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View Full Version : Gamer Tales What are the most unlikely dice rolls you've ever seen?



holywhippet
2018-03-24, 06:40 PM
Last week in our D&D 5th edition game the DM was attacking a player with an enemy and he had disadvantage on his attack rolls. For those unfamiliar with the system if you have advantage you roll two d20s and take the best roll. If you have disadvantage you roll 2 d20s and take the worst roll. If you ever have both you roll as normal.

Anyway the DM made his first roll - and got two natural 20s. We even checked them ourselves. For his next roll - he got two natural 1s and again we visually confirmed this.

Aresneo
2018-03-24, 07:00 PM
I once had a d20 roll 1 on ten rolls in a row while DMing. My players found it hilarious, the die shortly found its way inside a microwave after that.

Tiadoppler
2018-03-24, 07:06 PM
A player rolled 3d6 straight down for his stats at home, and had an unremarkable, slightly-below-average character. That's the most unlikely dice roll ever.

I've seen 4 20s (Critical Hits) in a row, by one player, over multiple turns, using different dice.

Recently, rolling for loot with multiple percentile dice, I ended up generating a +3 Plate Armor at level 5 (in D&D 5e, that is very good), roughly a 1/2,000,000 chance.

I've also learned never to say "all you need to do is not roll a one" before any easy-but-important roll.

VincentTakeda
2018-03-24, 07:25 PM
We had 2 guys making opposed d20 rolls. They both got natural 20 so we had them reroll. Both got natural 20s again, so we had them reroll. 2 more natural 20s.

That's a 1 in 64 million right there.

Koo Rehtorb
2018-03-24, 07:49 PM
In Burning Wheel you roll a number of d6s equal to your skill + help in a thing. A 4+ is a success and you count the number of successes to determine how well you did. If you roll a 6 it counts as a success and you roll an additional die.

I recently saw someone get 20 successes on 17 dice.

FreddyNoNose
2018-03-24, 07:53 PM
I had a much harder situation. Rolling 4d6 keep best 3 nine times for six stats and my highest roll was a 5.

Xuc Xac
2018-03-25, 03:51 PM
I once rolled a 98 on 10d10 to compose a poem in an L5R game.

Quertus
2018-03-25, 06:40 PM
Hmmm...

Strange crit confirmation system, 20-20-20 (1/8,000).

Hacking into the divine telepathy grid, rolled consecutive critical successes on d%(1/10,000).

Got a 57 on an exploding d6 in Shadowrun (about 1/300,000)

Rolled straight 1's for HP (about 1 in one billion).

Cluedrew
2018-03-25, 07:58 PM
In my homebrew system. Which has used all sorts of systems as I have honed in on exactly what I want but at the time it was used a dice pool. Anyways one of my friends had maxed it out to 10 dice and needed a 2 to come up a 4+ to pass the check. That is a mere 1/1024 by my math, but... that was in the early days when there were probably only a few hundred dice rolled for that system in total. A one in a million chance is pretty likely if you have a billion trials, but with only a few dozen trials a one in a thousand stands out.

Anonymouswizard
2018-03-26, 12:28 AM
I once rolled two 17s on 3d6 in rapid succession. Critical failure in GURPS terms. Followed by another 17 just as the fallout from that situation was resolved. Went from horrific (my Truthfulness disad outing the party Skaven in the middle of some very racist dwarves*) to hilarious when the brawl started and I failed to land a single hit.

* The roll was just to stop me from getting into yet another argument due to overconfidence and truthfulness.

