The Wheel of Fate: a way to deal with critical misses in your game

[El Coro]

The Wheel of Fate is a fun way for your players to deal with critical misses when attacking. If the DM can’t think of anything particularly fitting that should happen, then the player spins the Wheel of Fate to determine the effect.


Download: PDF
Download for iPhone/iPad: App Store


A lot of people prefer not to penalize their players for critical attack misses, but I think it adds a little fun and challenge to a game routinely dominated by powerful PC synergy. If you do use critical misses and want to give the Wheel a try, I’d recommend not applying it to dailies, as many dailies still deal damage and effects on misses (and missing a daily is punishment enough most of the time). If you want to use the Wheel for encounter or daily critical misses and it lands on the “Reroll attack against nearest player in range” effect, just have the player reroll a melee or ranged basic attack instead – this was the original intent, I just couldn’t fit it on the wheel tile.

Most of the time as a DM there’s some obvious effect for a critical miss; if they’re balancing on a beam while attacking, they fall; if they’re throwing something, it hits someone else; and so on. The Wheel is primarily for when, as a DM, you really can’t come up with anything that seems to fit. Tell the player to give it a spin and then narrate the effect into your game.


Besides being fun to spin and watch, I had a super secret reason for making the Wheel: to reduce stress, irritation, and animosity at the table. When a player rolls a critical 1, they often expect a punishment from the DM, who has to come up with an effect on the fly – one that usually is ill-received and often argued. The player can often feel like the DM is picking on them personally, and the DM deals with a little bit of stress while determining whether to take it easy or not. When the player spins the wheel themselves, they 1) have a chance of landing on “No Effect”, and 2) inflict their own punishment – they don’t get upset or angry at the DM for singling them out or ‘screwing them over’.

 

[Camelot]

This seems like a cool idea, if you don't mind the extra time it takes to a) make the wheel and b) spin in whenever someone fumbles.

On the other hand, it's a fumble chart in disguise. You might as well roll a d12 and consult the chart. Some people liked that 4e got rid of fumble charts; if you didn't, this works well as one.

Some mechanical comments:
- This would replace the suggested houserule in the DMG that getting a critical miss makes you end your turn immediately and grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn.
- One or two of the options on the wheel should be "end your turn immediately and grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn," and all other options on the wheel should be balanced around that.
- Giving a player the choice between being blinded or slowed is pretty redundant. Being slowed is almost always better than being blinded.

 

[El Coro]

[MENTION=82617]Camelot[/MENTION]

Right on pretty much everything - it's definitely a secret fumble chart, but the child-like fascination with watching something spin as your fate is decided is pretty entertaining.

As for making the wheel, it really only takes 5 minutes - I've already had someone turn it into an iPhone/iPad app. It should be in the app store soon (for free) and maybe people will like that more since they don't have to make anything.

For your mechanical comments, I'm changing the wheel to fit a lot of the comments I've received so far:
- The blind vs. slowed effect is going out - I imagined some ridiculous situation where people would rather move away than attack, which never comes up.
- Definitely adding in the granting combat advantage effect, possibly in two tiles. Might not have them end their turn as well, even if that is the suggested house rule.

I'll post the updated wheel in a day or two, let me know if you have any more specific suggestions before then that I could toss in.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[nnms]

I'd turn one "no effect" into a heroic recovery -- reroll the attack!

 

[El Coro]

[MENTION=83293]nnms[/MENTION]

That's a great idea - I'll add that in. Thanks!

 

[El Coro]

Thanks for all the feedback here, and also Chris Sims, who helped redesign a lot of the effects and clarify the language of the effects. I've changed the wheel to be more consistent and clear.


Notable changes:

Two tiles grant combat advantage until the end of your next turn.
​

Two smaller tiles have been added: one lets you reroll the original attack, and the other loses a healing surge.

Fall Prone has been changed to Move 1d4 Squares or Fall Prone.

Blind or Slowed (player’s choice) was basically slowed, since that’s all players would choose. Updated to reflect that.

End Your Turn has changed to No Actions until You Spend a Minor, which is basically just losing a minor action.

Reroll Attack Against Nearest Ally in Range was meant to only be a basic attack, and though I mentioned it in the post, it wasn’t clear on the wheel; this has been changed to a static 5 damage per tier to the nearest ally.

Take Damage Equal to Your Level is now just a static 5 damage per tier.​

 

[nnms]

Fall Prone has been changed to Move 1d4 Squares or Fall Prone.
​

Is it supposed to be "move" as in "move and take opportunity attacks"? Or, slide so they don't? And how decides where they go? The DM or the controlling player? Is it the one they were attacking? What if it's a raned weapon? Or is this a melee only chart?

 

[El Coro]

Nope it works for both melee and ranged. The player is forced to move (not shift) that number of squares in any direction they want, OR they choose to fall prone. If they do choose to move, they will take opportunity attacks.

The idea is that they're losing their balance and can either let themselves fall down or try to stay up by stumbling a few feet.

Most of the time melee characters will probably prefer to fall prone rather than take the damage, but they still have the option, so it lets them at least make a choice themselves.

It's true for ranged attackers that it often won't be much of a penalty, but that's fine and fits with how it would work thematically - if a ranger trips while firing an arrow 30 feet away from any enemies, it doesn't matter much to him.

 

[marli]

i have a break point system for enemys, each enemy gets points(roughly equal to XP). the enconter gets a "break" point dependong on the tactics of the enemys(say 50% for cowards 10% for psycotic) when the enemy that can run or surrender will do so.
however when you miss with a 1 thier break stat goes up by 1(they mock you) meaning it take a bit more to make them surrender or flee(they gain heart and think the tide is turning for them)

 

[El Coro]

Interesting. Can you tell more about the break point system? That seems like a pretty cool idea, if you don't mind expanding on it? In here or a new thread or even a PM.