Quote Originally Posted by Lord Torath View Post
It has to do with making the player's character look like a fool, without the player's consent. Even if you roll a one on your tracking skill, you are NOT going to mistake bear tracks for moose tracks. It's just not going to happen. If the player suggests it, fine. So let the player correctly identify the tracks, but be unable to follow them.

Be fans of your PCs. Cheer (either openly or secretly) when they pull off an upset, or when they see a solution you hadn't planned for. Give them opportunities to be heroic. You don't need to give them opportunities to make fools of themselves; they'll do that all on their own, without help from you.

I agree, often I ask them how they critically fail...and the results are often much more spectacular than what I would have thought of :)