Critical Failure: Difference between revisions

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[[File:critical-~~failure_3368~~.jpg|link=DM of the Rings|frame]]

[[File:critical-failure 3368.jpg|link=DM of the Rings|frame]]

{{quote|''"You see, Fighter, any time you do '''any'''thing, there is [[Random Number God|a one in twenty chance that you will critically fail]]. The results of such catastrophic events [[Game Master|are up to the gods.]] Sadly for us, [[Killer Game Master|they are vindictive, and filled with bad ideas.]]"''|'''Red Mage''', ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'', "[http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/06/17/episode-430-very-long-range/ Very Long Range]"}}

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''Congratulations, you roll like a girl! (A tiny giiiiirrrrlll...)''|The Minstrels, [[Penny Arcade Dungeons and Dragons Podcast|Acquisitions Incorporated 2011 PAX Game]]}}

Just as a [[Critical Hit]] gives a character a random chance of doing noticeably increased damage with an attack, a [[Critical Failure]] is the precise opposite: A finite possibility that the attack will fail, be resisted, miss (or even backfire and hurt the attacker), regardless of any stat bonuses, upgrades, tweaks, or special equipment they may have.

Just as a [[Critical Hit]] gives a character a random chance of doing noticeably increased damage with an attack, a '''Critical Failure''' is the precise opposite: A finite possibility that the attack will fail, be resisted, miss (or even backfire and hurt the attacker), regardless of any stat bonuses, upgrades, tweaks, or special equipment they may have.

The amount of explanation you may get depends on how broadly it's being applied. If being used on everything from swordplay to archery or magic then it could be just an element to show the inherent danger in messing about with such dangerous things. Perhaps it's described as the unseen weak chink in the armour or the sudden gust of wind or [[Jerkass Gods|the gods just being dicks]] that day. When used only on particular items or actions, it could be used to show how they are the riskier choice or contain some particular special power that must be paid off for with a special risk.

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== [[Anime]] And [[Manga]] ==

* In the last pre-Duelist Kingdom arc of the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga, Bakura plays a tabletop game with Yugi and his friends, wherein they use percentile dice (two 10-sided ~~die -- one~~ for the tens and one for the ones) -- for every roll. When Yami Bakura takes over, rolling a 99 (a fumble, 00 is interpreted as 100 and is the ~~opposite--a~~ [[Critical Hit]]) carries the penalty of having your soul trapped in your figurine.

* In the last pre-Duelist Kingdom arc of the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' manga, Bakura plays a tabletop game with Yugi and his friends, wherein they use percentile dice (two 10-sided die—one for the tens and one for the ones) -- for every roll. When Yami Bakura takes over, rolling a 99 (a fumble, 00 is interpreted as 100 and is the opposite—a [[Critical Hit]]) carries the penalty of having your soul trapped in your figurine.

* [[Digimon]]: War Greymon's Dramon Killers can cause this. They're especially effective against draconic digimon. War Greymon himself is a "dragon man" however, and is constantly at risk of serious, self inflicted injury as a result.

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** In 2nd edition there were semi-official optional rules for critical hits and misses published by Dragon magazine, where you would roll a percent and in general, the higher the number the more potent the effect. The funny thing is, both critical hits and critical failures used the same table - so it was entirely possible to decapitate yourself on a critical failure if you rolled exceptionally high on the table.

* ''[[In Nomine]]'', which is based on the War between Heaven and Hell, has a special take on critical failures (and critical successes) the game uses a system of rolling 3 six sided dice, a natural roll of 3 ones (representing the Holy Trinity) is a "Divine Intervention" which is good for angels and those allied with them, and bad for demons and their allies, a natural roll of 3 sixes (representing... [[Number of the Beast|well, you know]]) is an "Infernal Intervention" which is good for those on Hell's side and bad for those fighting for Heaven. Depending on the nature and circumstances of the roll, these Interventions can be anything from [[In Mysterious Ways|a(n) (un)lucky coincidence]] to a [[Deus Ex Machina|blatant spectacular manifestation of divine or infernal power]].

