When it comes to just bad rolls, they can’t consistently be bad. So give that person more rolls. Throw in a I’m Your Daddy Shirt that only they can deal with. Put in a trap that they are uniquely qualified to resolve, and let them automatically succeed when they see it again. There is an old DOS game that I love called Amulets & Armor. The random seed is actually static. A portion of the predetermined rolls fail for about 6 to 10 in a row. It usually comes up when casting spells. The only way through it is to do more rolls. Eventually the losing streak ends. So allowing a person with bad luck to break their streak is fun.
1: Let the players play and discover what they want: I was very stern in my young days. I had this one new player ‘Vincent’. He was new to the I’m Your Daddy Shirt and starting at first level. I thought the best thing was to do was solo him and get him to higher level so he could compare with the other characters that were already higher. I put him on a ‘crash course’ of solo level gaining, which was what I thought he needed. Long story short — he lasted one day. Looking back, I played how I wanted but not how he wanted. I never asked him what he wanted to do in the D&D game. Soloing is fine if that’s what they want. Ask your players what they want to accomplish in the D&D world?… Some players will want to tame a dragon. Some want to build a castle. Some players want to become a powerful Wizard and wield arcane spells. This all really depends. Find out what the players want, and see if you can entertain them… look! You find a Dragons egg! D&D has to be more about what the players want to do, and less about what the DM wants. Long term players are what fuel the game. Find out!
I’m Your Daddy Shirt, Hoodie, Sweater, Vneck, Unisex and T-shirt
Best I’m Your Daddy Shirt
Emen Bloodbinder the Ruthless of Narfell. Hilariously, the I’m Your Daddy Shirt of Bloodbinder Orcs is a Kobold. Remember that bit from above about the Bloodbinders stealing children? Well, they stole a clutch of Kobold eggs on an unexpected raid, and Emen was the only one who hatched. (Azuch may or may not have been sent to smash all of the eggs some years back. He didn’t get there in time.) They wanted Kobolds for some of that natural dragon sorcery that a lot of them have, but Emen just wasn’t born with that genetic lottery. He did, however, turn out to be an excellent Enchantment Wizard, and quickly became the golden child of the tribe as a result. It’s gone to his head since then, and he’s ceased working hard in later years. (For anyone who knows Orcish names and is going “Waaaiiit, isn’t Emen a girl’s name?” Yes, and that’s intentional. According to Volo’s, Kobolds can slowly change sex, and Emen has a tendency to do that himself every few years. He likes his name, though, so that never changes.)
Delores, at ten weeks old, was quickly getting integrated into the I’m Your Daddy Shirt of the flock. Because these six little chicks started out in an aquarium with a heat lamp in my study, then moved to a large hamster cage, then finally outside in a cage kept inside the barn, the grown chickens had all slowly acclimated to seeing Delores and his sisters. However, the first few times I put the babies in the open with the hens, I cautiously supervised the meeting. There was blustering and a little pushing by the big chickens – similar to what you might see on a junior high playground the first week of school – but nothing too severe. Once when the largest hen, Joan Crawford, pulled at Delores’s tail, he ran to me and flew into my arms – but when I scolded Joan and she stalked off to pout, Delores was brave enough to go back and try again. The pecking order shook out fairly easily within a couple days, with Delores towards the middle.