I recall), the hawk remains un-captured, but IC and OOC, everyone is extremely fed-up with the whole ordeal. Though he knew we wouldn't be fully rewarded and the sorcerer would be displeased if the animals didn't all survive, my barbarian is simply too pissed to care, so he flies into a rage and charges the hawk, only to fumble and elect to drop his weapon.

Finally, the next round came along and I got some decent rolls which led to him throttling the hawk into unconsciousness. OOC, I was confident I wouldn't kill it since, well, I honestly doubted I would roll above the minimum possible damage.

Badgerish
2011-12-23, 09:35 AM
Not from me, but from my players (4ed):

-3 on a stealth check (nat 1, 10 dex, plate/heavy-shield). Actually fit the situation as the other PCs where hiding and he was a decoy.


And this exchange... I feel a little bad about it, as it's not RAW, but it really fit the situation and the flippant attitude of the player.

PC is a lvl 5 fighter and the party has split into two and is assaulting a building from different ends. The fighter is on a flat roof, which is not is good condition and doesn't have a raised edge.

The fighter gets blinded by a swarm of effigy crows, which moves into his square, which is right on the edge of the roof. The fighter announces that he's shifting away and ending his turn.

I point out that the fighter is blinded, surrounded by a swarm and right on the edge of the roof, does he still want to shift? He says yes and I ask for a perception check: nat 1 (not auto-fail, but the fighter isn't very perceptive)

I ask him if he wants to cancel the move, he refuses so I ask for a d8 roll for direction. He gets a direction that's off the roof. I say that he starts to step off the roof and loses his balance, saving throw to fall prone instead of falling off. Failed.

Well, I think, it's only 2d10 damage, and that's a very swingy roll. The fighter is pretty tough, so he'll probably be fine... 19 damage.

So, the fighter is prone, blind, separated from the group and on 3hp. And the swarm is still marked by him, so it flies down and disables him. None of the party are able to get to him to stabilise him and he bleed out in 4 rounds. :(

(Also in the battle, the NPCs roll better than the PCs and the PCs refuse the first two demands for surrender, so another PC bleeds out)

Murphy80
2011-12-23, 09:44 AM
So many...

- Honor of the Samuri Card game, I was rolling 18d6 to win the game, my friend was rolling 6d6 to stop me. We tied and he won the battle (ties go to the defender). A couple of turns later he won the game.

- 1st edition Cavalier, 1st combat roll of the session, in the middle of a dungeon...natural 1. Broke my sword.

- 3rd edition(The Sunless Citadel) rogue, group was fighting a tiny dragon on the otherside of the pit. I had a good chance to jump across (can't take 10, in combat)...and rolled a 1. I have a good chance to climb out (can't take 10, in combat)...rolled a 1, took damage. Come on, I can't roll that bad 3 times in a row, try to climb out again (can't take 10, in combat)... rolled a 1 and went into negative hp's.

- My friend told of a session of Ars Magica where someone botched a spell so bad that they took out Europe. Something like 7 or 8 1's(on d10) in a row.

- 3.5 edition halfdragon warrior-type, rolled 8 damage on a 6d8 breath weapon attack.

Those are just the one's I remember off the top of my head.

Cisturn
2011-12-24, 01:47 AM
My 3.5 party was fighting an Atropol Scion. Now this monster has a save or die gaze attack so the party is understandably taking their time trying to fight it. All except the Tank, who makes a beeline for Atropol, with his eyes averted. While this is going on, the rest of the party figures out that the fort save to survive the death beam isn't actually that high at all. In fact if everybody in the party could manage to roll a 2 or higher we'd be okay.

Cut to the Tank finally attacking Atropol. "I lift my head up and full round attack the Atropol!" <Rolls a nat one> Keels over right there.

Viktyr Gehrig
2011-12-24, 06:17 AM
4d6k3 for character creation. My best score was an 8 and I had two fours. DM insisted I play it anyway; my counter-offer was less than pleasant.

TroubleBrewing
2011-12-24, 06:52 AM
I rolled a 1 on a swim check as a cleric with 8 str, full plate, and a tower shield once.

A whopping -32. That's about the worst I've done.

SiuiS
2011-12-24, 09:03 PM
Saw a level 1 druid die to a scroll mishap

natural 1 on DC 3 caster level check
natural 1 on DC 5 wisdom check to avoid mishap
2d6 damage ==> down

that Druid should still be alive; a natural one is only a failure on saving throws and attacks; if his caster level was greater than 1, he could not have failed the level check. The wisdom could conceivably have still damaged him though.

