Try Extra Hard - Optional Rule

[jqavins]

Inspired by this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?360378-Idea-for-a-dice-system), I've come up with something to accomplish a similar goal.

When making any check that the character is aware of for which the raw die roll needed would be 15 or higher, the player may choose to Try Extra Hard. The player rolls 2d16-6 in place of the usual 1d20. This has the effect of making the chance of success somewhat higher, and making raw rolls as high as 26 possible, but it comes at a cost. When the character tries extra hard to succeed, failures are more extreme. If the roll was to disarm a trap, any failure triggers the trap and you incur a -10 circumstance penalty to any applicable saving throw. If the roll is an attack, any failure is a fumble (subject to confirmation and effects determined by whatever fumble rules you are using.) If the roll is to jump from a height and land safely, then a failure automatically brings maximum damage. There is always some sort of downside like that, though I obviously can't cover all situations in this post (nor have I thought of them all.)

You can not try extra hard on rolls you did not expect to make. Thus, it is not applicable to saving throws, defensive rolls, spot checks, etc.

Thoughts, comments, questions?

[Thunderfist12]

I would use it, personally.

Yes, I do have a question, though. What is this d16 you speak of?

[jqavins]

I would use it, personally.

Yes, I do have a question, though. What is this d16 you speak of?
It represents a discrete, uniform random variable with integer values ranging from 1 to 16. (Ask a smartass quastion, you get a smartass answer:smallwink:.)

Any decent dice rolling app can do arbitrary dice. (I've been using one I made on my programable calculator since the early '80s. so I don't even think of arbitrary dice as odd.) If you have only physical dice, use a d8 and an odd-even check on a separate die to add 8 on half the rolls. (So for 2d16, roll the d8's and the d-whatevers from two different sets so you can tell which goes with which. No, come to think of it, it doesn't matter which goes with which because rolls of, let's say, 4 on one die and 15 on the other gives the same result as 12 on one and 7 on the other.)

[Fizban]

When I wrote my version of this rule I was tying it to a hero point system and I went with just 2d20. If you fail with that then you get catastrophic crit uber failure so don't try to "do the impossible" unless you actually have a chance at succeeding.