Funniest things you have ever done on a roll of natural 1.

[Cyrano de Maniac]

Two incidents, same character. My merc headhunter, Paul Crocker, has a Titan Combat Robot. On several occasions he's done a stand up job of saving the party from this nasty or that, having almost the only vehicle, and definitely the only combat vehicle, in the group. But this aid hasn't come inexpensively for the rest of the party. I somehow have a knack for rolling a natural 1 at just the wrong time...

The first time a small village has convinced us to extract a Thornhead demon from a nearby cave. Nasty bugger has been demanding sacrifices and eating the barbecued flesh of virgins, or something like that. Anyway, the plan is that the rest of the party will go down in his cave, get his attention, and high-tail it for the cave entrance with the Thornhead in hot pursuit, and as he reaches the door Paul is to launch several volleys of mini-missles and laser blasts and such and cut the demon down to size, maybe with the help of the party's Cyber-Knight, Sir Geoffrey, or something like that. With the help of the NPC fairy we had in tow, things go even better than planned, and the Thornhead emerges from the cave not in hot pursuit, but temporarily transfixed by some sort of fairy magic. Sir Geoffrey is the last to come out of the cave, followed by the Thornhead. Paul launches an opening volley of mini-missles -- or at least attempts to do so. You know it's coming -- natural 1.

What's a GM to do? Well, Sir Geoffrey is standing next to the Thornhead, who's no longer under the fairy's love spell, and unfortunately our trusty Cyber-Knight takes the brunt of the volley, which of course he wasn't doing anything to defend against, not exactly expecting Paul to shoot at him. Sir Geoffrey is left with just a few meager hit points, the Thornhead looks up at Paul in the Titan and smiles... then finishes off Geoffrey with one swipe. Poor guy.

Second incident. Some weeks later we find the party in Cidaud Juarez, rolling in to town late at night after a long day's travel. We're kind of looking to take a day off on our trip, effect a few minor repairs, replenish, and get back on the road. Anyway, just as we pull into town a drunk merc staggering in the street whips out his laser pistol and transforms a little beggar kid into pink mist, shouting something about "learnin' him not to steal from folk". This level of violence seems way out of line to Paul, and having a combat robot handy, decides to do something about it. Paul attempts to grab the drunk merc with the Titan's hands, and rolls to grapple. Notice the word "attempts"... Yep, natural 1.

The GM, not knowing exactly what sort of failure might result from a robot failing to grapple a human, decides that Paul loses control of the Titan, which topples over and smashes to toothpicks the neighboring building. In short order the local law enforcement shows up, and takes the party into custody.

Oh yeah, we didn't put up much of a fight because we're reasonably law-abiding folks, and I forgot to mention that the reason we're in this God-forsaken town in the first place is because our Juicer, "B.F.D.", is in the Ciduad Juarez hospital recovering after a near-death experience with a vampire about twenty or thirty miles outside of town. We don't exactly want to get the authorities mad at us when our party member's life is on the line. So it's off to jail for us, with the exception of the Vagabond who happened to be at the hospital with B.F.D. when, umm, things went down, and the NPC fairy who typically hung around with the Vagabond. So yeah, we're left with a Vagabond, fairy, and a barely ambulatory Juicer to break us out of jail and recover the impounded Titan.

Natural 1's. So much fun for the entire party.

Brent

[Cybermancer]

The funnest thing I've ever done on a natural one in a Palladium game is still hit my target because the combined bonuses to strike were five or more.


No seriously. I really appreciated having a GM who didn't import house rules from other games that are contrary to the rules as written. This has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves. I'd hate to see a character or worse, an entire party ruined because of such a house ruling. It's been my experience that such fumbles are rarely enjoyable for the players experiencing them and they are often contrived.

So yeah, the most fun I have ever had rolling a natural one was knowing that all it was, was a really low roll.

[tundro]

The funnest thing I've ever done on a natural one in a Palladium game is still hit my target because the combined bonuses to strike were five or more.


No seriously. I really appreciated having a GM who didn't import house rules from other games that are contrary to the rules as written. This has got to be one of my biggest pet peeves. I'd hate to see a character or worse, an entire party ruined because of such a house ruling. It's been my experience that such fumbles are rarely enjoyable for the players experiencing them and they are often contrived.

So yeah, the most fun I have ever had rolling a natural one was knowing that all it was, was a really low roll.

Accordong to RUE page 340, a roll of 1 - 4 to strike is always a miss, and says that what happens is up to the GM and how they want to play it. Most GM's make something funny and/or painful happen to the character.

[Cybermancer]

RUE pg 339

If the result is a four or less (counting bonuses), the attacker misses. Any roll above a four will hit the opponent, unless the defender can parry or dodge the attack.

It's really funny how many people miss that little bit in the brackets. That's the rule as written. Anything else is a house rule. There is no mention of a natural one meaning anything at all.

RUE pg 340

A roll of 1-4 to strike is always a miss.
A roll of a Natural 20 is always a hit and a Critical Strike (double damage).

Note that it mentions a natural 20 but does not mention a natural roll of 1-4. Nor is there anything on this page that disagrees with what was said on the previous page.

A natural one means nothing in the Palladium system, as written. Anything else is a house rule.

[taalismn]

Fumbled the shot, blew a hole in the balcony underneath my feet, and proceeded to fall onto the floor below...then through that(my character was a 500+ lbs 'borg in full armor)...then onto the next floor...
The GM then tells me.."Oh, and the abandoned skyscraper you're in? It's groaning...."
...But he was merciful and decided NOT to drop me to the street below and bring the building down on top of me for good measure....

