And Why Would I Want This?

There are a vast number of systems that play around with the empowerment of characters so they have an increasingly good time, but not enough that encourage characters having a bad time in a FUN way. Comedy in TTRPGs is typically coincidental rather than purposeful, or generated more so by player in-jokes than it is the actual mechanics of the game. Failure is a frustration, a setback that must be overcome, rather than something to be accepted and laughed about. Of course, that isn’t to say there aren’t great comedy TTRPGS out there - far from it! But part of making a Bad Time Game is about making games that cultivate and even encourage not only laughter, but a certain schadenfreude in players.

You might also be looking at a game that centers the d4, the ugly duckling of the dice world, as a means of distinguishing your game from the thousands of others that utilize its more distinguished sisters the d6 and d20.

Part of you might even want a roll-under system and the cultivation of failure as an acceptable part of play, with “failing forward” being the means of advancing - or not.

Whatever the case may be, you’ve come to the right place.