While table top role playing games often give players all the rules they need to play the game, “house rules” are often created by game masters and players for their campaigns. These rules may make up for a perceived deficiency in the official rules set, or may be an added bit of flavor that the group wishes their personal campaigns to include. For the longest time, I’ve had the concept of my “Fickle Fate” house rule worked out, but have not had the opportunity to use it while running games for D&D Adventurer’s League, or I’ve been running play tests for games and using the rule seemed unwise in the spirit of play testing.
Now, with The Curiosity Cache, I’ve been able to unleash Fickle Fate upon the players, and it’s been a blast so far!
So, what is Fickle Fate? First off, it isn’t restricted to Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, it’s completely system neutral, and only requires the roll of any die, the flip of a coin, or some other random qualifier to determine a positive or negative outcome. Have a look.
Fickle Fate
- At the start of a campaign, a module, or a game session, choose a random event that has some likelihood of occurring during the game. For example, the dog barking, someone dropping their dice on the floor, someone getting a phone call, etc.
- Whenever that agreed upon event occurs during the game, roll any die (or flip a coin or some other method of choosing between the two following options).
* On an even number, a random, beneficial occurrence happens. This could be that a character finds a rare coin laying on the road, or a gust of wind happens to blow against an enemy, giving that enemy a penalty to strike a character.
* On an odd number, a random, potentially negative occurrence happens. For example, that gust of wind instead blows against a character, knocking them off balance, or a dog barking scares the horses the characters are riding. - These events should be small things, not game changing, but moments that add flavor and fun to the game. They should certainly never outright cause death to a character, though it is a fun way to work in more tension as things go awry, or flaring hope as a lifeline is tossed out in a dire moment!
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While I choose to not use this rule to cause major plot events to happen, it may change the outcome of any circumstance.
**SPOILERS**
For example, in Episode 1 of The Curiosity Cache, Friede passed by some foreign soldiers, people who do not look kindly upon many of the other races in the Scarred Lands setting. Friede was almost out of their line of sight when my dog barked, setting off the Fickle Fate roll. In that last moment, one of the soldiers glanced back, noting Friede and the building he was entering. Later on, that soldier came back with friends, in plain clothes, and attempted to rile Friede and the character’s friends into a brawl, at which point they could have used the fight as something to hold against the non-humans. This attitude and potential interaction was already set up, with the foreigners being in the city, and depending on how things went in the campaign, the characters may have encountered it anyway. The Fickle Fate roll simply moved it up into the forefront, and now the characters have a probably enemy that is going to be causing them problems. Indeed, later that night, intruders broke into the Curiosity Cache and stole an expensive artifact. Was it the soldiers? The characters certainly paused to deliberate that!
So far, Fickle Fate has come into play four times in The Curiosity Cache, and every time has been an odd outcome, causing the characters even more grief. I’m sure that the dice will start working in their favor as well.
**END SPOILERS**
I hope that Fickle Fate provides you and your group an extra boost of entertainment in your gaming sessions if you choose to use it! I find it is also a really great way to determine if your dice truly hate you, or are only unbalanced so they roll low (or high). LOL!
Please join us on Fridays, 4:30-6:30pm Eastern, as we play through The Curiosity Cache campaign on Twitch! You can catch up on YouTube or podcast at any time!
Happy gaming everyone!