-

My worst roll was an attack. Wielding a modified Mace of Disruption, against a crypt Thing who had a low enough save to almost invariably fail the DC against being destroyed. As a wizard, I wasn't proficient with the mace, and didn't want to provoke; I was level 2 at the time, and a decent dexterity, so I decided to throw the mace like a javelin; a -4 for non proficiency, against a flatfooted target who couldn't see me (zero sum), masterwork (+1), high dex (+2), aid another from the party "cleric" (+2), and a true strike (+20).

My initiative count rolls around, and stepping from the shadows of the fane I deliver a dramatic speech about the end of this creature's terrifying ways. I get an adhoc +2 for this. I am now rolling 1d20 + 25 against an armor class of 13 or so, and...

I of course roll a 1 on the die, missing the nigh/immortal terrorbeast with the one weapon it respects and fears. Never have I been so glad for temporary hitpoints before.

FearlessGnome
2011-12-25, 08:41 AM
Me - nothing special. But a girl in the first campaign I played in had the following happen:
1: Step through final portal leading to the Big Bad Demon's enormous cavern.
2: Step into thin air 10 feet above a small platform.
3: Natural 1 on reflex save on the fall.
4: Natural 1 on reflex save to not fall toward the edge of the platform.
5: Natural 2 on reflex save to grab onto the ledge to keep from falling.
6: Hang on to the platform with one finger.
7: Be gently reminded by the other players that the DM put a CR 1/2 goblin on everybody's entry platform for the comic relief of having them stab anyone who didn't land on their feet.
8: Be a ranger with Favoured Enemy: Goblinoids. (Well, all monstrous humanoids rolled into one package, but eh)

Fortuna
2011-12-25, 10:57 AM
Every single possible combination has an equal probability of happening. By that logic, his dice roller would be broken if it got any specific combination.

Yes and no...

True, any specific combination is equally unlikely. But a number of possible combinations are functionally identical, artificially inflating them. With a system as granular as Exalted's dice-rolling, even more combinations are conflated. Nonetheless, that specific combination is so extremely unlikely that it is reasonable to assume a fault in the roller. For reference, the number of times that you would have to roll in order to exceed a 0.5 chance of a given roll combination on 73d10 is between 10^72 and 10^73, while the number of atoms in the solar system isn't even 10^60, and the number of atoms in the universe clocks in at about 10^80.




that Druid should still be alive; a natural one is only a failure on saving throws and attacks; if his caster level was greater than 1, he could not have failed the level check. The wisdom could conceivably have still damaged him though.

Uh, level 1 druid. His caster level was 1. 1+1=2<3. Boom.

Othesemo
2011-12-25, 12:52 PM
Recently, I was playing a game with my brothers (one DMing, the other and myself playing). We were investigating a mine, and the elevator to the lower levels had broken. However, it was only fifty feet down (we were second level at the time). We had some rope in our inventory, so we tied it securely to the rail and started climbing down.My brother's character went first, and tolled a natural one right off the bat. He took 5d6 damage, and was knocked to -2. My character, the cleric, rolled his eyes and started climbing down himself. His climb check? Natural 1. I fell down, and was dropped to -7. The tank stabilized at -8. I just died.

And this was in a campaign world with no resurrection magic.

Brauron
2011-12-25, 04:58 PM
Six 1s in a row on a D20. We ended up affixing the die to the wall (just with tape, as it was a dorm room and we couldn't nail the die to the wall) with a sign "D20 of Shame." At the end of the year, we buried it.

Cainam
2011-12-25, 07:32 PM
I was DMing 1st edition game, and I decided to throw a Margoyle - basically a ramped up Gargoyle - at the party in the middle of the night. They like to fly and swoop down on their opponents, and they have multiple attacks per round (claw/claw/bite). As a kicker, this thing had a silence 15' radius spell cast, so it was completely quiet, and attacking the one player on guard at night, so surprise wasn't hard.

We were using an old critical hit/miss chart that I found somewhere, and my rule is if the players can critical hit, they can critical miss, and so can the monsters. I also have all attacks rolled in order, and if the first one is a 1, your attack is done.

Round #1 The Margoyle swoops down on the unsuspecting player, and rolls a 1. Roll on the critical miss chart and get a 73, which is WEAPON BREAKS.

I say that the Margoyle tried to claw him, but hit the stump he was leaning against and broke his hand. It is completely quiet, and the player missed his spot check, so. . .

