diff --git a/action_respond.go b/action_respond.go
index 7263ee5..0d03e8f 100644
--- a/action_respond.go
+++ b/action_respond.go
@@ -13,7 +13,10 @@ func init() {
 
 		msg, err := formatMessage(*r.Respond, m, ruleDef, nil)
 		if err != nil {
-			return errors.Wrap(err, "preparing response")
+			if r.RespondFallback == nil {
+				return errors.Wrap(err, "preparing response")
+			}
+			msg = *r.RespondFallback
 		}
 
 		return errors.Wrap(
diff --git a/config.go b/config.go
index cf9be25..b3f4454 100644
--- a/config.go
+++ b/config.go
@@ -177,13 +177,14 @@ func (r *rule) Matches(m *irc.Message, event *string) bool {
 }
 
 type ruleAction struct {
-	Ban           *string        `json:"ban" yaml:"ban"`
-	Command       []string       `json:"command" yaml:"command"`
-	CounterStep   *int64         `json:"counter_step" yaml:"counter_step"`
-	Counter       *string        `json:"counter" yaml:"counter"`
-	DeleteMessage *bool          `json:"delete_message" yaml:"delete_message"`
-	Respond       *string        `json:"respond" yaml:"respond"`
-	Timeout       *time.Duration `json:"timeout" yaml:"timeout"`
+	Ban             *string        `json:"ban" yaml:"ban"`
+	Command         []string       `json:"command" yaml:"command"`
+	CounterStep     *int64         `json:"counter_step" yaml:"counter_step"`
+	Counter         *string        `json:"counter" yaml:"counter"`
+	DeleteMessage   *bool          `json:"delete_message" yaml:"delete_message"`
+	Respond         *string        `json:"respond" yaml:"respond"`
+	RespondFallback *string        `json:"respond_fallback" yaml:"respond_fallback"`
+	Timeout         *time.Duration `json:"timeout" yaml:"timeout"`
 }
 
 func loadConfig(filename string) error {
diff --git a/wiki/Home.md b/wiki/Home.md
index 7900fbd..d637e89 100644
--- a/wiki/Home.md
+++ b/wiki/Home.md
@@ -30,7 +30,8 @@ rules: # See below for examples
     - delete_message: true # Bool, set to true to delete
 
     # Send responding message to the channel the original message was received in
-    - respond: 'Hello chatter' # String, applies templating
+    - respond: 'Hello chatter'    # String, applies templating
+      respond_fallback: 'Oh noes' # String, text to send if the template function causes an error (default: unset)
 
     # Issue a timeout on the user who wrote the chat-line
     - timeout: 1s # Duration value: 1s / 1m / 1h