Three Ones

When I was at university, I came across an RPG called Ars Magica. There’s a wikipedia page about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_Magica. It is pretty cool. The emphasis was on storytelling and the system tried not to get in the way of that.

One mechanism it used (pretty much the only mechanism it used, as I recall) was a D6 roll when you did anything that mattered much. On a 2-5 things went as you would expect, given your character. On a 6 you aced it. On a 1 you botched it. On a 6 or 1 you rerolled, with subsequent 6s making your success more awesome, and conversely subsequent 1s made your failure more ignominious. For example, you could roll 12 6s on the trot while making breakfast and end up head chef of the king’s kitchen, or you could roll 27 1s on the trot while tying your shoelaces and end up accidentally destroying the universe.

Today I rolled 3 1s paying for petrol and ended up knocking a display box of mini eggs all over the floor of the kiosk...