10.4 Threat Die

There are several reasons why character scenes are kept as discrete units rather than a stream of continuous events. For example, that’s how it works in the fictional pieces that inspired this game, such as anime TV shows, comics, video games, etc. But another very important reason is the way that you can use scenes to pace the game. One option to intensify the pacing is the Threat Die.

At any point during the game, the GM can slam a Threat Die on the table. The number it shows on top indicates how many scenes away a specific looming threat is. The threat might be unknown, or it might be something the PCs are aware of. It could be a powerful enemy hunting the PCs, a disaster waiting to happen, or something else along those lines.

At the beginning of every scene—and a conflict counts as a scene in this regard—the die is turned down by 1 number. If the die showed a 3 before, it now shows a 2. If it showed a 1, this is the scene in which the threat manifests. Remove the Threat Die and play out the event.

The Threat Die severely limits the amount of recovery that PCs can indulge in between conflicts—use it sparingly to insert tension and suspense into the game.

If during a conflict or character scene the players come up with a clever way to delay the threat, the GM can establish a goal that they can achieve. For example, the threat is a pack of demonic guard dogs that were stirred up by an alarm that the PCs triggered, and they will take 3 scenes to arrive. If the players are in the middle of fighting off other guards, and they realize they can barricade a door to keep the dogs out a bit longer, the GM can create a Barricade Door goal that will turn the die up 1 or 2 notches, or they could escape the threat completely (the specific effect needs to be declared when the goal is created, as usual).

You can also let PCs do actions that will delay the threat in scenes when there’s no conflict going on, but one or more PCs will not be able to gain any character scene payoffs for that scene as they focus on fulfilling the goal. This is also used for setting up “you guys run while I’ll hold the door shut as long as I can” situations of self-sacrifice. In fact, you can have a whole session during which players need to come up with new ways to delay the impending doom as they run toward salvation and even sometimes sacrifice one of their own to buy a delay for the others (think Aliens).