this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2024
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1 catastrophic failure out of 400 attempts when you are trained in the task seems.... Very high.
I teach sword, if a critical fumble happened 1 out of 400 strikes I would have given up practicing ages ago due to the fear of maiming myself.
Differing goals. For realism, you're right. Many systems forego a critical failure entirely because of that.
But fumbles are fun and dramatic. So while 1 out of 20 is excessive, having that danger lurking in every roll can be exciting. Of course you don't want to chop off limbs at every fumble, but chucking a weapon, breaking a bow string, insulting an official... They move the narrative forward in interesting ways.
I think for me the issue is I would rather play Kingdom Death Monster if I want that goal. I am not sure rp based ttrpgs fill that niche well.
I've never heard of KDM. But if your point is that there are better systems than DnD out there you'll find no argument from me.
More that KDM does the job for dealing with the idea of "stuff goes wrong". The games mechanics are built around it. Gear is important, characters are not. Which means stuff can go really bad very fast.
I think DnD does heroic fantasy really well.
I will not discuss the merits of DnD as that will derail the thread and is rarely fruitful. Let's just say we don't have to agree on that to enjoy and celebrate our hobby.