Insight Fail Forward
When playtesting the 5th Edition DnD version of Pirates of Atlantis, I ran into a number of Insight* checks that were just not interesting or fun if the player rolled bad. And we got a lot of 3s. So I started brainstorming: how can an Insight check fail forward**?
RPG Jargon
*Insight is basically a detect lie skill. My favorite name is from GUMSHOE: bullshit detector. Of course, GUMSHOE being GUMSHOE, bullshit detector can’t fail if the information would be a core clue.
**Failing forward is when a bad role doesn’t mean the attempt failed. The attempt succeeded in a way that complicates the PC’s life.