"You sure can try" is a favorite of mine. I have exactly one player who has figured out what this means after 3 years.
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2023
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I always do this, but it's fun describing how the impossible thing they wanted to do didn't work in a very mundane way
It ads dimensions to the characters and my players like it. Haven't you ever tried something monumentally stupid? But if it would just work your wildest fantasies would suddenly become reachable? We make those moments for our characters, too. Hell, I have looped back around to one of these failed attempts at the end of the session and turned it into a solution. (Barb wanted to throw a small fort, at the end got a temporary magic item that allowed them to block a monster-spewing hole with said fort). Its fun. I didn't even mean for the item to be used in that way when I made it prior to the session.
This is how the best of D&D goes.
You come up with some elaborate idea, and then the players make friends with a chicken and steal it or something, which sets off a weird chain of consequences where now some poultry farming mafia is chasing them and you all talk about for weeks later.
Yep. Had a player in my Sunday campaign just a week or two ago that sat there rolling and rolling to bash down a door and he just couldn't overcome the damage resistance. I let him keep rolling a bit until he tired out lol.
Dense players are the most entertaining.
When I hear this what I listen is "go ahead if it's reasonable for your character to think it's a good idea", then I look down at the sheet of the current dimwit I'm playing to figure out how I'm going to role-play the idiot trying.
Thats the spirit right there! Roll a constitution save! Those rocks aren't sitting well.
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"
I like to let people roll. The result may determine the consequences of failure.
But then you get players who complain that "they couldn't even succeed with a 20?!" And they complain why did you let them roll.
Of course if your players are used to that party of your style, that's fine.
- Why did you let me roll???
- To see how loud the bystanders will laugh, obviously.
I've heard "because I like the sound of dice hitting the table."
if they're int/dex/str, I make them roll a wisdom check to see if they do something impossibly stupid.
if they're wis or cha, they roll deception against themselves with disadvantage. It's excellent seeing a character literally deceive themselves into doing something dumb.
Just frame it as a success. Like our GM.
GM: Roll a d100
Player: rolls
GM: You've turned into a fairy.
Player: What...
GM: And as you look at yourself, you notice you're naked.
Player: But I've rolled 90 out of a 100!
GM: Yes. The fairy IS actually the GOOD outcome!
No, you cannot attach a drop to this castle and drag it across the countryside, even with a nat 20.
Look, I'm not gonna tell you the DC so you can just make a note and come back later knowing you can pass. You're gonna have to see what happens and figure it out. The only time I will ever tell a player they can't do something, is if they are trying to do something that is against the rules of the game. I might inform them of potential consequences of their actions if they don't seem to quite understand something that should be obvious, but that's about it. I also use critical fail and success with skill checks in my games, to make things more interesting. So even if the DC is impossible, a NAT20 may still get you through.
I had a dm who would tell us to roll. And then say "you fail" before hearing the number