Whenever someone rolls a 20 after modifiers in our game, there’s a slightly awkward moment when we have to point out that it wasn’t a “natural 20” or “nat 20”. There has to be a better way of conveying this number. As good of a roll as it usually is, there’s a moment of disappointment at the table when it is clarified that it isn’t natural. 

I’m looking for ideas or phrases others use in their games to express this number. It might be optimistic to think we could come up with a standardized phrase, but why not try!

Some things I’ve heard that work (but don’t really roll off the tongue all that well):

Non-natural 20

Unnatural 20

Modified 20

Dirty 20

Please share your ideas or anything you already use!

In my groups we usually simply declare the result of the dice and then the result+modifiers.

Something like "ok, I rolled a 17, plus my Acrobatics... That's 21"

Or the other way around "I have a +4 to Acrobatics... [roll roll] got a 17, total of 21"

Agreed, we’ll often do that as well, but just as often we’ll just declare the final result. Hence the issue with 20s...

We just say "crit" if it's a critical hit. And the number if it's not. As critical hits always hit, you don't even have to calculate the final value.

Or you could just be like Marisha Ray and call it a "natural x" where x = whatever you rolled.

Just use the same terms as the rules. The number on the die is a roll; as in, "I rolled a 20" or "The roll was a 20." The roll plus modifier plus bonuses/penalties is called the total, as in "the total was 20." You'll see those terms used throughout the books:

"To make an attack roll, roll a d20 and add the appropriate modifiers. If the total of the roll plus modifiers equals or exceeds the target's Armor Class (AC), the attack hits."

"If the d20 roll for an attack is a 20, the attack hits regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC. This is called a critical hit, which is explained later in this section.

If the d20 roll for an attack is a 1, the attack misses regardless of any modifiers or the target's AC."

 

Pretty always say "natural 20", but also declare a modified 20 just to be clear. 

My group typically does 'modified 20' or 'mod 20' sometimes we use '20 total' or some such to indicate it's a added value. 

Doesn't seem to mater though, someone always asks for clarification, because they weren't paying close enough attention or they've gotten their hopes up.  I think that's always going to be a problem.   People hear '20' and really want it to be a crit.

"total of 20" vs "crit" for my group

Our groups have adopted the "dirty 20"... we're all different though :)

We always say 'nat/natural 20' when it's natural, and '20 non-natural' when it's not, that's just what our habit is.

In my experience anyone rolling a crit want to make a point of showing the dice rolled and get all excited. So I assume that anyone that says “I rolled/got a 20”  means they got a great result but not a crit. 

We say "crit" for natural 20's and "20" for modified 20s.

"Modified 20" or "20- not a nat 20 though" seem to be the most common phrase in my group.

I could see saying dirty 20 though, or crit for a nat 20 and just 20 for modified. 

The only time a natural 20 is important is in an attack roll. You can distinguish it there by saying "critical hit". The actual number almost always doesn't matter because a natural 20 is an automatic hit. Additionally, if you are a champion fighter then there isn't any difference between a  natural 20 and a natural 19, so there's no need to add any numbers

If your roll totals 20 but is not a critical hit then you can just say "hit AC 20".

My group usually says "unnatural 20"

When we get natural 20s/crits we mostly woo and yell a lot though so we probably don't need to make the distinction 

While on the topic of 20's:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muDQFYPUU8E&feature=youtu.be

Where did you first hear the term dirty 20?

I'm trying to find its origin. 

At my table we just say "natural 20". if it isn't a nat 20...we just say "rolled a 20".
However i need to keep reminding my players that it only works for attack rolls. NOT for ability/skill checks or saves. Everyone who uses that nat 20 for those situations at their table is homebrewing it. There is always 1 player that assumes that something special will happen because they rolled a nat20 on an athletics check. And i state it isn't enough to open the DC27 thing.

The Dirty 20 is something that Satine Phoenix and co use on Twitter and their Youtube/Twitch Streams and conferences. For me I hadn't heard about it until someone linked it on twitter a few weeks.

We use nat 20 and 'rough' 20. Is that a Critical Role thing?