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has ~~Glitches -- rolling~~ a one on half or more of all dice in a ~~roll -- and~~ critical ~~Glitches -- a~~ glitch that also has no successes. The former is just annoying side effects like a burst of suppressive fire hitting a steam pipe, but the latter tends to invoke the [[Chunky Salsa Rule]].

* ''[[Shadowrun]]'' has Glitches—rolling a one on half or more of all dice in a roll—and critical Glitches—a glitch that also has no successes. The former is just annoying side effects like a burst of suppressive fire hitting a steam pipe, but the latter tends to invoke the [[Chunky Salsa Rule]].

* ''[[Unknown Armies]]'' has fumble rolls at 00. Since they're vastly less common than typical Critical Failures, they also tend to be vastly more dangerous or entertaining. The only real rule is that they won't ''kill'' a player, but that not very reassuring in [[Sick Sad World|the setting.]]

** The technical term for these is "BOHICA": [[Fun with Acronyms]] for "Bend Over, Here It Comes Again".

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* [http://www.funnydndstories.com/apps/blog/show/3432504-sameo/ Sameo]: proof that even a critical failure can be a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]].

* ''[[Exalted]]'' has its own version, which tends to be very, very bad for you. To fail you have to have half ones and NO successes. The more dice that come up one, the worse the problem. You screw up less often as you get more skilled but when you do it is more catastrophic. That's the Exalted for you - even their screw-ups are epic.

* Speaking of White Wolf, [[Old World of Darkness|both]] [[New World of Darkness|versions]] of ''The World of Darkness'' come with rules to this effect. In the Old version, should you roll no successes and one or more dice come up 1, you get a "botch" (also the term ''[[Exalted]]'' uses) -- which is usually a horrific mishap of the amusing-but-grievous variety. In the New World of Darkness, when your dice pool is reduced by penalties to nothing, you get a "chance die" ~~-- it~~ only succeeds on a 10 and gives you a Dramatic Failure on 1.

* Speaking of White Wolf, [[Old World of Darkness|both]] [[New World of Darkness|versions]] of ''The World of Darkness'' come with rules to this effect. In the Old version, should you roll no successes and one or more dice come up 1, you get a "botch" (also the term ''[[Exalted]]'' uses) -- which is usually a horrific mishap of the amusing-but-grievous variety. In the New World of Darkness, when your dice pool is reduced by penalties to nothing, you get a "chance die"—it only succeeds on a 10 and gives you a Dramatic Failure on 1.

** Due to the fact that [[Writers Cannot Do Math|Game Designers Have No Sense of Statistics]], the [[Old World of Darkness|OWOD]] system made you ''more'' likely to botch on very difficult rolls if you had a large number of dice to roll, as illustrated [http://wiki.white-wolf.com/worldofdarkness/index.php?title=Probability_Math#Botching.2C_Second_Edition here] and [http://millercommamatt.com/journal/index.php/2008/11/16/probabilities-in-the-white-wolf-role-pla#more175 here]. Thankfully Revised Edition reduced this problem, as every 1 no longer cancelled out a success.

** ''[[Demon: The Fallen]]'' is notable for encouraging Storytellers not to rely on just "you fail in a horrible manner" for botches. Their example was jumping across rooftops: on a failure, you fall; on a botch, you barely make it across... [[Oh Crap|and interrupt a Mafia execution.]]

* ''[[Scion]]'', which uses a readjusted variant of the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' system, carries over the Botch rule. However, there is one form of ~~relief -- if~~ you have Epic Attributes (which add automatic successes to rolls involving them), you ''can't'' botch rolls of that attribute. Divinity means that even if you fail, you fail ''well.''

* ''[[Scion]]'', which uses a readjusted variant of the ''[[Old World of Darkness]]'' system, carries over the Botch rule. However, there is one form of relief—if you have Epic Attributes (which add automatic successes to rolls involving them), you ''can't'' botch rolls of that attribute. Divinity means that even if you fail, you fail ''well.''

* Magic in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' is portrayed as an always risky affair, manipulating the spillage of raw Chaos into the material world that invites the attention of deities [[Eldritch Abomination|who are far too ugly for a mother to comprehend never mind love]]. So not only does it have the Miscast rule that automatically fails the players' attempts to cast a spell but the player must then roll again to see what happens to their mage; it ranges from a bad headache to a legion of [[Cosmic Horror~~|Cosmic Horrors~~]] invading its brain and dragging the world around him into hell.

