House Rule: Tension Meter

[clark411]

Hello, looking for feedback on a house rule I'm in the early stages of revising. Right now, I've gotten mixed player feedback, so I'm looking for outside opinions. I've listed my objectives below. If you think the house rule fails to accomplish any of those, or have a recommendation about a better way of going about all three in a single stroke, please advise. Thanks =D

Objectives (prioritized)
1. Avoid putting PCs at a distinct disadvantage or advantage.
2. Add more suspense/danger to combat.
3. Speed up combat.

Current Incarnation of the Tension Meter House Rule

Each turn, the tension meter increases by 1.
Each time a player character is bloodied, the tension meter increases by 1.
Each time a critical hit is made as a result of a natural 20 being rolled, the tension meter increases by 1.
After a short rest, the tension meter resets to 0.
Minions are not affected by the tension meter.

When the Tension meter meets, or passes, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25... etc, a "tension surge" occurs.

Roll 1d20 + current tension score, and refer to the effects chart below.

Tension Surge Effects
6-15: Damage Amplification: All damage and healing increases by 5. This effect can stack. Attack powers that target more than one creature receive a 2 bonus to damage (rather than 5).
16-25: Accuracy Amplification: All attack rolls increase by +2. This effect can stack.
26-30: Encounter Power Recharge: Immediately regain the use of one encounter power.
31+: Daily Power Recharge: Expend 2 healing surges to regain the use of one daily power. This power is lost if not used by the end of the encounter. Reset the Tension Meter to 0.

 

[FireLance]

I'm currently using what I call a combat escalation system in my campaign. It seems to have worked out pretty well so far. Essentially:

1. After the first round of combat, everyone (PCs and monsters) gains a +1 bonus to damage. This increases by +1 at the start of each subsequent round.

2. After the bonus to damage rolls increases to +2 or more, everyone gains a bonus to attack rolls equal to half the bonus to damage.

3. After the bonus to attack rolls increases to +2 or more, everyone's crit range increases by half the bonus to attack rolls.​

It isn't as variable as the system you have proposed, but it's easier to keep track of. I've made up a set of cards (attached) and at the start of each combat round, you just put the card for the new combat round on the table.

 

[Alex319]

Firelance's system definitely seems to be the simpler of the two. Since the point of the system is to make combat go faster, it seems counterproductive to have a system that necessitates more record-keeping (how many times did someone get bloodied this round? Bob just got bloodied, but was he bloodied before? If someone gets bloodied, then healed, and then bloodied again, does it count both times?), more die rolls, and more options (okay, which encounter power do I want to get back?) Also the daily power recharge probably shouldn't be in there - it might be worth it to intentionally drag out the combat longer in order to get a daily recharge, which probably isn't what you want.

 

[Alex319]

And also, what's the point of triggering the system based off of getting bloodied and critical hits? If lots of PCs are getting bloodied and lots of critical hits are happening, then it seems like the combat already has plenty of action, and you don't need this system as much. If the combat was running really slow, so that you would want this system to inject some more action, then it would be less effective at doing so since the things that trigger the tension meter aren't happening as much.

 

[clark411]

That's a great setup, Firelance!

As you mentioned, my current system has a variable element to it- due to the fact that without one it would be too easily turned into another element of the strategy of each combat. Knowing my players, unless something was going very, very wrong, they would initially wait for a +1 or +2 bonus to hit before using their encounter powers and rely upon at-wills between those spaces. Dailies with high n[W] damage wouldn't come into play until the crit modification happened.

How do your players react to this system- do they tend to play a waiting game?

I'm definitely going to plug crit modification into this chart along with attack and damage modification.

Alex319- thanks for the comments. =D Here's why I set up bloodied and crits to increase tension: these things tend to go unnoticed at the table. It's part of the laid back culture of my group mixed with all the flashy cards they're using and pawing through between rounds. Not to use a tired preamble, but once upon a time my party cheered or went silent if a critical hit happened. When a player took a notable amount of damage, players took note. In this 4e game, crits from monsters usually mean nothing to them, as do their own crits (as a crit from an at-will from most the table is often less impressive than the striker's normal damage).

You're absolutely right- it does introduce another counting game into a game already full of counting- but I think that it'll be a counting game the players need to provide them with some glue. As long as it doesn't kill them all outright with no saving grace. ^_^

 

[FireLance]

How do your players react to this system- do they tend to play a waiting game?

I agree that the system would encourage the players to hold back on their encounters and dailies, but my players don't seem to do so.

To be frank, I would consider it a bonus if they did - combat would start slow and end spectacularly, instead of with everyone opening up with their big guns and finishing up the fight with at-will powers.

 

[BigDauntless]

I like the idea for standard encounters but at the very least it would need tweaks for other encounters.

I had one session that involved a huge battle that lasted well over 100 rounds. Often there would be "spend 4 rounds to get across the field" or "everyone roll 20 times, tell me how many hits". Still, if they were getting +100 damage and autohit/autocrit that would be a very different encounter

I had another encounter where the PCs had to run a long way while fighting and doing a skill challenge. It lasted over 20 rounds and +20 damage at the end just wouldn't have worked well.

It looks like the system would greatly help minions (which would be a good thing, at least against my AoE heavy group). It seems like it would hurt solos and elites (which maybe could be compensated for) and would speed up those long boring at-will fights.

 

[Stalker0]

Both Clark and Firelance's systems due a decent job at their intended goals.

My only beef with systems like this is its more tracking for the players, they have to add new numbers to their powers every round.

Another option to this is to give the players and monsters a token each round that represents a bonus (attacks, damage, etc). The players and monsters can spend the token to achieve the effect.

That way players can visually see what extra effect they have (similar to power cards). You might allow the tokens to stack, so instead of the tokens gaining in power (which again leads to the tracking problem) you can simply spend more tokens to get a bigger effect.

 

[Saeviomagy]

To be frank, I would consider it a bonus if they did - combat would start slow and end spectacularly, instead of with everyone opening up with their big guns and finishing up the fight with at-will powers.

If you want that, you could say that using a daily lets you spend one healing surge in addition to any the power normally allows you to spend. That might make everyone hold onto them for a little while at least.

 

[FireLance]

If you want that, you could say that using a daily lets you spend one healing surge in addition to any the power normally allows you to spend. That might make everyone hold onto them for a little while at least.

That would help for dailies, but it wouldn't help for encounter powers.