Roleplaying Despite Continually Horrific Rolls

[carnival]

So I've got a problem that has been plaguing my characters since I started playing table top rpgs a few years back: I have absolutely abysmal luck with dice rolls. It's at the point now where its become really frustrating because I can't for the life of me play a competent character .

For example I'm playing a 4e campaign with some friends of mine at the moment as a two bladed ranger. I've got 18's in str and dex and pretty average scores in everything else(with the exception of an 8 Cha lol, which is worse). My problem is that with scores like that, you wouldn't think it would be a stretch to be playing a character that is good at martial-type stuff but isn't the greatest conversationalist of the room.

So my character joins the group, and precedes to just entirely suck it up...I've calculated my historical chance or rolling 1's to be about 40% lol, and I routinely fail at streetwise, stealth, acrobatics, you name it. What's sad is that my dm goes easy too. I'm not failing these checks because my skills suck(though the streetwise certainly does hehe), but for the fact that I roll below tens 75% of the time. This isn't a streak of sucky rolls every once in a while or only with this character either. For as long as I've been playing rpgs, I've had to deal with this.

Anyway, despite the previous contents of this post, I didn't actually post this to vent(or not entirely anyway lol). I'm really interested in how you guys handle(from an rp perspective) a character concept where it seems outstanding on paper, but they just can't catch a break with the rolls.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

Does 4E allow taking 10 on skill checks when not stressed out or rushed like in 3E? If so, use that rule whenever possible.

 

[Lanefan]

Anyway, despite the previous contents of this post, I didn't actually post this to vent(or not entirely anyway lol). I'm really interested in how you guys handle(from an rp perspective) a character concept where it seems outstanding on paper, but they just can't catch a break with the rolls.

It's like a sports team that has all the best players in theory but can't get over .500 no matter what they do. (this year's example: Miami Heat)

One option is to play it up. Instead of Joram the Ranger, take on the name Joram the Unlucky. Make your poor fortune the stuff of legends. Tell anyone you meet that if they're not careful your bad luck will rub off on them.

Then, when the pendulum swings the other way as it inevitably will, your successes will seem all the more outstanding.

Lanefan

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Sometimes, the dice just seem to hate you.

In our current campaign, the fighter is a damage magnet. "So what?" you're thinking, "that's his job!"

Except it seems as if, despite his party-leading AC, he gets hit by every foe, every round. The player is getting frustrated- it was a refreshing change of pace when he survived the combat with more than 50% of his HP.

 

[Ryltar]

Honestly, the first thing I would do is get a different set of dice. Depending on what kind you use, they may very well not be ideally* weighted, thus giving you more than your fair share of low rolls. Do 100 rolls and see how far they deviate from the bell curve to find out if this is a possible issue.

OTOH, it might just be bad luck. That happens. The most common remedy I've seen is dropping the character, as it just is no fun to continually fail at everything you are supposed to be good at. Remember, you game to have fun, not to increase your worries.

If you are determined, though, to make the character concept work, you might try and work with the GM to come up with an additional bit of background that could explain your abysmal rolls. Say the character was cursed by a wizard/witch in the past, and the curse only recently took hold, making the PC suffer from bad dreams, etc. Now you've got a built-in hook for the GM to add another layer of story, your search for a possible remedy to this situation.

Once you resolve this quest, you should probably get new dice, though .

(* I know there is no such thing as a perfect die, but in my experience, the quality of a given set can range from near-perfect to totally flawed.)

 

[Rune]

My suggestion is in a different vein.

Take a bunch of feats that trigger off of crits. They may not trigger often in your case, but when they do, they'll be that much more special.

 

[wedgeski]

I have a player like you. Effects that do damage on a miss, no matter how slight (e.g. Reaping Strike), make his day a lot happier.

 

[Hand of Evil]

You need to "LOVE" your dice and they will "LOVE" you. This is why I have the amout of dice I do, if one starts to roll bad, time to pull it and put in the backup.

 

[IronWolf]

Time to treat yourself to a set of Game Science dice.

 

[DragonLancer]

As superstitous as it sounds, get yourself some new dice.