Most snake eggs are naturally adherent and they are effectively glued together shortly after being laid. That's why you see many keepers having to carefully pull them apart so that they will fit into the egg boxes to be artificially incubated. Because of that adherence, clutches usually stay in place when a brooding mom moves off of them to feed or drink. So far I've only had one clutch that didn't follow this rule. The eggs were snowflaked and didn't stick together at all. As a result, one of the eggs rolled out of the pile not once but twice. The first time it rolled out was about two or three weeks into incubation. I was worried to death over this egg and tried candling it to figure out which side was "up" before placing it back in the pile. A few days later, I candled it again and saw the veins were still good and the baby inside was moving. Not even a week after that the same blasted egg rolled out again. This time I was more irritated than worried about the thing. I took the mom off the pile, put the egg back and then placed mom back in the tub and watched to make sure she gathered up all of the eggs in her coils. That egg went on to hatch out as a perfectly healthy baby. Not a thing wrong with it or any of the other babies in that clutch.
Egg rolling happens both in captivity and in the wild. The main reason I see that rolling can be dangerous is because a mom may neglect to pull it into her coils with the rest of the clutch when she's brooding and without mom's protection and the warm, humid conditions within her coils the egg may die. Now, a more forceful roll or fall is different. If the trauma involved is enough to injure the developing organs of the embryo, I don't think anything could be done to save it.
Personally, I feel that maternally incubation is safer but that's because I'm most comfortable with this method. I've not had good luck with artificial incubation and it's easier for me to simply continue maintaining my female's tubs the same way I do throughout the rest of the year than to set up an incubator. The temps are right for both her and her clutch and the humidity doesn't drop below 60% in any of my ball tubs. When I have a gravid female nearing her due date, I put a clump of moistened sphagnum moss on the heated side of her tub. She'll move it around as she sees fit and by the time her clutch has been laid, she'll have a wall of moss surrounding her nest site. This boosts and helps maintain a humidity in the 75-85% range which is safe for both mom and clutch. There is no need to boost the ambient humidity to 100% as you would in an artificial incubator because the humidity within mom's coils will be around 100% when tightly coiled. From there, I just watch the eggs develop and continue offering food to the mom on a weekly basis. If the moss dries out, I just mist it with some warm water. This, for me, couldn't be easier.
I think if you can successfully maintain the right temperatures and ambient humidity for ball pythons, then a female ball in your care can successfully brood a clutch.
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