Beeba17
2018-03-26, 12:41 AM
My group was playing through mines of Phandlver
And one party member is Pele the neutral alcoholic pyromaniacal womanizing tiefling who had managed to seduce the barkeeper in Fandallin. After rolling successes in both a perception check, persuasion and succeeded a charm person spell to seduce the bar keeper.
He went back down to the bar to take free drinks

And a random man in the bar went to stop him


Pele rolled a nat 1 on a strength check,
He took 1 Damage. Was kicked out the bar (literally)
Was allowed no drinks

And our party was waiting outside and in the DMs own words
All pointed and laughed at his failure of a scheme


We have so many crazy stories
Including the improper and disgusting use of the Glass Staff
And the crazy way our party met

It makes me love this group so much

Quertus
2018-03-26, 11:16 AM
In my homebrew system. Which has used all sorts of systems as I have honed in on exactly what I want but at the time it was used a dice pool. Anyways one of my friends had maxed it out to 10 dice and needed a 2 to come up a 4+ to pass the check. That is a mere 1/1024 by my math, but... that was in the early days when there were probably only a few hundred dice rolled for that system in total. A one in a million chance is pretty likely if you have a billion trials, but with only a few dozen trials a one in a thousand stands out.

This is why I remember the three twenties in a row, as it was the first such attempt.

ComaVision
2018-03-26, 11:31 AM
The exact sequence of dice rolls I've rolled over my entire life is pretty unlikely. There is probably nobody else that has ever rolled that sequence, or ever will.

I did roll two nat 20s for an NPC monk flurry once, then two nat 20s to confirm. The PC died immediately. :(

erikun
2018-03-26, 01:52 PM
The first time I played D&D4e, in my first four or five sessions, I never rolled above a 6 on the d20. And yes, all of those involved combat. (Frequently twice a session.) It was one of those online connecting programs, so no chance that I just had defective dice.

Another time, a group I was in decided to play a game of AD&D2e with straight 3d6 stat generation. I ended up with a literally unplayable character: 13 CON, every other stat below 9, which meant the character was completely unable to qualify for any class. After the DM let me swap some CON for some WIS to at least be capable of playing something, I rolled for first level HP and ended up with a 1. I mean, at least I didn't need to worry about healing myself, but still...

Although that group also had a Fighter with 2HP max and a Wizard with 3HP, so I think it was just doomed from the start.

Anonymouswizard
2018-03-26, 02:10 PM
Strict by the book early D&D has the problems of squishy characters, to the point that maximum hp at first level is essentially an official alternate rule (at least in red box).

3d6 in order also works best if you allow players to discard scores below a certain threshold without forcing it. Sometimes a character with 16 Intelligence and a 6 in everything else is interesting, sometimes he's a bit too specialised.

I think the most hilarious set of rolls I ever for were a character who's stats were all either +0 or +2. But it's not unlikely

What was is the time I managed to fairly accumulate 6-8 points in Wealth on a Mechwarrior trader character, and the GM allowed me to spend the spare points to upgrade my wealth to the point I could trade for a dropship. But I did send her through about eight career terms trading, and that GM has forbidden me from playing characters over fifty in lifepath systems (after the doctor I made who went through military university four times before he served).

Belac93
2018-03-26, 02:14 PM
I had a character in 5th edition, rolling for stats with 4d6b3, and ended up with 18, 18, 18, 17, 17, 17. Ended up playing a half-elf paladin, with the stats 20, 18, 18, 18, 18, 17 at level 1. Sadly the game didn't last very long, but it was glorious while it lasted.

Coventry
2018-03-26, 02:32 PM
Two stories:

As DM, I was complaining/whining about one of my d20s, and how it was constantly rolling low for me. One of my players - the one with a reputation for rolling well on everything *except* poison saving throws - picked up my d20 and rolled 5 natural 20s out of six rolls.

Rolled out in the open, in front of myself and two witnesses. I don't remember the other result, but it was a high number.

I retired that die that day. I think he offered to keep it in his collection, but the neither myself nor the witnesses wanted that die in his hands.

The second is technically not a dice roll, but there is still chance involved. I did nearly the same thing with the Deck of Many things as a player. When the DM offered us to draw from the deck, he pulled out a real deck and shuffled it. Others players got the typical mix of good and bad results. I flatly refuse to draw, though, because of the lack of luck I displayed, above. They insisted I could not be that un-lucky, so I agreed to draw cards, but only out of character. Shuffle. Cut. Five draws, five bad cards. The last was Donjon. The rest of them stopped giving me grief about refusing to draw in-character, though.