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The player characters won’t always succeed inDungeons & Dragons. If they did, there would be no need to roll dice! However, failing a die roll at a critical time can demoralize the players or even derail the story, neither of which are things that you want as a DM.
Related:D&D: What To Do When A Player Character Dies
One of the best things that you can do for your table is to start seeing failed rolls as an opportunity to increase the tension in the story, rather than a setback to be avoided. Try letting your players “fail forward,” and your campaign will be better for it.
How To Fail Forward
The heroes in a D&D campaign are usually the best at what they do; from Fighters and Barbarians who wrestle owlbears as a warm-up to Rogues and Rangers who can vanish without a trace, these are characters who know what they’re doing.Players build their characters to excel, so it can be jarring when the adventurers occasionally fail a Skill Check that should have been a sure thing.
Failing forward works on the idea thata failed roll doesn’t come from a lack of abilityon the part of the character, but rather becausea new complication was added to the situationthat interrupted or prevented them from succeeding. For example:
In these situations, the player characters did everything right, but werefoiled by something beyond their control or knowledge. In every case, the new situation provides an extra encounter, side quest, or storyline.
Related:Tips For Running One-On-One D&D Campaigns
Thinking On Your Feet
Since it’s not possible to account for everything the players might try over the course of a campaign and how you’ll handle a failed roll in each situation, failing forwardrequires a good amount of improvisation. When in doubt, consider how one of the following statements could apply to the failed roll:
However the scenario plays out, the PCs will need toresolve the new situationbefore they can continue forward. Often, the change in circumstances willopen up a new pathso that the heroes can move on in spite of the setback. Once you’ve done this a few times, your players will never know whether a shocking twist was planned or improvised!
