Melon Drop

While working on the Arcana Wiki today, I had an evil idea. The next time I'm running an RPG that features critical failures, I'm totally gonna do this:

I will wait till a PC rolls a critical failure in a public place. Then I will describe that they bumped into or knocked over some random NPC, and the NPC's precious piece of artwork was knocked out of his hands and broke. "I just paid 1,000 GP for that!" Since the player just rolled a "1" (or the equivalent in your system of choice), they'll scowl a bit, but probably consent to pay whatever reasonable fee you "improvise" on behalf of the NPC. They may haggle a bit, or complain about their bastard GM, but they'll accept this as the consequences of a critical failure. Most players will "do the right thing".

• Later in the campaign, at least a few days or a few sessions later, the same PC is walking in the same neighborhood, and he sees this happen to someone else. The same con man he'd "fumbled into" is carrying the same piece of already-damaged art. Before the PC can intervene, the con artist intentionally bumps into someone and tries to extort money out of them. It doesn't matter how little money the PC was taken for two sessions ago, the chase scene is about to begin.