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Failures are more interesting than successes
From the beginning of the hobby, there have always been many different methods to randomize how an uncertain event transpires in TTRPG. Because it is uncertain, there is a chance of failure. Because we have been trained from our very beginnings in life to seek success, many of us fear failure. What if I told you failure is a much more interesting outcome? (at least in TTRPGs)
For some, it might be a bit controversial. Getting to land that crit in the final boss to send them to their final slumber might be epic and rad af, but there are amazing stories to be told as well through failure. In fact, in many cases I would argue these stories are even MORE interesting than those that come out from successes.
Some time ago, I encountered this video from Dropout and Dimension 20’s Sam Reich, talking about why he prefers failure over success in TTRPGs. And you know what? I agree with him. So for that, I piled up all my reasons why and put them into this article. Feel free to debate with me in the comments if you believe I am right or not. How do stories begin in media? They start with a problem. How does the problem occur? That is because there was a failure either from one of the protagonists or the world itself. That is what creates a story interesting enough to deserve to be told. A story of a protagonist overcoming the odds after a failure, getting to learn from it, or maybe the other way around, succumbing to a path of corruption coming from that first domino piece. All in all, what is it that kickstarted it all? You know it – the failure!
Failure in life
There’s no better starting point than one’s own experience to begin my argument. We all experienced failure in our lives, in a bigger or lower scale. I am no different. In fact, you can search for some of the interviews I was done in the space, and you will find me talking about many of my failures. But I grew stronger from them all. I learned. I like to think I am a better person because of it, and will not trip with the same stone again. We all love the underdog story for a reason. We can see ourselves represented in it because (except for some crappy people) we have all been there. That is what makes our story interesting to tell. We better discover ourselves and get a good story from it through our failures.
Botching your check
A Natural 1, botching your roll, dropping the Jenga tower… however it is in the game you are playing that you get the worst possible result. Our character is going to have a terrible time. Look back in your memory lane to your most memorable moments in TTRPG. I am CERTAIN that at least one of those involves botching a roll. It may have derailed your whole campaign possibly. It has THAT level of impact at times. Not that a success may not have it, but failures are even more unexpected than successes, and that tells brilliant tales in my opinion.
Picture a normal battle against some bandits occurring. Basic, simple. Now, they place them in the middle of a gala, and have a ranger’s fire arrow start a fire due to a botched roll. By the next round, you are fighting bandits while rescuing people in a raging inferno of a mansion. That encounter went from boring to incredibly exciting only from the result of a roll. I am sure that will leave some consequences that will turn into an unexpected and incredible story going forward. As a simple example, the player characters may now be sought by the law for the disaster they caused, forcing them to become criminals from a mafia organization.
Learning and Character development
– Sue Coletta, Resident Writing Coach for Writers Helping Writers
As stated before, I find nothing is better than failure as a learning experience. When you create your perfect cyborg in your futuristic game, it is when they get hacked due to a failure on their part and start to doubt their humanity that true character development starts for them. Overcoming a problem (success) may have plenty of impact in character progression, but where would that all be without a previous failure on the character’s part that put them there?
Degrees of success and failure
Part of these problems occur due to the binary types of results most of the popular TTRPG offer. You either succeed or fail. There is not much of an in-between point according to the rules. If the GM adds one, that’s more of a house rule or optional rule. However, nowadays we have plenty of narrative-first games like Powered by the Apocalypse games that bring with them the chance of more often than not moving the story forward, but with something else going wrong or happening. These degrees of success and failure are added into the games to solve this problem by adding more failure into the mix, instead of being mostly a 50/50 chance, or granting more success than failure.
Conclusion
As you see throughout the article, I have provided several reasons why I believe a botch is more interesting than a critical success. I tie it with how failure works in the narrative of a story, and indicate how a moment of utter failure helps in most cases characters and the setting around them grow in ways it wouldn’t normally. There are great things to come out of successes and critical successes, of course! I just want to open this debate and see what y’all have to say from your experience.
So… what’s your take? Do you believe I am a GM that likes seeing my players suffer? Do you agree with me wholeheartedly? What’s your position in this debate? Let me know in the comments below!
