Just setting more sequences. At what phase in a round or turn does the GM set/change the party tension meter?

Any thoughts on the matter are appreciated.

jh

I don't recall seeing a specific timing on this, but I think whenever the situation calls for it. One example in the rules for changing it was if your players are spending too much time deciding what to do or if character arguments are starting to spill over into player arguments.

One example from one of my sessions was this; during a sneak check, the character got a success, but also a bane and delay, so in describing the action, I said the character had stepped in a small hole and pitched forward; the rest of the party froze for a moment waiting to see if the Beastmen heard them. I raised the party tension to reflect the nervousness that moment caused.

I do it whenever something occurs that justifies the movement. I am not sure this element can easily be placed into an algorithmic process. The GM does it when things occur to warrant its change (e.g. when a reckless caster rolls a chaos star, when the PC is heavily outnumbered, when the party is being interrogated by a witch hunter, etc.)

Similar question.. At what point, if any, does the Party Tension meter get reset outside of hitting the limit?

My players had their meter up to 3 in the first session and, after returning to town for a few days downtime, asked if it was reset. I ruled that since two of the points were due to the Wizard recklessly channelling, and it was the first time their characters had seen such a raw display of magic, that it would go down to 1 or 2 until they'd talked about it IC. i.e. the tension meter reflects underlying tension within the party, and until that's at least in the open it'll stay on that minimum.

Good point.

I think I'm going to house rule party tension reset per game session or 2 per "day" of downtime. ALthough, if htey're holed up in the hotel with the Ring Wraiths out looking for them, I don't think the tension's going down much

jh

I don't ever reset the tension meter entirely. Rather it moves along a continuum. Example:

• Since the PCs were not familiar with each other during the first couple of weeks of traveling, they always had at least one or two tension as they got to know each other.
• Tension increased when the wizard miscast.

They got back to town and rested and I reduced the tension appropriately, but they still had a couple of points from the 1st condition. Likewise, I note down what their stress is at the end of each session since the fact that when we pick back up, they are still in the same situation. Why would the tension arbitrarily be reduced in this instance?