Leaning Into Poor Dice Rolls for Great Storytelling

Tags player tips New Player's Guide author-riley-silverman

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

An orc rogue sneaks upstairs past a couple sleeping in a bed

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

A party of surprised adventurers are split up by a force field.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.

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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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