The luck roll

I'm going to start this site off by talking about my favorite TTRPG tool, the luck roll. Loads of groups do something along these lines, but here's mine.

This is a procedure for resolving those questions that can't be answered by the established fiction, the GM's notes, or the player characters' actions—things like "Is there a fire extinguisher handy?" or "How many patrons are in this bar?" or "Did anyone notice all the commotion we just made?" First, you rephrase the question in yes-or-no format, so something more like "Is the bar crowded?" I kinda prefer to ask in a way that makes "yes" the better result for the player characters, but that's not really important.

Then, you just roll a d6 and interpret the result as follows.

1	No, and...
2	No.
3	No, but...
4	Yes, but...
5	Yes.
6	Yes, and...

The "and" results intensify the answer. The "but" results mitigate it. For example:

"Is there a fire extinguisher handy?" "No, and there isn't one in the whole building."

"Is the bar crowded?" "Yes, but you don't know anyone here."

It's extremely simple, but easily applied to an infinite range of situations. As a GM, I find it really fun to fill in those and/but details. I also love to roll a die and find our whole game taken in a new direction by the result.

I also use the luck roll during session prep to come up with background details, and occasionally base other random-roll tables on the same basic format. For example, I had my players roll on this "Do I escape the trap?" table when they wandered into a dungeon room with a falling cage trap.

1d6	Do I escape the trap?
1	No, and you're hit by the cage for 2d10 bludgeoning damage, and stuck inside it.
2	No. You're stuck inside the cage.
3	No, but you're near the cage wall as it falls, and notice in time to try to escape. You can make a Dexterity save to jump away, but at a risk: Save result 10-, you're pinned underneath the cage for 4d10 bludgeoning damage, restrained, and prone. Result 10–14, you're hit for 2d10 bludgeoning damage, but escape. 15+, you escape completely.
4	Yes, but you're clipped by the cage's edge or falling debris, and take 1d10 bludgeoning damage.
5	Yes. You're outside the cage when it falls.
6	Yes, and the trap isn't even triggered if everyone in the room rolls this result.

I should point out that this idea was very much influenced by FU: the Freeform Universal RPG. That game arranges its results slightly differently on the die, but it's pretty much the source of that Yes/No/And/But language for me, far as I remember. I've never actually used FU itself, though! Which is a shame, because it looks brilliantly simple.

So, that's the luck roll. It's handy.