We’ve all been there. Maybe you’re at the end of a grueling dungeon challenge. Maybe you’re getting close to the end of a boss battle. Maybe you’re at the crucial stage of charming your way into a soiree. Or maybe you’re just trying to cut a deal with the local merchant to get a discount on that magic item. You’re deep in the moment, you’re ready to bring it home, and then your dice gives you that bitter omen of defeat, that natural 1. The critical fail.
It’s extremely easy to get disheartened. But failing dice rolls is a regular part of playing Dungeons & Dragons, it’s something that the mechanics are designed to make happen. While it’s easy to internalize the idea that you’re losing, this isn’t actually the case, it’s just part of the game and it happens to all of us. So, what can you do to fight through that sense of frustration on nights when luck is just not on your side? Let’s talk about some ways that you can stop worrying and start loving to bomb.
Player Failure Survival Strategies
If you’re playing and dealing with some catastrophic rolls, here are some tips to help you get through them.
- A Failed Roll Is Still Successful Storytelling: When a probability system like rolling dice at a D&D table is set up with a "success" or "failure" outcome, it can be pretty easy to start internalizing that "failure" as a personal one, but it isn’t. Every D&D game is a shared story, and the simple fact of rolling the dice as the story moves along means that you’re succeeding in moving the narrative forward.
- Narrate Your Failures: Part of what can make us feel extra disappointed is when we start getting detached from the game setting and just focus on the dice rolls. But your character is still trying to do stuff. Describe it! Things can still be cool and fun even if they don’t succeed. Think about how many scenes you’ve seen in movies where characters attempt something a few times before finally getting it right. Heck, the Avengers had a whole movie about it!
- Roleplay Your Failures: If you’re feeling frustrated, your character probably does too. This means that major dice fails happening in critical moments might also be a personal slip or failure for the character in the story. So lean into it! Have your character be disappointed. Have them be frustrated. Project some of your real feelings onto them and create character moments that you can roleplay at an appropriate moment in the narrative, whether it’s in the middle of trying to escape a trap now, or at the tavern later.
- Laugh About It: Speaking for myself at least, I tend to have much stronger memories of my D&D games that went entirely off the rails and when everything that could go wrong did. Why? Because of the camaraderie of being together in the trenches with my pals when things got ridiculous. So if you’re rolling badly, have fun with it. Taunt your dice, put them in dice jails, whatever it takes to remind yourself that you’re still at a table playing a game with friends.
- Be Versatile: If a particular approach just seems to be sandbagging you, that’s OK. Maybe there’s something else you can do in a scene that might incur less wrath from your cursed dice? Remember that in combat you can use actions like Help and Dodge. Improvising actions could give you some other options to back up your party or at least mitigate damage.
- Support Your Party: If it’s not you, but one of your fellow players who is having a rough time with the dice, remember how frustrating it can be for you in the same scenario. Bonding with someone in a "Hey, it’s us against them"-vibe against their dice rolls can make a big difference in how downtrodden they might get in the moment. No one likes to feel like they’re failing their friends.
- Communicate If You Need a Break: Sometimes, no matter how many ways you try to offset the feeling, you might just hit a breaking point where one bad roll too many is hurting your ability to enjoy the game. Ask if you can take a break, step away from the table, take some deep breaths, hydrate, whatever you need to do to center yourself again. If you’re truly frustrated to the point where you’re not having fun anymore, it is OK to take a break.
Dungeon Master Mitigation Strategies
It can be heartbreaking sometimes as a DM to watch a player really struggle with their repeated failed attempts. Here are some ways a DM can help players enjoy their game.
- Narrate the Failures Too: This one is sort of a companion to the "Narrate Your Failures" suggestion for players. Rather than let a player just flounder with their rolls, try describing what is happening in the scene that is causing the failures to happen. Maybe even vary it up. If a Deception check fails, maybe there was some info the NPC knew that had tipped them off. If a Dexterity check fails, maybe the surface was too slick to stick the landing. If an attack roll fails, describe how the enemy expertly parried out of the way. It’s possible for a scene to still feel cool and active even if the dice are trying hard not to let it.
