History EpicFail / TabletopGames

** The Po Heavy Tank (HV) is a tank that carries a High Velocity autocannon in its turret. High Velocity ACs have much better range than standard autocannons but on an attack roll of 2 they explode. This will automatically destroy the tank and kill the crew. This means that every time it fires its main gun, it has a 1 in 36 chance of killing itself. Po Tanks are canonically deployed by the battalion, or a unit of 36 armored vehicles--this means that the ''very first salvo'' fired by a Po battalion is statistically almost guaranteed to have one of their number spontaneously explode afterwards. At least the Hollander II has a chance to avoid risking death by not moving when it's going to shoot and even if it falls, most of the time it won't even risk destruction. The Po is so prone to self-destruction that fielding it is a bigger threat to yourself than your opponent.

** The Po Heavy Tank (HV) is a tank that carries a High Velocity autocannon in its turret. High Velocity ACs have much better range than standard autocannons but on an attack roll of 2 they explode. This will automatically destroy the tank and kill the crew. This means that every time it fires its main gun, it has a 1 in 36 chance of killing itself. At least the Hollander II has a chance to avoid risking death by not moving when it's going to shoot and even if it falls, most of the time it won't even risk destruction. The Po is so prone to self-destruction that fielding it is a bigger threat to yourself than your opponent.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H-1WJtuzPg This anecdote]] of a campaign shows that sometimes simple failures can turn into an Epic Fail under the right circumstances. The player's character belongs to a race that can cast spells accidentally. The character is in a town of magic-users and gets drunk and starts dancing. The character then accidentally casts a spell that renders anyone in the entire area unable to use magic forever. This is bad enough, but the town was keeping an EldritchAbomination at bay with magic and now that the magic is gone, the monster escapes and starts destroying literally everything.

* In ''AnimaBeyondFantasy'', in order to invoke the Arcana "The World, Reversed", a character must have failed at every major undertaking in their life... and then fail the roll to invoke said arcana.

* [[http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Jul/gazebo.html Eric and the Dread Gazebo]], a fail so memorable that even Wiki/ThatOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_and_the_Dread_Gazebo has a page for it]]. The titular Eric believes that a gazebo is a type of obscure monster, rather than a half-open structure typically found in a garden. Eric continues pressing the issue until the DM gets fed up with him, causing the gazebo to come to life and kill Eric.

** One of these is the inciting event in ''TabletopGame/OutOfTheAbyss'', a campaign released for [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Fifth Edition]]. Gromph Baenre, the archmage of the ruling house of the drow city of Menzoberranzen, tried to summon a demon lord and bind it to his will. Vizeran [=DeVir=], another drow wiard, calls that move a dumb enough decision all by itself, seeing as how the demon lords are just below the divine in terms of power. But Gromph's ritual ends up summoning ''all'' of the demon lords, causing them to wreak havoc throughout the Underdark, destroying part of Menzoberranzen, and causing a huge mess for Gromph's sister to clean up, since she's the Matron Mother of the ruling house. As to what happened to Gromph, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse his fate is left ambiguous]], though it's implied that his chances of survival are [[UncertainDoom fairly low]]. On top of that, Gromph's sister and all of House Baenre are all too happy to [[{{Unperson}} sweep him under the rug after he's gone]], both out of embarrassment for how badly he screwed up and as a matter of politics to prevent word getting out that House Baenre is in any kind of trouble. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that Lolth threw a SpannerInTheWorks for Gromph's ritual, but it remains true that Gromph's attempt at summoning a demon lord to become his slave was a spectacular failure.]]

** One of these is the inciting event in ''TabletopGame/OutOfTheAbyss'', a campaign released for [[TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragonsFifthEdition Fifth Edition]]. Gromph Baenre, the archmage of the ruling house of the drow city of Menzoberranzen, tried to summon a demon lord and bind it to his will. Vizeran [=DeVir=], another drow wiard, calls that move a dumb enough decision all by itself, seeing as how the demon lords are just below the divine in terms of power. But Gromph's ritual ends up summoning ''all'' of the demon lords, causing them to wreak havoc throughout the Underdark, destroying part of Menzoberranzen, and causing a huge mess for Gromph's sister to clean up, since she's the Matron Mother of the ruling house. As to what happened to Gromph, [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse his fate is left ambiguous]]. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that Lolth threw a SpannerInTheWorks for Gromph's ritual, but it remains true that Gromph's attempt at summoning a demon lord to become his slave was a spectacular failure.]]

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1H-1WJtuzPg This anecdote]] of a ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' campaign shows that sometimes simple failures can turn into an Epic Fail under the right circumstances. The player's character belongs to a race that can cast spells accidentally. The character is in a town of magic-users and gets drunk and starts dancing. The character then accidentally casts a spell that renders anyone in the entire area unable to use magic forever. This is bad enough, but the town was keeping an EldritchAbomination at bay with magic and now that the magic is gone, the monster escapes and starts destroying literally everything.
--> "You don't understand! I T.P.K'ed... ''the universe.''"

