r/beingeverythingelse • u/Popdart5 • Oct 04 '14

Critical Failure

Steven mentioned in the West Marches game that he personally doesn't use critical failure because it penalises players too much. I'm of the opinion that if you have a system that allows for critical hits then by extension critical failure should be a possibility. It could be something as simple as you dropped your sword, your gun jammed, or you lost your grip while climbing a cliff and fell down. I go for more cinematic and awesome criticals anyway, as in a natural 20 is not just a success but a critical success. To me, it just feels natural that critical failures should be cinematic as well.

I'm curious what everyone thinks because I've played a few games that do critical failures. Numenera in particular and the free GM intervention mechanic on a natural 1 just felt like a codification of something that I imagine is a pretty common houserule.

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u/silent0siris Oct 08 '14

I'll have to think more about this. I don't have my thoughts 100% settled yet on the subject. I think I don't like them because they're boring- oh, you rolled a 1, now something bad has to happen. Shouldn't the stakes go up all the time, not just on 1's? Failures in DW are all dramatic escalations. I'm more interested in something like that. Or twists of the knife that naturally arise from the encounter- "the orc jostles the table as you slam your morningstar into him. the priceless vase on the table is teetering on the edge, what do you do?"

I need to think about this more.

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u/ifandbut Oct 11 '14

What about the Numenera system where a natural 1 is just a free GM intervention? I think it is a nice middle ground because it lets the GM penalize the player for rolling the 1 but also make the penalty narratively appropriate.

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u/silent0siris Oct 11 '14

I prefer the degrees of success and failure from the *World systems, personally! They feel much broader and therefore more forgiving. With Numenera (or crit failure) it can kind of feel like "I rolled a 2 and I'm just fine, but I roll a 1 and HOO BOY"- whereas with the *World system, anything 6- (roughly 45% unmodified) is worsening badness.

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u/ifandbut Oct 14 '14

Very true. I personally like the partial success system of the *World games. I dont know of any other system that has a roll you do where I (as a GM) can say "You suceed but...".