This system was featured in our recent episode “Inside the Mountain.” I wanted to have something that caused the pressure to increase and wanted the players too feel rushed without having to continuously ask them what they were going to do. This system was great because all I had to do was add a D6 to the tension pool whenever a milestone was hit and they would start progressing through the dungeon.
The system is from TheAngryGM.com. There is a great description of how they used it in the article above. The system is left vague enough to fit into nearly any situation in your game. My recommendation is that GMs read the article and then build your system based on the basics they layout for you. Just like all the best tools for D&D, this one can be changed to do whatever you need it to do. I made a few tweaks for our game and was quite happy with the results. Here is the system how I ran it.
D6 Tension System
- One d6 added for any 10 min passage of time.
- One d6 added for every new room entered.
- One d6 added every time a dismembered body is investigated.
- Add one d6 and roll for every loud/dangerous activity.
- Roll d6 pool every time pool reaches six dice.
When a 1 is rolled – Monster Moves toward party 1d4 dashes.
Party must make Wis (DC 9 + # of times pool rolled) saves.
- Fail? Roll on madness table
- Success – nothing happens. Feel as is if you’ve shaken off a panic attack.
If you run this system in one of your games, please let The Hired Swords know! We would love to hear your results! You can post about it on Twitter and tag @TheHiredSwords, or feel free to shoot us a DM on Twitter or Facebook. Thanks for listening, thanks for reading, and I hope this is a helpful tool for your games in the future.
