If you’ve ever played D&D, then you already know rolling a 1 is bad. It automatically creates a tight ball in the pit of your stomach, because a 1 means ya just fucked up right good. It isn’t just the failure, either, it’s also embarrassing, just due to how epically you have screwed that proverbial pooch.
Two admissions. First off, sometimes, a Nat 1 just means you didn’t convince somebody of something, or overlooked some minor detail. usually, these are things that will come back to haunt you later, but don’t instantly lead to humiliation. Still, as a player, you know that when the DM lets it slide, something bad probably just happened. While it save you the embarrassment, you’ll be spending a lot of time wondering just when the other shoe is gonna drop, which is pretty much worse.
Second, that dreaded Fumble System. Never was a fan of it myself, as I consider it story breaking to have a player accidentally decapitate themselves with their own sword. Many players love it, however, and even more DM’s still use it, adding potential self inflicted mutilation and fatality to a Nat 1 roll. While it certainly does ratchet up the dread, it sometimes gets into overkill territory, in my mind.
All of that pales in comparison to this epic Nat 1 fest…
It just gets worse, and more hysterical from there.
Fated is a short comic written by Jasmine Walls, with illustrations by Amy Phillips, that takes a series of Nat 1 and Nat 20 rolls and turns them into a beautiful love story you’ll have to see to believe. You can read the rest of it here, and do be sure to like the original post. As a fellow writer, comic nerd, and lover of art, I hope Jasmine and Amy both become wildly successful, because if anyone deserves it, they do, just for having such wonderfully twisted imaginations.
Cain S. Latrani 