Round #2 The Margoyle swoops down on the unsuspecting player, and rolls a 1. Roll on the critical miss chart and get a 72, which is also WEAPON BREAKS.

I say that the Margoyle tried to claw him, but hit the stump he was leaning against and broke his OTHER hand. It is still completely quiet, and the player missed his spot check again. . .

I still haven't told any of the players why I was rolling so many dice and smiling, by the way.

Round #3 The Margoyle swoops down on the unsuspecting player, and rolls a 1. Roll on the critical miss chart and get a 100, which is ROLL THREE MORE TIMES. Next roll 80, HIT SELF, DOUBLE DAMAGE. Ok. . . That hurts. . . Next roll 87, CRITICAL HIT SELF. Oh, that really hurt. He is down to 1 hit point. . . Last roll another 73, WEAPON BREAKS. Ok. . . He was trying to bite. . . I just decided that the thing basically did a face plant and died.

I didn't tell the players exactly what happened untill much later. All they knew was in the morning, there was a nasty crater behind the stump with what looked like a beat-to-hell nightmare in the bottom. . .

onthetown
2011-12-25, 08:39 PM
I once rolled a 4 (D&D 3.5) on an attempt to Move Silently through an area with enemies. My character was a Bard.

Before the DM could state the obvious (everybody notices you), I started loudly singing, "Move, move, move, move silently through the enemy camp~!!"

Horrible roll, but at least my dice know how to set me up for OotS references.

TheEmerged
2011-12-25, 08:46 PM
The game is Risk(tm). Quick primer on the combat rules:

>The attack rolls a maximum number of dice equal to the number of armies he's attacking with, or 3 -- whichever is greater.
>The defender rolls a maximum number of dice equal to the number of armies he's defending with, or 2 -- whichever is greater.
>In both cases, that's a maximum, you can choose to roll fewer. It is usually the defender who rolls fewer (only 1 instead of 2).
> If the defender rolled only one dice, it is compared to the highest dice of the attacker. If the defender rolls two dice, the highest dice of each are compared and then the second highest dice of each are compared.
>The higher result wins, and ties go to the defender.
>The loser (either of the single "pair" compared, or of each "pair") loses an army. The attacker then chooses whether or not to continue.

Got that? Now, before anyone suggests cheating is involved the game, including all pieces and the dice, are all mine and all rolls are publicly viewed.

The game appears to be almost over. I have 43 attacking armies on Greenland (not counting a single army required to be left out of the attack to "hold" the territory) attacking Iceland, the lone territory in the game I don't control. It is defended by 2 armies.

Turn one: I roll three dice, the defender rolls two. We split the roll. There are now 42 armies attacking 1 defender.
Turn two: I roll three dice, the defender rolls one. I lose. There are now 41 armies attacking 1 defender.
<snip>
Turn forty-two: I roll two dice, the defender rolls one. I lose. There is now 1 army attacking 1 defender.
Turn forty-three: I roll one dice, the defender rolls one. I lose. My turn is over.

That's right, I lost 42 straight rounds of combat in Risk.


In seriousness, I've actually seen some dice with negatives on them. Not a clue what actually uses them. Well, other than the FATE dice, but those are just minus symbols.

During the era between D&D 2nd Edition and 3rd Edition, TSR put out a system called Alternity with an interesting dice mechanic. You rolled a d20, and then depending on bonuses & disadvatnages you added or subtracted the result of a second dice to it. Somewhere during that time I found a bunch of d6 that had +1 to +6 and -1 to -6 printed on them; they saw a lot of use :)

SowZ
2011-12-26, 01:56 AM
There was once an Elf. One of the highest level characters in the game world, he was working on his second go round of saving the world. General of the first great war of the dragonswords, personal servant and crusader to the strongest active good dragon on the planet, leader of men and elves alike, survivor of countless terrible ordeals, trusted by his kin to be the primary diplomat and peacekeeper to the human lands, friend to kings and queens, etc. etc. He had an impressive resume.

He is fording a river which has a rope tied to one end. I am climbing along the rope against pretty mild rapids. Problem is I had mediocre Strength and didn't invest much in any relevant skills. My skills were mostly social. So I had to roll to do it. "But it is still a pretty easy tes..." "1." "Oh. You let go of the rope. But you are still standing. Roll a reflex to grab onto the ro..." "1." "Ookkaaay... You slip into the undercurrent but it isn't too strong. Stand up." "2." "Hrm. You can't stand but you are conscious so try again." "1." "Yeah. Uh... Wow. I'm sorry dude. You drown." "..." "Yeah, man." "... K."

