GnomeWorks
Adventurer
I cannot, for the life of me, understand the fascination with fumbles.
Probabilistically speaking, this whole "1 is a fumble" thing means that, every time I try something, there is a 5% chance that I am going to completely and utterly screw it up. This does not jive with my real-world experiences.
Not only that, but the concept of fumbles completely and utterly screws with the notion of how competent these people are. A first-level character has almost always been presented as a cut above the rest, yes? Why is it, then, that he has the same chance of making a complete idiot out of himself, that some normal plebe has?
And that just gets worse as the character levels. Twentieth-level fighter, fighting with Vecna - oops, rolled a 1! I just tossed my sword over there, like some kind of bumbling idiot. If something happens in a game of D&D that someone starts playing this, then there is something fundamentally wrong going on.
Probabilistically speaking, this whole "1 is a fumble" thing means that, every time I try something, there is a 5% chance that I am going to completely and utterly screw it up. This does not jive with my real-world experiences.
Not only that, but the concept of fumbles completely and utterly screws with the notion of how competent these people are. A first-level character has almost always been presented as a cut above the rest, yes? Why is it, then, that he has the same chance of making a complete idiot out of himself, that some normal plebe has?
And that just gets worse as the character levels. Twentieth-level fighter, fighting with Vecna - oops, rolled a 1! I just tossed my sword over there, like some kind of bumbling idiot. If something happens in a game of D&D that someone starts playing this, then there is something fundamentally wrong going on.