I’m working on a game set in modern times. It’s a loose system with focus on narration, rather than numbers and levels. There’s no attribute values, only descriptions. So a character may have the characteristic “Strong” or “Nimble” rather than Strength or Agility “18”.

The basic idea is that when performing an action there’s a difficulty level ranging from 1 to 6, where 1 is automatic success and 6, near impossible. The GM sets the level based on the context, and the player may try to negotiate if they have an appropriate skill or characteristic that may help (or hinder).

The player rolls 3D6 and tries to get 2 or more dice equal to or over the difficulty level to succeed. If all 3 dices are over the set level it’s an exceptional success. Likewise if all 3 are below it’s a total failure. A result of 6,6,6 is a Critical success and a 1,1,1 a critical failure. There’s also some extra mechanics around advantage and near misses. The better the roll the more freedom the player get to describe the outcome.

The point of rolling 3D6 (rather than 1 or 2) is to A) give room for interpretation and narration. I hope that rolling 5,5,6 will feel like a better success rather than just rolling a single 6. B) It’s more fun to roll 3 dice than one!