The Durvin
2011-12-26, 02:11 AM
There was this one time I was in a hotel and at dinner, the rolls were, like, rock-hard. Tried to break it open by hand, and ended up having to saw through it with my knife. Inside wasn't much better.

...Wait, what?

NOhara24
2011-12-26, 11:16 AM
There was this one time I was in a hotel and at dinner, the rolls were, like, rock-hard. Tried to break it open by hand, and ended up having to saw through it with my knife. Inside wasn't much better.

...Wait, what?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5QGkOGZubQ&feature=related

I haven't had anything particularly bad yet, but my Girlfriend's Cleric is turning out rather...squishy...for level 12. Every time she's rolled HP for a level up, it's come up one or two.

Andreaz
2011-12-26, 11:18 AM
I think your dice roller is broken. That's so staggeringly unlikely that if you tried to write each possible ordered combination of 73d10 onto an atom, by the time you had used all of the atoms in our galaxy you would be less than a thousandth of the way through your task.

chance's 10^-73, assuming fair dice.
No need to overcomplicate the description.

cattoy
2011-12-27, 01:27 AM
Worst roll I ever had was actually pretty good - but context determines everything.

I was playing a normal soldier of fortune in a low-powered Champions (superhero) game. He had an alien girlfriend who was essentially a non-combatant that had two important abilities.

1: she was a good paramedic, which was important because my PC had awful defenses and got tore up on a pretty regular basis.

2: she could fly, and was strong enough to carry my PC onto rooftops. He was a professional sniper, so he did his best work from a distance and liked high ground.

In this one fight, a villain took a pot shot at the gf as she was leaving the scene and missed. This pissed the PC off, and he sort of snapped. He pulled out a secret LAW rocket and lined up the villain.

Dice went crazy and blew him in half. Killing attacks were scary good back in the day and smoked the bad guy. The thing is, that my PC always prided himself on being the consummate professional and keeping a level head in the midst of crazy $#!& going down. It took him a while to get over the incident and he stopped letting his GF take him into hot zones. I think he stopped using LAW rockets, too. At least on people.

Deadmeat.GW
2011-12-27, 05:16 AM
Worst roll I have had is ever is with exploding dice (both positive and negative).

Make a skill check, if you roll a natural 20 you get to roll again and keep the first 20 for your total, of course the opposite is also possible...

Roll a natural 1, you now have minus 20 to your skill check and get to roll again.

After 7 natural 1's in a row the GM ruled my character died from natural combustion :|.

Mantarni
2011-12-27, 09:15 PM
DM: "Roll to jump over the pit trap"

*1*

DM: "...you fall in the pit. (1 round later, ally tied rope and moved towards the battle) Roll to climb out"

*17*

DM: "You double move and nimbly climb up the rope. (1 round later) Ok, roll to jump over the pit trap so you can finally join the battle"
(Am unwilling to use per-day SLA or limited use items for one freaking pit)

*1*

Everyone: "........."
(I roll well -again- getting back out of pit)
DM: "Your turn with the pit again."
(I can literally make this on a 4. Why use an item after 2 consecutive 1s?)

*2*

You know how you have your whole epic quest thing for reaching new tiers of gameplay, where you settle things with an old rival or deal with your past or overcome a massive struggle? That pit was mine. I spent almost the entire end-of-story-arc battle in that freaking pit.

SowZ
2011-12-27, 09:41 PM
DM: "Roll to jump over the pit trap"

*1*

DM: "...you fall in the pit. (1 round later, ally tied rope and moved towards the battle) Roll to climb out"

*17*

DM: "You double move and nimbly climb up the rope. (1 round later) Ok, roll to jump over the pit trap so you can finally join the battle"
(Am unwilling to use per-day SLA or limited use items for one freaking pit)

*1*

Everyone: "........."
(I roll well -again- getting back out of pit)
DM: "Your turn with the pit again."
(I can literally make this on a 4. Why use an item after 2 consecutive 1s?)

*2*

You know how you have your whole epic quest thing for reaching new tiers of gameplay, where you settle things with an old rival or deal with your past or overcome a massive struggle? That pit was mine. I spent almost the entire end-of-story-arc battle in that freaking pit.

Remember the gamblers fallacy. If I rolled 200 1s in a row on a normal die then went to roll the die again, what the odds I will roll another 1? Still 5%.