* Magic in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Battle]]'' is portrayed as an always risky affair, manipulating the spillage of raw Chaos into the material world that invites the attention of deities [[Eldritch Abomination|who are far too ugly for a mother to comprehend never mind love]]. So not only does it have the Miscast rule that automatically fails the players' attempts to cast a spell but the player must then roll again to see what happens to their mage; it ranges from a bad headache to a legion of [[Cosmic Horror]]s invading its brain and dragging the world around him into hell.

** And don't think worshipping one of the <s>good</s> [[Black and Grey Morality|okay]] deities in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' exempts you from this rule. The same botch rules apply, only the gods get angry with you for abusing their gifts. It's generally not as bad as the Curse of Tzeentch, ~~however -- the~~ gods may get angry and stun you for a round, but they won't summon hordes of demons, inflict insanity points on you or render your entire family sterile(!).

** And don't think worshipping one of the <s>good</s> [[Black and Grey Morality|okay]] deities in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'' exempts you from this rule. The same botch rules apply, only the gods get angry with you for abusing their gifts. It's generally not as bad as the Curse of Tzeentch, however—the gods may get angry and stun you for a round, but they won't summon hordes of demons, inflict insanity points on you or render your entire family sterile(!).

** The eighth edition magic rules changed most magic critical failures into "bad critical successes": The spell succeeds and can't be [[Anti-Magic|dispelled by the enemy]], but something bad happens to the caster.

** In the offshoot board game ''[[Blood Bowl]]'', you can make a "Go for it" roll to move up to two extra spaces in a turn. You have a 1 out of 6 chance to fail, but failure is treated the same way as if the player was attacked by an opponent, which means they have to roll against their armour. If they fail their armour roll, they make a roll on the injury table, which has consequences ranging from being briefly stunned up to a permanent disability or death. If the player is equipped with a chainsaw, they have a significant penalty to their armour roll which makes them very likely to be injured every time they fall down.

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* In the infamous ''[[FATAL|F.A.T.A.L.]]'' roleplaying game, "crucial fumbles" (1 or 2 on a d100) have surprisingly reasonable effects. Except the 1% chance that a god decides to kill the offending character, possibly by [[Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies|making the whole building collapse]].

** The magical mishap rules, however, are ''awful''. There are pages and pages of possible side-effects, ranging from repetitive ("caster worships and entire body is branded with the symbol of god X" for every possible god, spanning 8 pages) to childish humour ("caster grows a piece of fruit from their dickhole/cuntpipe every ten days") to game-breaking stupidity ("nearest two nations declare war on each other", [[Mercy Killing|DEATH OF EVERY LIVING THING]]) - and of course "roll for 1d20 other effects".

* While the [[All There in the Manual|rulebook]] encourages creativity with these things, the punishment for "botches" in ''Ironclaw'' (the same as a [[Critical Failure]]) is usually less severe than most (for instance, botching a spell usually only results in the spell backfiring and dealing damage to you). However, if you play as a Necromancer, and you roll at least three 6's when dealing with a Black Magic spell, expect the heavens to open up, hell to let out a loud roar, and Cthulhu to wince in pain at the mighty backlash of chaos magic you just wrought upon the world.

* While the [[All There in the Manual|rulebook]] encourages creativity with these things, the punishment for "botches" in ''Ironclaw'' (the same as a Critical Failure) is usually less severe than most (for instance, botching a spell usually only results in the spell backfiring and dealing damage to you). However, if you play as a Necromancer, and you roll at least three 6's when dealing with a Black Magic spell, expect the heavens to open up, hell to let out a loud roar, and Cthulhu to wince in pain at the mighty backlash of chaos magic you just wrought upon the world.

* Using a set of 0s in ''[[Legends of the Wulin]]'' will allow the DM to offer you Interesting Times. If you accept, you receive what is essentially the Power of Plot, but there will be trouble: any success off that roll will be a complicated affair, and any failure will be devastating.

* Rolling a 20 in ''[[Paranoia]]''. Your gun can explode, your mutant power backfires horribly, and so on.

