Mike Reeves-McMillan

Rule of Three is a simple RPG system which uses character generation and an entertaining “question game” of setting generation to drive narrative roleplay.

The Setting

The setting can be anything you wish, based on reality or fiction, your own or someone else?s. A useful way of generating the details of the setting can be to play a game of Open Questions before each act.

Open Questions is played by going round the players in a circle. One is chosen to be the initial holder of a six-sided die, and speaks first. Each player states a fact about the setting. The die is then rolled. If possible, obtain an “interrogative die”, which has the words Who, What, When, Where, How and Why on the six faces; otherwise, use an ordinary six-sided die and convert the numbers into the words in the order just given. The player who has just stated a fact must ask an open question (one requiring at least a sentence answer), beginning with the word indicated by the die roll, and the next player must answer it. This is their statement of fact, and the die is then rolled again and they ask a question of the next player.

When the turn comes around to the player holding the die, he or she may either declare “more” (indicating another round on the same topic), “change” (indicating a new topic should be begun), or “enough” (indicating an end to the game). In either of the first two cases, he or she then hands the die to the person on his or her left, who begins the next round with a statement, rolls the die, and asks a question of the next player. If the die holder declares “enough”, the rest of the group must agree, otherwise it is treated as a call of “change”.

Someone should record the facts stated about the setting as they are stated.

Further facts can be established about the setting during play by simply introducing them into the narrative, providing the group does not veto them.