A house rule for first edition, D&D.

Daniel S. Wall

Whenever a character rolls a natural 1, her player rolls a die 20 and consults the table below to see what happened.

Note that the likelihood of a serious critical fumble is significantly affected by the nature of the attack. Someone firing a missile at a single target is less likely to fumble than someone fighting with a weapon in the midst of a general melee, and of course there are all sorts of shades in between. It is for this reason that some of the columns below contain several possibilities for ignoring the fumble result altogether while others have little or no such merciful options.

Definitions

Ally: Any character, monster, or construct actively helping the principal attacker. This does not include bystanders unless they are actively attacking the same opponent.

Attack (the): The attack which scored a critical fumble and landed you on this table to begin with.

Enemy: The target of the attack and/or anyone clearly allied with that target and/or fighting the principal attacker and her allies.

Attacker: The person launching the attack which scored a critical fumble.

Target: The individual attacked on the critical hit.

 

	Missile
			Armed Attacker			Unarmed Attacker
Roll	Isolated Target	Crowded		One-on-One	Crowded		One-on-One	Crowded
1	A	A		A	A		A	A
2	P	C		C	C		P	C
3	P	B		P	B		P	B
4	P	C		P	C		P	C
5	D	D		D	D		D	D
6	P	C		E	E		E	E
7	P	C		P	E		P	E
8	P	C		I	F		P	F
9	H	H		G	G		G	G
10	P	P		G	G		G	G
11	I	I		I	I		I	I
12	P	P		I	I		I	I
13	P	P		J	J		J	J
14	K	K		K	K		K	K
15	P	P		K	K		K	K
16	P	P		N	L		N	L
17	M	M		N	L		N	L
18	N	N		N	N		N	N
19	P	P		N	N		N	N
20	O	O		O	O		O	O

 

A: Hit Self. Attacker rolls using strength and weapon bonuses only on the attack roll against the attacker’s own armor class without a dexterity bonus. If successful, then only strength and weapon bonuses apply to the damage. Any other technique or skill bonuses can be ignored.

B: Hit ally, Alternatively, give other enemy an attack of opportunity on the attacker.

C: Hit Wrong Target. This could be an ally or an enemy, or even a bystander. The GM will randomize the new target based on proximity to the original target or to the line of fire toward that target. The attack roll will be made using any applicable strength or weapon bonuses.

D: Lose Next Attack. This applies if the character remains in continuous melee combat up until her next attack is due or if she is firing missiles continuously until her next attack is due. If she moves on to do other things, the result becomes irrelevant, but she must waste at least 1 action to do so.

E: Leave Opening. Target gets a free attack on the attacker.

F: Get in the Way. Target gets a free attack on an ally.

G: Fall Down. (Nuff said!)

H: Slip: If the character is in a precarious condition, she falls down. If hiding, she loses hide-in-shadows and move-silently.

I: Drop weapon. Yep!

J: Drop Shield. Alternatively, drop weapon.

K: Drop Miscellaneous Item. Attacker drops an item of equipment. Alternatively, drop weapon.

L: Other Enemy Gets Free Attack. This is rolled against the attacker.

M: Snap Bowstring.

N: Break Weapon. The weapon breaks if it is non magical. Alternatively, if the weapon is magical, it is dropped.

O: Trivial Injury. Attacker takes 1 point of damage.

P: Nevermind.