Wish me luck!

Have you ever had a problem with determining what test a player should take when he wanted to perform an unusual action? If you have as inventive players as I do, you probably have to deal with this problem very often. In RPGs like Call of Cthulhu, we have the luck roll which is very useful in those situations but in Dungeons and Dragons there is nothing like that.

How lucky am I today?

Since I have run Call of Cthulhu, I could not imagine playing without such an "emergency" roll that solves all my problems, but I did not want to add another predetermined skill to D&D, because I think there is already too many of them. And then, a brilliant idea came to my mind - luck is not something constant: it changes all the time! Having this in mind, I introduced a D20 roll for each of my players at the very beginning of every session. I note the results on a piece of paper and put it in a visible place for everybody. This way I determine the today's difficulty check for the luck roll. When I need a player to test an action that does not really fit to any of the standard skills and abilities, I tell him or her to simply roll a die. If the result is the same or higher than the player's luck roll they made at the beginning of the session - the action succeeds, if it is lower - sorry, your abilities cannot help you when you have no luck.

This roll is also very helpful when a player wants to perform an action that is more than sure to succeed and you do not really want it to be so easy (and you do not want to cheat). On higher levels, players' characters tend to have + billion to everything and the simple actions become too simple. You can just say then, that it is not the matter of ability, but your player has to be lucky to do this. Of course, you cannot use the luck roll in this kind of situations too often because your players can start to feel that the development of their character is pointless when you test their luck instead of their abilities.

Modifiers? Of course!

To be clear, I honestly would not let the players buy any pluses to the luck roll with experience points. That would make the roll pointless. The word 'luck' is in the name of the roll for a reason and you should not treat it just as a name. However, you can reward your players with four-leaf clover or other items which are thought to give luck. Those items should not work longer than one session - they are not another artefact!

On the other hand, you can curse your players - black cats and broken mirrors can happen also to their characters! Consider it as a great way to punish your players for not listening to you or talking about stuff not connected with the session. Make them suffer!