Never Stop Blowing Up

For Fifth Edition

1. Character Creation

Create your 5e character as normal. However, when you are done assigning bonuses, drop all ability values (the big number). Characters keep the bonuses. All characters start with d4s in all abilities. Rolling ability checks, saving throws and skill checks are made with the associated ability die value until the die blows up.

2. Blowing Up

Any time an ability die lands on the maximum value available, it blows up. The character gains the next highest die value (e.g. from d4 to d6) and rolls again. The combined total, plus any bonuses, becomes their new total. In this way, characters can level up abilities that they use most frequently.

The same is true when an ability is rolled as part of a skill check. The base ability for the skill is used for the skill check. If a skill check roll blows up, the character levels up their die for the associated ability and rolls again.

A roll can blow up multiple times. For example, Ify is playing Vic Nitro. Vic is trying to race a hot rod through busy city traffic. Ify rolls a 4 on Vic’s d4 for Dexterity, blowing up. He then rolls a 6 on a d6, making the total Dexterity check equal to 10. Since the 6 is the maximum value, that blows up as well. Ify now rolls a d8 and gets a 5. The total for the roll is 15 and Ify will now roll a d8 on all subsequent Dexterity-based rolls.

There is no higher value than a d20 in 5e Never Stop Blowing Up. However, if a natural 20 is rolled on a d20, the 20 still blows up, allowing the player to reroll the d20 and add the totals together.

3. Turbo Tokens

When a character fails in their roll, they get a turbo token. Turbo tokens can be spent to increase the rolled value at a rate of 2 tokens to get +1 to their roll. With enough turbo tokens, characters can meet more difficult DCs or cause their die to blow up.

Ally is playing Jennifer Drips. Jennifer is trying to sneak into a top secret military laboratory to steal an experimental drug. The DC to sneak into the facility is 20, however, Jennifer only has a d12 in Dexterity, making the roll impossible to meet the DC without blowing up. Ally rolls a 10 on the d12. However, they have 4 turbo tokens, which they spend to blow up to a 12. Now Ally can roll a d20 and only needs to meet or beat an 8 on the d20 for a successful stealth roll.

Once turbo tokens are spent, they cannot be retrieved. If turbo tokens are left at the end of a game session, they are lost.

4. Limited Scope

5e Never Stop Blowing Up is not intended for long campaigns. Once everyone is at a d20 for all of their abilities, there isn’t much room for character growth and the excitement of blowing up becomes much less frequent when the chances are one in 20, as compared to one in 4 or one in 8. For this reason, 5e Never Stop Blowing Up campaigns should probably max out at about 10 sessions or when all players have d20s in most of their abilities.