Our D&D campaign died because of one bad house rule

We had been running a campaign for 8 months. Thursday nights. My friend Dave convinced everyone to try a "crit fail" table he found online. First session with it, our wizard rolled a 1 and accidentally fireballed himself. Two sessions later, the rogue sliced his own leg off on a stealth check. Half the group quit after that. Anyone else had a house rule completely wreck a game?

2 comments

2 Comments

ruby_grant18d ago

Yeah, the "grabbed the first one he found and treated it like gospel" thing hits close to home. One of my old groups had a DM who found a fumble table online and used it for EVERYTHING, including casting spells outside combat. Our paladin rolled a 1 trying to bless some holy water and the table said his god abandoned him on the spot. Party broke up that week.

the_james18d ago

Yeah but it sounds like the problem wasn't really the crit fail table, it was how Dave ran it. A lot of those tables online are meant for combat rolls only, not skill checks. Sneaking is not the same as trying to stab someone. If you use a crit fail table on everything, you turn the game into a joke where heroes can't even walk without hurting themselves. I've seen groups have fun with critical fumbles, but only when they keep them rare and don't punish players for just trying to do basic stuff. Did anyone actually read the table's rules before using it, or did Dave just grab the first one he found and treat it like gospel?