** Some GMs also invert this with a [[House Rules|house rule]] that rolling a 1 may mean you succeeded ''[[Gone Horribly Right|too]]'' [[Gone Horribly Right|well]]. Shooting a Commie mutant traitor sends their shattered remains flying backward through a wall, causing pipes to burst and release toxic chemicals... that sort of thing.

* ''[[Deadlands]]'' uses them too, and [[The Western|we call 'em "busts" 'round these parts]], ''[[Gratuitous Spanish|hombre]]''. Going bust becomes worse if a character has the "Bad Luck" Hindrance. Of note is the fact that the only sort of [[Magic A Is Magic A|magic]] that doesn't tend to do horrible things on a [[Critical Failure]] is that of [[White Magic|the Blessed]]. Turns out [[God]] (or [[All Myths Are True|whoever]] [[Religion Is Magic|else]]) isn't too hard on His most devout followers.

* ''[[Deadlands]]'' uses them too, and [[The Western|we call 'em "busts" 'round these parts]], ''[[Gratuitous Spanish|hombre]]''. Going bust becomes worse if a character has the "Bad Luck" Hindrance. Of note is the fact that the only sort of [[Magic A Is Magic A|magic]] that doesn't tend to do horrible things on a Critical Failure is that of [[White Magic|the Blessed]]. Turns out [[God]] (or [[All Myths Are True|whoever]] [[Religion Is Magic|else]]) isn't too hard on His most devout followers.

* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' D6 system has the interesting expansion of allowing a critical failure that is also a success. The classic example is a successful dodge which leaves the player standing close to [[Exploding Barrels]], or a successful attack resulting in the victim falling onto an alarm button.

* ''[[Cartoon Action Hour]]'' call these a "Flub". A "Flub" is a roll of 1 on a D12.

* One of the main points of Roll To Dodge is that everything is determined by the [[Random Number God]] - rolling a [[Instant Win Condition|6 or a 12 makes the Universe bend to your will]], whereas a [[Epic Fail|1]] can result in [[Epic Fail]] or [[Critical Existence Failure|worse]].

* In ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'', all rolls are on a percent die (from 00 to 99). Doubles (ie. 00, 11, etc.) are critical. Whether they're critical failures or successes is up to the parameters of the roll (so if you needed a 40 or lower to succeed a roll, 44 is a critical failure). 00 is always a critical success, and 99 is always a critical failure. Probably the most interesting critical failures in ''[[Eclipse Phase]]'' are those involving [[Psychic Powers|Psi Sleights]]. The consequences there can include [[Psychic Nosebleed|nosebleed]], [[Grand Theft Me]], or [[Your Head Asplode]].

* ''Spycraft'' has a rule where a bad roll triggers an "error", only slightly worse than a normal failure, and a true [[Critical Failure]] requires the [[Game Master|Game Control]] to spend one or more action dice, theoretically ensuring that critical failures don't disrupt the flow of the game and occur when most dramatically appropriate. A similar rule has players spend their own action dice to activate a critical success when they roll a "threat". The game also plays around with the ranges of d20 rolls that constitute an error or a threat depending on the circumstances, producing some interesting risk/reward mechanics.

* ''Spycraft'' has a rule where a bad roll triggers an "error", only slightly worse than a normal failure, and a true Critical Failure requires the [[Game Master|Game Control]] to spend one or more action dice, theoretically ensuring that critical failures don't disrupt the flow of the game and occur when most dramatically appropriate. A similar rule has players spend their own action dice to activate a critical success when they roll a "threat". The game also plays around with the ranges of d20 rolls that constitute an error or a threat depending on the circumstances, producing some interesting risk/reward mechanics.

* ''[[Toon (game)|Toon]]'' is similar to GURPS above, but with one less die. A natural 12 is a critical failure. Keep in mind this is a cartoon roleplaying game, and you can imagine how much fun a critical failure can be.

