What do YOU do with your wild die?

[Blubbo the Hutt]

So I've been running a campaign now for two weeks and after two adventures I had one of my players petition me to completely do away with the wild die. He feels that he rolls way to many 1's and not enough 6's. I'll admit, he DOES and always has been a crappy roller (I think he has bad juju dice), but I can't see why he'd want to give up rolling 6's.

I figure a) I'm being too hard on them with rolling 1's b) The rule is unbalanced or c) He's just had bad luck and it will get better.

What I've been doing is having them reroll 6's normally. When a 1 is rolled, they must subtract their highest die and roll the 1 again. If a 1 is rolled a second time, a complication occurs and all hell breaks loose.

What do you guys do with your wild die? Any suggestions?

[Brandon]

I try to either ignore the roll of 1, subtract the highest die, or have a complication occur in equal amounts, just to keep the players on their toes.

It does suck when someone has a habit of rolling ones on the wild die...many a red or green die has been flung across the room during my gaming sessions in digust. But that's life...

[Kabal]

Personally, I love the wild die, and when it comes up a one, my players know that they are in for a world of hurt. At the very least, it means the loss of their highest die as well as the 1 that they rolled. If they only have one or two dice that they are rolling with, it becomes a 0 (this is especially bad for inititive, as I've ruled that a 0 inititive means no actions can be taken, not even a full dodge).

Then there are the complications. When dealing with equipment (up to and including their weapons and ships), I make them note the numbers of 1s they get, and after a predetermined number of 1s (which, of course is never known by them, and is variable from session to session), the item breaks down. In one running battle in the skies over a planet, they had both of the rear mounted weapons o their ship become disabled due to equipment failure. The tech was going crazy, he'd just get something fixed, and then boom, another failure somewhere else. Loads of fun.

[Volar the Healer]

We follow the wild die rule right out of the book. But, if you're not happy, you don't have to use it. I've seen a game group where some players played with it and some without in the same game.
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[Crell Damar]

I think the wild die makes the game a little more like life, sometimes luck isn't always on your side, sometimes it is. I don't always take the 1's into account, although when it comes down to the cinematic stuff, well... I've had a player trying to get off a floor ASAP (evading artillery bombardment) he was trying to drop down a few floors and make it through another window, even with the use of a force point, the wild die came in to screw with him. He made it on the ledge near the window, but didn't break through, he bounced off of the window and fell the rest of the way to the ground, due to the force point spent before, he didn't take enough damage to more than stun him when he hit the concrete, he survived the bombardment but failed what he wanted to do. I thought it was more than fair, considering if he totally failed, he'd be taking 6D walker scale damage. They can succeed and fail at the same time.
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[Loc Taal]

I like the rule from the Revised & Expanded edition where the GM can choose what to do with a 1 on the wild die. Sometimes it's nice to ignore a 1 on the wild die if the player just keeps rolling them over and over. On the other hand, a creative GM can add a lot of very interesting twists and turns to an adventure like that...
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[Crell Damar]

I don't think it's totally fair to take every single wild die into account. What I was describing was the R&E rule at work. although I had left out that several 1's had been rolled already that session.
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Obi-Wan Kenobi

[Scrawprin]

[Rathe Ehtar]

Crell and I use the wild die much the same way. In situations when a complication could arise that, actually isn't very complicated at all, I tend to hold back the unlucky moment for just the right time. For example, say in bluffing a guard or customs agent, the characters roll a 1, now instead of the guards suspecting somthing, they go along with the characters. After some time has passed the guards or agents spring a trap or ambush.

Like Crell, I try to make it as cinematically appropriate as possible.
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[Gry Sarth]

Me and my group have always played the wild die so that a 1 subtracts itself and the highest die. If the resulting total count is something like a 0-3 then things have gone bad, really bad, up to the GM imagination, but we always agree first amongst ourselves about what could or couldn't happen. A 1 on the wild die is not an automatic catastrophic event, if your remaining dice are high, you're safe.

Oh, we love the wild die, it's WEG's single best invention. ALthough, as a player, I do like it better when it's rolling sixes in a row...

[Jace_Terrik]

Yup. The D6. It rocks.

As WEG used to say:"One dice. A thousand possibilities."
Well, they might've been stretching it, but...

Anyway, when it comes to the Wild Die, I usually let it affect the game positively. If it's a 1, I go By the Book, or try to invent something funny. Like a Gamorrean thug swinging a vibroaxe, who gets a 1, might have his grip slip, sending the 'axe flying across the room.

If it's a 6, a critical success, and it's a player rolling it, I usually give pretty big breaks. A critical success on a blaster check might add dice to damage rolls, that sort of thing.
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[RedFox]

I've been thinking about this a lot, because it's so arbitrary and I feel like a heel deciding whether to be "kind" or not to players. I like the idea of using the Wild Die to make things interesting, but since it happens 1/6th of the time, that puts a lot of work on the GM's shoulders if you want to always go with that option.

I prefer 1's to affect things only rarely, so I've come up with the following idea: Roll a second D6 as the GM and consult a table.

Result Effect
1 Subtract the 1 and the highest die from the total.
2-5 Nothing unusual occurs: add the dice normally.
6 Something dramatic happens.

This skews things so that most of the time the Critical Failure doesn't do anything. However, rarely you will see it totally screw a player or make something dramatic occur (which doesn't necessarily screw the PC, from my reading. It might just be a comic relief moment.)
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[oneiromorph]

Basically, my take on the Wild Die, is if it comes up a one then I have a complication directly related to what their doing occur.

If its a 6, then they get to reroll it, and I try to make it dramatic, and put them in the spot light for awhile. Cut them a break, and make what they did seem really important. Then occassionally refer to it in passing at the next game, as if they were really cool/or smart.

Complications...for example would be stuff like uh.. if their trying to sneak into the a highly secure Imperial base, and they get a one on the Wild Die. I'd have someone try to break out of the base, thus complicating the situation because of the security alert, more soldiers etc. At the same time they want to find out or possibly help the escapee. Who they'd meet because he'd run into them, as he ran out of a blind corner with some stormtroopers in pursuit.

They get a 1 on their wild die while plotting a hyperspace route. It which means the route leads somewhere interesting in a bad way, they get captured by Rebels or Terrorists, or Imperials and leads to another adventure. You know that sort of thing.

[Jace_Terrik]

Sounds good.
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There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no chaos; there is harmony.
There is no death; there is the Force.

[garbage]

when somebody hits a 1, i let them roll one more time, if they get 4-6 it counts as a 1. if they hit 1-3 i let the roll one more time, if they get 3-6 something small happens like the gun dosnt fire but just this turn (nothing big really). the 3rd roll: 1-2 roll one more time, 3-6 somthing quite bad happens, ex: gun explodes (half damage.), you trip in the direction of the incoming blade.... last roll if you get a 1 on the last dice somthing really bad happens to the character. gun explode full dmg, you opponent hit on a critical location dmg on weapon +1d in dmg, you fall maybe breaking something`etc.
thoug it shouldn just work on the 1, but allso when somebody get the 6 several times on a row.
i had a player hitting the 6, 5 times in a row, this doubled the score over my main character on a dogde. when they double the score i let them hit a critical location, dmg +1-3D dmg.

this has worked really good for our group, both good and bad
we are really happy with this kind of rules.

maybe it will work out for some of you guys too.