Would You Use This? The EMPHASIS D20 in D&D

A die based on Brennan Lee Mulligan's Emphasis Rule for Dungeons and Dragons!

[DnDShorts]

Print these for free from my THANGS account (Son of a Lich Minis)! Also, have you had a hair cut or something? You look great omg!

[jeffrinator]

Halflings: I see this as an absolute win

[Fate]

*Me as a halfling rogue that re-rolls 1s sees this as the biggest w in the history of mankind*

[Danny-G]

Love that Brendan Lee Mulligan is becoming a household name❤️

[LeonardAndHisBiscuit]

Alternative: Just use a d20 where the 2 and 3 count as critical fails and the 18 and 19 count as critical successes.

[WhatIfBrigade]

"You're not actually going into an asteroid field?!?!" "They'd be crazy to follow us wouldn't they "

[Decaycrazz]

If im not mistaken it actually has a lower average roll, as the extra ones replace the 17 and 16 numbers rather than 2 and 3

[dealbreakerc]

of course, it should be noted that this only works for ability checks IF you are using the common house rule of critical successes. Normally, RAW, a 20 on an ability check or a saving throw (anything that isn't an attack roll) is treated no differently that a 19 or 18 or a 5.

[Bejrika]

I said I wouldn’t gamble for my New Year’s resolution. Guess that’s going out the window along with my PC who got tossed

[Nichoma]

Ive always wanted to do a oneshot with my friends and surprise them when they show up by telling them to put all their d20s away and handing them coins and starting the game with "ok heads are nat 20 tails are nat 1, lets play"

[CeistylAela]

Emphasis dice I think everyone should have 1 of at least. A DM rule for it could be: if the DM decides the outcome will significantly impact the game, they can have the player roll an emphasis dice to determine the outcome of the action. This could help drive a player who isn't as good at roleplay to get more invested in taking RP actions to progress the story or drive the narrative. However, you could restrict it to a roll without advantage or disadvantage, unless the DM rules otherwise. This will keep the lucky feat from impacting it as much

[timothydodson]

Remember guys, if you can't afford a 3d printer, you can just make 1-3 a crit fail and 18-20 a crit success.

[dominctiemes]

There’s also the gambler’s die, same premise; three 1’s, three 20’s. But the lost four faces are that of 16, 1718, 19

[BogySC]

I got one of those but it's because it was part of the mechanics of the game it came with (in the collector edition): Bunker and Badasses, the official Borderlands TTRPG. They included a "Badass move" system where (once per encounter) if the player(s) would describe a really cool succession of actions they could attempt a check with this die and if the check succeeds they would receive bonuses to all of their check for said action (and they can roll those with that dice if they want to). The game has a lot of nice ideas and is a lot of fun but suffer from a lack of balance and a few mistakes and unclear information are still in the core book (even after the errata they included in the pdf).

[bm]

I've used this as a house rule since 3.5.

Players may, as appropriate, choose to roll 3 d20 instead of 1, taking either the median (careful) or outlier (risky) result. (Stated ahead of time of course).

You get the same average, minimum, and maximum result, but the differences in the curve absolutely transform the character of the roll. It's not meaningless flavor either, as some situations are more about avoiding failure and others about hoping for good luck. It injects a risk/reward element into every roll.

[legodragonrider]

For people who don’t know this dice is rigged. The numbers replaced are 19 18 17 16 15 and 14 so it’s worse than a regular die

[arcanine_enjoyer]

That's pretty cool. It's like how in certain situations game devs will actually increase the chances of good or bad luck for specific situations to give it more impact.

[wakiej]

Really wanted to see the roll transition from the previous video 😂

[Veran]

I once made up a magical item which had a similar effect!

The coin of the trickster Goblin!

A simply silver coin with ones side showing a smirking goblin head, and the other side showing one laughing maniacally.

Once per long rest, any player could choose to flip the coin (represented by flipping an actual coin).

On a heads (smirking side) something good and unlikely would occur.

On a tails (maniacal side) something bad and unlikely would occur.

I would determine what would happen based on the side flipped and what ever the players happened to be doing that session. Sometimes it would be obvious like my turning a player nat 1 into a nat 20 and describing it as if they missed but in doing so the enemy tripped over them, and landed on their weapon.

Sometimes it would be less obvious like i would double the gold they find in the bosses treasure room without them knowing.

Likewise when they flipped a tails, i might give an NPC a free crit, or half the treasure they find instead, or an extra wave of monsters would turn up!

I never did the same thing twice, and so it always caused excitement when a player decided to flip the coin! Considering i made the item up on the spot (as a reward for a nat 20 investigation check in a sewer), it ended up being one of the most popular items in their arsenal, just because of its power to alter their fate!

It even managed to save a characters life once where they were trapped underwater with a puzzle they couldn’t remember the clue for! So i gave them a reminder since they flipped a heads earlier that session!

[jameswebb]

I remember these die were weighed to be more favorable to the downside because the 4 numbers replacing the additional two 1's and two 20s were 16, 17, 18, and 19.