- Reward Effort With Story: If a player is struggling with their dice rolls but still actively trying to participate in the game, find ways to reward their efforts with new story beats that grow out of the failure. As an example, I once rolled a critical fail during a social-based downtime action. I didn’t get the outcome I wanted, but my DM created a new rival in the town that resulted from my epic failure, which led to fun story moments over the course of the next several months of gaming that never would’ve happened if I’d just succeeded.
- Be Flexible With Your Storytelling: One of the best parts about D&D is that, unlike a video game where you may just have to sit and button-mash until you get past a certain challenge, you have the luxury of course-correcting the game around stubborn dice. Just like you might sometimes have to anticipate players finding a solution you never expected to your puzzles, you may also have to be ready to adjust your story to still be able to continue when everyone’s plan fails.
- Check In With Your Players: If a player seems to be having no fun because of a run of bad rolls, make sure that they’re not getting frustrated to the point that the game is becoming a bad time. If you think it’s necessary, maybe even propose a bio or snack break to give everyone a chance to step away from the table and shake it off. It’s wise to not call too much attention to why you’re breaking in case the player might feel singled out when they’re already feeling bad.
Clutch a Victory From the Jaws of Defeat
Failing a roll indeed happens to the best of us. Some of the biggest actual play shows on the internet, including Critical Role and The Adventure Zone, have had moments where a failed roll went on to define entire elements of a major story arc. While all of these strategies are designed to help you feel better or even just keep your head above water during a rolling slump, remember that ultimately the laws of probability dictate that you will eventually get some choice rolls again and those moments of success will taste all the sweeter after a gauntlet of failures.
Riley Silverman (@rileyjsilverman) is a contributing writer to D&D Beyond, Nerdist, and SYFY Wire. She DMs the Theros-set Dice Ex Machina for the Saving Throw Show, and has been a player on the Wizards of the Coast-sponsored The Broken Pact. Riley also played as Braga in the official tabletop adaptation of the Rat Queens comic for HyperRPG, and currently plays as The Doctor on the Doctor Who RPG podcast The Game of Rassilon. She currently lives in Los Angeles.
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Posted Apr 28, 2023Cool and intresting
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Posted Apr 28, 2023very insightful. thanks
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Posted Apr 28, 2023I remember failing a stealth check, immediately getting captured by dumb grunts, put into forced labor and just distracting the hell out of them trying to avoid a combat scenario just so I wouldn't lose concentration on a spell that I had cast prior to turn the NPC we were guiding invisible so they could sneak past all the entire encounter, lol.
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Posted Apr 28, 2023This a great article, and something that really ought to be front and centre in the new OneD&D rulebook, as I've noticed a lot of new players focusing on bad rolls as somehow their fault, but it's just random chance.
I've been experimenting with a homebrew rule to allow players that fail a check or miss all of their attacks (or similar) to gain a free Help action, as at least this way they're still contributing through failure, with the idea being that maybe your miss still distracted an enemy or similar. Another option is just to hand out inspiration more generously when a player does something characterful but fails, which is pretty much what inspiration is for.
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Posted Apr 28, 2023Personally, I think that letting the dice fall where they may fall can make for good storytelling. At the same time, it may be annoying to roll low a lot, but the dice may seem meaningless if the outcome and results are the same or similar regardless of whether or not the characters roll low or high.
I will say though that I briefly saw Mark Hulmes use an idea in the Aerois campaign that was great: When his player had enough poor rolls in a row, he would give them Inspiration. This, or some other small consolation prize, helps allow players that have repeatedly gotten bad rolls feel like they have something to help them make more of an impact and escape that same situation in future.
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Posted Apr 28, 2023Bad rolls are all good and fun... until you find that one class that is just cursed to be not played by you xD The Monk Curse that lasts on me is unreal honestly, so much even that from 4 Monks I played together they might have twice as many missed hits as they did hit altogether. And only one of them has had a good ending so far xD They were more meatshields then anything else, because nothing seems to be sticking with them xD
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Posted Apr 29, 2023Some good suggestions here for sure. Narrating the bad dice roll failures (and sometimes laughing about them) is not natural for most players in my experience, but definitely something they can pick up on if a player or 2 start to do it. This can help even fairly rough sessions be a lot more fun for everyone involved.