Knaight
2011-12-27, 10:01 PM
Remember the gamblers fallacy. If I rolled 200 1s in a row on a normal die then went to roll the die again, what the odds I will roll another 1? Still 5%.
It's the sunk cost fallacy that's relevant here - an item could have been used on the very first round, it wasn't, so now that it is multiple rounds in using it is a waste because it somehow invalidates the first few rounds where it wasn't used. This makes no logical sense, but it's a classic example of human thought.

SowZ
2011-12-27, 10:07 PM
It's the sunk cost fallacy that's relevant here - an item could have been used on the very first round, it wasn't, so now that it is multiple rounds in using it is a waste because it somehow invalidates the first few rounds where it wasn't used. This makes no logical sense, but it's a classic example of human thought.

I was referring to this line- I can literally make this on a 4. Why use an item after 2 consecutive 1s?- which implied that 2 consecutive 1s reduced the chance of a third. But you are right. His not wanting to use his special ability because it would make his first two rounds useless somehow is more relevant.

BTW, I'm not implying you don't know these fallacies or anything, Mantarni. I'm sure we have all fallen prey to this fallacy at some point.

Knaight
2011-12-27, 10:35 PM
BTW, I'm not implying you don't know these fallacies or anything, Mantarni. I'm sure we have all fallen prey to this fallacy at some point.

That's an understatement of a lifetime; these things have basically dictated human history in many cases. For instance, if one wants to think of something depressing, consider the effect of the sunk cost fallacy on decisions about warfare - where the sunk cost is the people who have died so far.

Mantarni
2011-12-28, 03:03 AM
-fallacies-

Yeah, I know about the fallacies.

For the item/SLA, it wasn't that I thought I had a lower chance of rolling badly the more it happened or I would invalidate the previous rounds, but more that it was a ~40ft pit with a DC I had a 80% chance of making. That was just not worth using up a limited resource on, for me. It does not help that I'm the type of player who will avoid using something consumable or limited at all costs, thinking it will be more useful later on. You can give me a bloody ring of greater wishing or whatever and I will probably never use it because it *could* be better used later.


And as for the dice roll fallacies, as my brain processes it (but not my mind, there's a difference, at least as I use it) the % logicks work two ways - a micro and a macro. Yes, you have the same amount of chance to roll one number every time. That is the micro, on a singular per-die-roll scale it is the same every time. But on the macro, rolling an entire batch of dice, the chances of that actually happening are incredibly unlikely despite and because of each die side having the same odds.

Skelengar
2011-12-28, 01:23 PM
And as for the dice roll fallacies, as my brain processes it (but not my mind, there's a difference, at least as I use it) the % logicks work two ways - a micro and a macro. Yes, you have the same amount of chance to roll one number every time. That is the micro, on a singular per-die-roll scale it is the same every time. But on the macro, rolling an entire batch of dice, the chances of that actually happening are incredibly unlikely despite and because of each die side having the same odds.

Yes, an a macro level, the chance of all three dice being under four were low. But the first two already did come up under 4, so the only one that mattered was the third roll, a 15% chance.

cattoy
2011-12-28, 08:15 PM
Remember the gamblers fallacy. If I rolled 200 1s in a row on a normal die then went to roll the die again, what the odds I will roll another 1? Still 5%.

I doubt that, after 200 rolls, I would be still rolling the same die.

At any rate, I would strongly suspect any die that consistently bad to be flawed and/or loaded.

SowZ
2011-12-28, 10:54 PM
I doubt that, after 200 rolls, I would be still rolling the same die.

At any rate, I would strongly suspect any die that consistently bad to be flawed and/or loaded.

No, yeah, you're right. I'm just using a hypothetical to show a point.

Kyberwulf
2011-12-29, 03:25 AM
Worst Roll i had..

was prolly from a gas station....

.. it LOOKED good...but the whole day i felt like crap..

..

Delvin Darkwood
2011-12-29, 10:50 PM
so, this was a little while ago in a game of 1st edition dnd we had going. I, the level 3 thief, by a stroke of absolutely terrible luck, had ended up in the demonweb pits. I was tied up in spiders web, and i was given one chance to escape. I had a magic poisoned dagger, blackfang i called it. I managed to grab it off my bandaleer. I go to roll under my dexterity to being to cut through the webs....

13. My dexterity is twelve.

I'm told to roll under my constitution to avoid poisoning myself with the weapon. Roll the dice and....

12. My constitution is 11. I was so incredibly infuriated. This was about the ninth time in a row that i had rolled one over an important roll. In the abyss none the less.

