A way of playing out a whole Narrative scene using Dice Checks.
Once you reach 3 total successes or 3 total failures, the scene is over. (Three Strikes You’re Out).
As you pass/fail each check, you can imagine what that means for the scene, what is/isn’t working.
There are 6 possible outcomes for the scene, which can be mapped to a Simple d6 Oracle.
| Result | Outcome |
|---|---|
| 3 Successes, 0 Failures | ”Yes, and… ” Great success deserving some boon |
| 3 Successes, 1 Failures | ”Yes” Standard Success |
| 3 Successes, 2 Failures | ”Yes, but…” It worked, but just barely. |
| 3 Failures, 2 Successes | ”No, but…” You lost, but just barely. |
| 3 Failures, 1 Successes | ”No” Standard Failure |
| 3 Failures, 0 Successes | ”No, and…” Terrible failure deserving some penalty |
Implementations
4th edition D&D had Skill Challenges, where you needed a certain number of passes before hitting 3 failures.
Ironsworn: Starforged has Scene Challenges.
Both of these implement a model where you have a static number of failures that result in a loss, but a variable number of successes needed to pass. I wonder about that. Isn’t a higher DC the thing that takes care of difficulty? Why would I put a lower DC but a higher # of passes needed?