[Baron mugwort]

PFRPG1 it says something about rolling a 1 being a fumble. As I remeber some guy goes head first into some poridge and remarks on how well made it is.

[Cybermancer]

The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game (Revised Edition; 5th printing)
Pg 42

To determine a strike a twenty sided die is rolled by the attacker. Any roll abour a four (5 to 20) hits doing damage to the opponent or his armor unless a successful parry or dodge is made.

And later on the same page:

All bonuses add to the characters' ability to successfully acomplish some action. Bonuses are added to the die roll modifying the final outcome of the roll. Most bonuses are cumulative.

No mention anywhere of natural ones, fumbles or porridge.

The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game (Second Edition; First Printing)
Pg 43

The next step is for the first attacker to roll a twenty-sided die. If the result is four or less (counting bonuses), the attacker misses. Any roll above a four will hit the opponent, unless the defender can parry or dodge the attack.

Again, no mention of a natural one, fumbles or porridge.

If you wish to use the books to back up your statements, please provide quotes and page references. Saying things like, "It says something about..." or "I seem to recall it saying..." are weak attempts to substantiate an arguement without actually providing any substantive support for it. If you think it says something, look it up and then you can back up your argument. If you can't look it up for whatever reason, don't try to use it to support your stance.

You should also quote Rifts books on the Rifts forums.

My above quotes are provided to clarify the misunderstanding that some people have of what is actually written in those books. Also note that anything in the quotes that is bolded or in italics is that way because that is how it appears in print. I try to copy the quote as accurately as possible to avoid confusion.

[GhostKnight]

I refuse to use the "natural 1" critical loss. It doesn't seem at all realistic and can get quite annoying.

[Library Ogre]

I've toyed with using 2d10 instead of 1D20. In that case, a fumble on a natural 2 isn't out of line (since they've managed a 1-in-100 chance), but it makes criticals rare, and critical increasers much more valuable.

[Killer Cyborg]

RUE pg 339

If the result is a four or less (counting bonuses), the attacker misses. Any roll above a four will hit the opponent, unless the defender can parry or dodge the attack.

It's really funny how many people miss that little bit in the brackets. That's the rule as written. Anything else is a house rule. There is no mention of a natural one meaning anything at all.

RUE pg 340

A roll of 1-4 to strike is always a miss.
A roll of a Natural 20 is always a hit and a Critical Strike (double damage).

Note that it mentions a natural 20 but does not mention a natural roll of 1-4. Nor is there anything on this page that disagrees with what was said on the previous page.

Yup.
They added the "(counting bonuses)" part because so many people mis-interpreted that section in the past, and people STILL mis-interpret it.

A natural one means nothing in the Palladium system, as written. Anything else is a house rule.

Before RUE, that likely would have been true, but...
RUE 346
"Miss: A roll of 1-4 to strike (after bonuses) is always a miss.
A roll of one always misses regardless of bonuses."

[Cybermancer]

First of all, I would like to thank Killer Cyborg for providing the page and quote so I could check it out. Somehow I either missed that tidbit or forgot about it.

I retract my statement that a natural one means nothing in the Palladium system.

A natural one means that a character misses. That is all, however. There are no fumbles, just a straight up miss with no other consequences written into the rules (unless someone else can provide me a quote and a page reference showing otherwise). Any fumble rules are still house rules.

[Killer Cyborg]

We typically ruled that a nat 1 meant one of 3 things:
-You drop your weapon
-Your weapon jams (e-clips "fizzle")
-You shoot somebody you didn't mean to shoot.


Anyway, one of my Rifts characters ended up in PFRPG, and went through some of the adventures there.
He ended up with a number of nifty toys, including the Doubling Sword of Chaos, and Deathkiss the Demon Sword.
And a flying belt.

So we're on a ship, out in the middle of the ocean, and some harpies fly at the boat to attack us.
I fly out to meat them, and attack with my paired magic swords.

I roll double ones.

So both of my swords slip out of my hands, and plunge towards the ocean.

Luckily, one of my team-mate was able to catch the Doubling Sword, but Deathkiss was lost.

[Shadyslug]

I've shot myself in the foot.

Chopped off the arm of one of my team mates.

Shot the hostage being used by the kidnapper as a shield.

Impaled myself on a cactus...without armor...

[taalismn]

I've shot myself in the foot.

Chopped off the arm of one of my team mates.

Shot the hostage being used by the kidnapper as a shield.

Impaled myself on a cactus...without armor...

Ouccccchhhhh....
Endeared yourself to your teammates, the locals, and the local Bodyfixer and Cyberdoc , no?

[Kagashi]

Every GM I have ever played with (including on explorers unlimited) count natural 1s as an automatic failure.

One of my first GMs ruled that when I threw the grenade down the hall, the grenade hit frame of the door and fell back down by my feet, sending me down the hallway where the bad guys were...

As a GM myself, depending on the situation, Ive ruled cases of friendly fire, weapons jamming/malfunctions, player realizes he had the wrong clip in the wrong gun, bow breaks, sword hits own leg, optics or radar goes out, and other similar things.

[csbioborg]

I ended up in dragonlance from greyhawk he claims he randomly rolled on a table but that adventure was to well laid out especially since all eight of us dm included were in the third grade for it to be on the fly