Quick question. On the tension meter...if lets say a party gets to a tension level or 'event' and take a stress or fatigue is that Permanent until the tension meter goes down or 'reset's?

Because the tension meter doesn' seem that bad if its not permanant. Who cares you just get a fatigue usually (or stress)...and i assume you either need to rest OR wait until an encounter finishes where it will usually just come off....

Thoughts?

It's not permanent but it does seem to lack much bite, doesn't it.

I've been thinking about house ruling Long Term Fatigue and Stress. That's something that the system doesn't handle right now but I think it's fitting to the world.

Agreed, I'd be interested in seeing what you come up with for that.

I think the tension meter is fine you decide when to allow it to reset.

Personally i would let it run for the whole session building it towards the the last encounter.

And when you say stress and fatigue are not bad boy have you read the rules.

Keep the pressure on the players force them to think about what there doing that why i like this mechanic...

boggle said:

Ehm, I think he means if you're not in encounter mode - in which case, fatigue and stress would vanish immediately, was my impression (haven't read full rules yet)

I treat party tension stress/fatigue as a lingering effect and only clear it either at the end of a session, or after a significant story point.

phobiandarkmoon said:

Not quite. Fatigue and Stress are easily removed during any Rally Step, which can occur many times or just between Acts. This allows a player to remove up to their Toughness in Fatigue and their Willpower in Stress.

A character can only handle up to double their Toughness in Fatigue and up to double their Willpower in Stress. If you take more than double you pass out.

So if character had say a 4 Toughness and was sitting on 6 Fatigue at the end of a combat, they would, during the Rally step, remove 4 Fatigue. That would leave them sitting on 2 Fatigue until the next Rally step.

Fatigue and Stress, IMO, are wonderful tools for the GM to use. They are a fantastic way to represent an impact on the character that the player needs to concern themselves with but one which doesn't gimp them entirely during combat. In the demo scenerio they have a storm in which all the characters fighting in it take Fatigue. I could see adding Fatigue for long term travel (travel for a day overland on foot and then get attacked by beastmen...yeah, that's what I call tiring). Fear causes Stress and Terror causes Stress and Fatigue (which is so much better than telling the player that their character is a lady's blouse and they have to run from combat).

I'm still giving it some thought. The idea of long term Fatigue and Stress should not be overwhelming. But it's very much like Wounds vs. Critical wounds. Wounds heal fairly easily whereas Critical wounds take longer. Critical Fatigue and Critical Stress, in essence is what I think I will House rule. But I'm not 100% when these will be applied. You don't want to overwhelm the players with too much.

Err. sorry, I was using the wrong terminology.

During the Rally Step, you recover 1 Fatigue and Stress. The Rally step can occur between breaks in combat.

At the End of an Act or Encounter, the players heal their Toughness/Willpower in Fatigue and Stress. It is at this stage when I feel, a bit too much Fatigue and Stress are cleared away, which tends to remove the bite of Fatigue/Stress.

Sarim my point exactly. Thanks for clarifying...you made my point 10 times better than i could

Its that final step in the encounter after combat that gets rid of so much stress/fatigue that i personally feel (havent' tested) marginalize the tension meter.

But i could be wrong...

No, I think it works OK as is.

Remember there are many way to accumulate fatigue and stress during the course of an encounter.
There are voluntary methods, taking fatigue to perform an extra maneuver, or taking stress to shift a stance an extra space.
Then there are involuntary methods that the players activate, such as rolling Banes or Miscasts, or certain card effects.
Then there are involuntary methods that the GM activates, such as fear, terror, and enemy attacks.
And don't forget environmental effects such as a dark and foreboding forest, or a necromancers lair.
During my game on sunday, my players were traveling through the Drakwald forest searching out a location from which a thief had recovered a forbidden tome. During the travel I had them roll a misfortune die, and a fortune die if they were trained in discipline. If they rolling a failure they woke up if a point of stress from fitful sleep, and if they rolled a bane they recovered no stress and woke up with an additional stress from horrible nightmares.

At the end of the last encounter on sunday, two of my players had gone from clean to temporarily insane. And one was the Troll Slayer.
Stress/Fatigue works. You just have to think about it as a GM tool in addition to a balancing mechanic.

It kind of depends on when the tension meter gets to the point of adding stress/fatigue. In a situation where the party has just finished a combat, it's possible that even after removing Stress=WP and Fatigue=T, they still have some left. Now you hit them with a fresh combat. Any squabbling at this point could very easily push one or more characters into being Fatigued, Distressed, or even Strained and the combat is just beginning. Now if the party is moseying along in story mode and bickering all the while pushing party tension up enough to trigger a point of fatigue/stress when they otherwise don't have any, the impact is obviously not as great, especially if they are going to get a night's rest before the next encounter happens. If you want the players to suffer the effects of party tension in this case, you may need to hit them with an unplanned encounter so that they at least feel the effect of starting off at a slight disadvantage.