* [[Ars Magica]]. Currently, you might botch if you roll a ten on an ability check while under stress. Previous editions had a critical failure table with increasingly-horrific ~~results -- the~~ worst results kill you instantly, with helpful descriptive text such as:

* [[Ars Magica]]. Currently, you might botch if you roll a ten on an ability check while under stress. Previous editions had a critical failure table with increasingly-horrific results—the worst results kill you instantly, with helpful descriptive text such as:

{{quote|"Rising after yet another resounding exchange of blows, you look to your weapon and realize it's broken short, the lethal end impaling you from abdomen to spine. For a moment you feel the sinews of your back slide from their moorings before you fall lifeless to the ground."}}

** This is not even the absolute worst result. The worst result has you die instantly, as above, and ''attack one of your allies by mistake as you die''.

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** Strangely, the trait is a very ''good'' thing if you have an epic [[Luck Stat]], considering that at 10 luck you won't be getting many critical failures even ''with'' the Jinxed trait, but everyone else in the world will be suffering explosive weapons failure every other shot.

*** Compound that with using weapons who do not have too bad side effects for critically failing, like melee or unarmed combat, and it's [[Lethal Joke Character|a rather deadly character build]].

* The [[Knights of the Old Republic]] do model critical ~~failures -- for~~ example, if you're disarming a mine then a 'failure' just means failure to disarm the mine (i.e: nothing happens), but a ''critical'' failure means the mine blows up on you at point-blank range.

* The [[Knights of the Old Republic]] do model critical failures—for example, if you're disarming a mine then a 'failure' just means failure to disarm the mine (i.e: nothing happens), but a ''critical'' failure means the mine blows up on you at point-blank range.

** The chances of a critical failure are often tied to the character's skill level in the respective ~~task -- if~~ you're too unskilled to reliably disarm a mine, you're likely to accidentally set if off in the process, whereas if you have better than even odds for disarming it, you likely won't ever have a mine blow up on you.

** The chances of a critical failure are often tied to the character's skill level in the respective task—if you're too unskilled to reliably disarm a mine, you're likely to accidentally set if off in the process, whereas if you have better than even odds for disarming it, you likely won't ever have a mine blow up on you.

* ''[[Persona 3]]'' and ''[[Persona 4]]'' form a rare JRPG example; a critical hit will cause the target of the attack to be knocked down, but a critical failure will cause the ''attacker'' to be knocked down. Of particular note is the animation for {{spoiler|Shinjiro Aragaki}}'s critical failure: rather than tripping like the others, he falls to his knees in a [[Incurable Cough of Death|coughing fit]], which is one of the clues that he is [[Secretly Dying]].

** Also, no matter how high of a level you are, some enemies retain the small chance of reflecting physical damage. Since the reflected damage is equal to what you would have dealt to the opponent otherwise, it is quite possible to have a level 99 protagonist kill himself in one shot against a level 10 opponent. This causes an instant game over, since [[We Cannot Go on Without You]].

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* In ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'', Black Mage makes an attempt (well, one of many) to kill his allies by [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/06/15/episode-429-several-birds-one-hadoken/ blowing up a volcano they're standing next to]. Too bad [http://www.nuklearpower.com/2004/06/17/episode-430-very-long-range/ he misses completely]. Yes, he misses [[Epic Fail|a friggin']] ''[[Epic Fail|mountain]]''. Lampshaded by the [[Genre Savvy]] Red Mage in the latter comic.

* In ''Loaded Dice'', Steve rolls a one on behalf of one of the barbarians during what would otherwise be an easy "player kill" moment. His [http://www.rdinn.com/comic.php?comicid=58 reaction] is epic.

* [[Big Bad|HamaEstra]] in ''[[Fuzzy Things]]'' rolls one of these {{spoiler|1=while in-game as the [[Game Master]] against Ben. Unfortunately for him (thus fortunate for our heroes), he completely forgot that ~~[[Critical Failure|~~Critical Failures]] are always failures, regardless of +infinity modifiers. HamaEstra then shortly goes into [[Villainous Breakdown]].}}

* [[Big Bad|HamaEstra]] in ''[[Fuzzy Things]]'' rolls one of these {{spoiler|1=while in-game as the [[Game Master]] against Ben. Unfortunately for him (thus fortunate for our heroes), he completely forgot that Critical Failures are always failures, regardless of +infinity modifiers. HamaEstra then shortly goes into [[Villainous Breakdown]].}}