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Posted Apr 29, 2023Something this article almost hits on but doesn't quite nail is that players can narrate why their character failed a roll just as well as the GM can and that they're not just stuck narrating how they failed. Maybe the reason they rolled a 1 was because they were distracted thinking about the tense conversation that just happened, or they're worried about the safety of an NPC back in town and their heart just wasn't in it, or maybe they were just cocky and missed their attack because they were busy showing off. Just because a die roll is a mechanical failure doesn't mean it's a failure in the overall roleplaying perspective, and being able to lean into those mechanical failures and turn them into moments that make the game better for everyone, including yourself, is a big part of what makes TTRPGs unique and great.
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Posted Apr 29, 2023I rolled two nat 1s with advantage during my last session, so I can't help but feel slightly called out by this article.
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Posted Apr 30, 2023I remember a time I was attacked by a goblin, but the DM rolled a 1. The goblin accidentally let go of the axe while swinging it backwards, and had to run after it. It was extremely hilarious. The DM did a great job there, with I will always remember.
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Posted Apr 30, 2023I appreciate the laugh here after the previous poster's unnecessarily harsh (and obscure) criticism. Well played!
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Posted Apr 30, 2023Nice! Short and interesting.
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Posted Apr 30, 2023awesome! thanks
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Posted May 1, 2023ten years of dnd gameplay, and i can say for a fact i dont play anymore and only DM because of the rolls. Unforgiving DM plus 20 or so back to back bad rolls will do that to people. When my players crit a certain amount of times within a set amount of rolls i give them advantage on the next roll. kinda defeats the fun when most characters youve tried to play quite literally never make it past the first session. But hey its fun since my bad luck with rolls transferred to my DM rolls.
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Posted May 1, 2023This is really good advice. It's also important to think whether you want your players to be making a particular roll or not as a DM, and if you need or want them to succeed, or they can trivially accomplish the task, then don't make them roll at all.
If someone describes carefully searching a room in a way that explicitly means they search the place where the treasure is concealed, don't make them roll to find it - just give it to them. If the party attach a series of ropes across the chasm and carefully help the wizard across, then don't make him make a roll - just let him cross safely. Sometimes people's actions, efforts and care are sufficient to prevent the need for a roll altogether.
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Posted May 1, 2023It is equally challenging as a DM. You spend multiple sessions setting up the ultimate encounter with your big bad, and it get wasted by rolling last on the initiative order and a 1 on your first few saves. Some players love the roll playing aspect and when they roll a 1 they have no problem role playing it. My tuners are the most difficult when they roll a continuous series of failures. Trying everything to maximize their advantage only to have their character completely fail hits them pretty hard.
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Posted May 2, 2023My Dm is so good with how he managed our Nat ones!
My rogue has high stealth, so he should be able to be very stealthy. However, I kept failing all my proficient skill rolls. Including, climbing a wall and peering over. I Rolled a 17 for Athletics but a 1 for stealth. Soooo, he tied it into the fact my character is extremely chaotic an the cause of most of our problems - he collapsed the wall. Combat initiated
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Posted May 3, 2023That is a really good one. I will have to remember that. What I am currently doing is using DM Scotty's Luck Dice rule that gives a player a single 1d6 Luck Die for every 1 they roll on a d20. Later in the game they can add that 1d6 to any attack or ability check. So if you have a player that has bad luck with the d20, they can accumulate those failures and come in clutch with the BBEG later in the game.
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Posted May 3, 2023Change what "failure" means.
For proficiency checks, have a low die roll to be success with new complications, instead of failure.
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Posted May 5, 2023Failing rolls is one of the best things that happen at the table. You can have an interesting complication, you get RP moments from characters bantering about the outcome, you can have some interesting character development if they fail at the same thing multiple times. I have an aasimar player that fell and crashed every time they used fly ability. It got them seeking guidance and reconciling with their goddess, and it fit the themes of the campaign perfectly- now everything that happens with the plot is deeply personal for them.
Failure is always an option.