Dr. Yes
2012-01-02, 01:12 AM
One of my first RP experiences was a game of Rolemaster, wherein we were playing a bunch of neutral to evil peasants in a LE society trying to break into a guild hall and steal all of the money. Part of the heist involved crossing a river on a nice midsummer night to get to the hall's back entrance. Having no boat or navigation experience to speak of, we decided to swim across. No trouble with that.

Our DM then had us roll Endure Elements to see how we tolerated being wet in the mildly chilly night air. I rolled a 2, which in that system is open-ended low. I rolled again and got a 97. I rolled again and got a 99. On a fourth toss I got an 80-something, for a cumulative roll approaching -300.

My thief froze to death, the others split his cut, and I started statting up a new character.

georgie_leech
2012-01-02, 02:25 AM
chance's 10^-73, assuming fair dice.
No need to overcomplicate the description.

Just for those that don't understand scientific notation, that's a
0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 00000000000000000000001% chance of it happenning. Assuming you rolled all 73 dice every 6 seconds, constantly, without ever having to stop, you could have started from the Big Bang itself, 15000000000 years ago, and the chance of this result still not happenning in any of those sets of rolls still doesn't have a better than 50% chance of it happenning.

Edit: Should probably include my own, huh? That would probably be the time my extremly athletic, acrobatic and charismatic 4th ed rogue attempts to make a grand entrance to distract the corrupt nobles of yada yada yada during a fancy dinner on the second floor, whilst the rest of the (non-climbing) party worked their way up through the ground floor guards. My plan is to jump through the window on the 3rd floor into the dining hall, land on the table, and say something dramatic so they pay no attention to the inevitable sounds of (brief) combat from below. The Result:

DM: "Okay, Roll to break the glass."
Me: "Come on, my rogue weighs 130 pounds. I jump at the window, it's going to break."
DM: "You're still trying to break something, and that's an attack. Relax, your weight does all the work; it's got 0 AC and 1 HP"
Me: "Fine." *rolls 1*
DM: "...You smack against the glass with a loud rattle. No visable damage."
Me: "...I try again." *rolls 1*
DM: "The nobles make passing comments about the size of birds these days."
Me: "GAH!!! I break the window with my sword first, THEN I jump through!"
DM: "You know what, success. Make an acrobatics roll to jump through the hole without catching yourself on anything. DC15."
Me: *gets a total of 14* "Typical."
DM: "Okay, you take *rolls* 7 damage from the sharp glass, and your smooth entrance is ruined by the unexpected pain and resistance. You fall towards the table, landing... *rolls percentile, gets 01" ... prone, partially on a large bowl of white cream sauce. Dishes and plates go everywhere, and the bowl itself is flipped into the air, flinging its contents in every direction."
Me: "...fine. I stand and say as dramatically as I still can 'I am come to slay thee, foul worms!'"
DM: "After that entrance, -15 to intimidate."
Me: "I don't care, I'm salvaging something out of this." *rolls what comes to -3*
DM: "...You are interupted midsentence by the now empty bowl landing upside down on your head, knocking you prone once more."

And once the rest of the party was done snickering, I argued that the nobles would be guffawing with laughter at this display, so at least it worked out.

supermonkeyjoe
2012-01-03, 10:14 AM
Bothan scoundrel in a star wars game, the icy floor collapsed beneath us, everyone managed to leap to safety except for my poor scoundrel who had the highest total Reflex save, rolled a Natural one, roll another reflex to grab the edge, another natural one, plummeted to his death.

Half way into rolling up a new character I remembered my scoundrel had the "lucky" ability which lets him reroll dice a few times a day. >.<

Drglenn
2012-01-03, 11:50 AM
Not my roll, but in a Final Fantasy d100 game I was in yesterday: We're fighting a Behemoth, we know its going to restore its hp back to nearly full if we get it to under 1/4 of its total. The plan is to get it to just above 1/4 hp, have the black mage put it to sleep so it can't restore itself, then have the mages (relatively) slowly finish it off. Got it near the magic number, my character (a Dragoon) held his action so that the Dark Knight could get an attack first (my character is a heavier hitter than the Dark Knight so might have put it below 1/4) and just in case the Dark Knight missed I'd make the attack.

The Dark Knight CRITS, putting the Behemoth down to under 1/4 hp, setting off its restoration on its turn, effectively restarting the fight (and even making it harder due to it gaining auto-protect when it restored itself).