* The [[AfterActionReport Battle Reports]] in ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' magazine often feature examples of hilarious fails due to very bad dice rolling, but the standout example of this trope was an Ultramarines captain in the inaugural battle report of TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} 5th Edition. He lost his first Wound when a tank he was about to charge exploded in his face, then decided to make up for it later in the game by taking on [[BigBad Abaddon]]. As he charged in, he rapid-fired his Plasma Gun... and proceeded to overheat with ''both shots''. And fail both his saves. (That's four natural 1's in a row, by the way.) Yep, the Marine was dead [[WinsByDoingAbsolutelyNothing despite that fact that Abaddon didn't do anything]]. The players joked he may well be [[{{Unperson}} scrubbed from the annals of Ultramarines history.]]

* As far as ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'' examples go, there was the time a (reasonably large) unit of Dark Elf Spearmen not only lost a fight against a Goblin ''artillery crew''[[note]]war machine crews in general (except Dwarfs) tend to flee if an enemy even ''attempts'' to charge them, and Goblins are not only even weaker but ''fear Elves''[[/note]], said crew actually managed to kill the unit's Sorceress!

** One of the highlights of the [[RatMen Skaven]] army is [[CriticalFailure the number of things that can go hilariously wrong]], perfectly illustrated in a particular battle report against the Empire. A Skaven Assassin leapt out of hiding to hurl a [[GreenRocks Warpstone]] grenade at a [[{{Steampunk}} Steam Tank]], fumbled the throw, and had to test on his {{ninja}}-high Initiative to avoid blowing himself up. The Skaven player made the mistake of joking "[[TemptingFate Anything but a one!]]" Despite such setbacks, the Skaven accumulated enough victory points to [[{{Pun}} squeak]] by with a win, until the Skaven player remembered that one of his characters had a magic item that enhanced stats with the low risk of killing him post-battle. "[[GenreBlind Anything but a one!]]" The game ended in a draw.

* In the ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'' community, there is a term for this as applied to dice rolls -- Hellbie dice, where a roll or series of rolls is so utterly catastrophic as to completely ruin a player's chances in a game and goes beyond mere CriticalFailure by defying the laws of averages. Named for [=JadeHellbringer=], global moderator for the main forums for ''Classic Battletech'' and regular at the Battletech tables of several conventions. In one oft repeated instance, he played a game where he was given a 'Mech with ten Ultra autocannons. This type of gun can be fired normally, or with a double mode activated that [[MoreDakka doubles the firepower]] at the risk of [[ExplosiveOverclocking the gun jamming itself into utter uselessness for the rest of the match]]. Any given gun has a 1 in 36 chance of failure (2 on a roll of 2d6) when fired on double mode. While firing all ten guns on their double setting, he managed to jam ''seven of them'' on his first turn. The utter defiance of averages in favor of astounding failure is a hallmark of his history with dice.
** For the record, the odds of rolling that badly are approximately ''1 in 700 million'' assuming unbiased dice.
** Though whether ''these'' dice were biased is moot: after this little performance, Hellbie took them out into the carpark and [[YouHaveFailedMe "retired" them]]. [[KillItWithFire With a pocket torch]].
** Another instance by the man himself involved trying to run around a street corner on his mech and [[DeathByFallingOver slipping in such a manner to utterly detonate its torso on impact and incapacitate the pilot]] before he had even engaged the enemy, who was in range to witness it all.

* In ''TabletopGame/{{Munchkin}}'', it's actually possible to be defeated by a range of Level 1 enemies. This includes the Potted Plant, Dirty Laundry, Graffiti, Footprints... and a Goldfish. Losing to some of them even has some quite nasty side-effects, since it's highly unlikely to lose to a level 1 monster. It's not impossible, of course, since with the game's monster modifiers in play you might end up fighting a [[LethalJokeCharacter Humongous, Ancient Goldfish and its Mate]]...
** And if you lose to the Goldfish, the rules say that all the other players get to mock you.

* The [[AfterActionReport Battle Reports]] in ''Magazine/WhiteDwarf'' magazine often feature examples of hilarious fails due to very bad dice rolling, but the standout example of this trope was an Ultramarines captain in the inaugural battle report of TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} 5th Edition. He lost his first Wound when a tank he was about to charge exploded in his face, then decided to make up for it later in the game by taking on [[BigBad Abaddon]]. As he charged in, he rapid-fired his Plasma Gun... and proceeded to overheat with ''both shots''. And fail both his saves. (That's four 1's in a row, by the way.) Yep, he was dead without any enemy input whatsoever. The players joked he may well be [[{{Unperson}} scrubbed from the annals of Ultramarines history.]]

* [[http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/98/Jul/gazebo.html Eric and the Dread Gazebo]], a fail so memorable that even Wiki/ThatOtherWiki [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_and_the_Dread_Gazebo has a page for it]].