What happens to accumulated Threat at the end of a session? Does it disappear at the beginning of the next session or does it build up from one session to the next? If so, is there a cap?
I ask this because there are times where players will drive up Threat towards the end of a session and the GM just doesn’t have the ability or reason to use all of it. But it makes sense narratively to carry it into following sessions and then unleashing it at the climax or a story where they face a large challenge.
Thoughts?
Thanks!
It doesn’t specify either way that Threat carries over between scenes or that there is a cap, the only comment is that the GM receives X threat per player each session. (where X is the House type of the players)
To my mind this means that RAW it resets.
If your players are abusing the timings of the game to try and use Threat freely near the end though I would tell them that their actions are getting noticed.
I’d then carry over half the Threat to the next session or ostentatiously spend it right at the end with a montage scene of shadowy figures looking at reports of the players actions. “It seems we will need to allocate more resources to the operation…”
So overall I would agree with your narrative view, even if there is nothing technically in the rules.
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I always play it resetting at the start of the next mission/adventure with the same observation as @CountThalim in regards to RAW.
With no cap on Threat, a roll over could start to get lopsided against the players. I try my best to spend all of the threat generated in an adventure, but sometimes I end up with a bit. I just concluded an STA mission and I ended at 6 Threat in the pool. Going into the next with that plus the addition of 2 threat/main character would give me 12. That’s huge.
My players at STA don’t abuse the system but generate massive amount of threat with complications, . On every session, I got a 20 Re-roll 20. At the end of the mission, unspent threat:
- is used to generate long term enemies
- post scenario complication
- diplomatic problems
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In all other 2d20 RPGs Threat/Heat/Doom/Dark Symmetry/Chaos resets at the start of each new session.
As a GM you don’t need to spend all Threat, not as a “parting shot” to introduce some last minute problems for later. It is simply a resource to raise the tension and make things interesting during the session. So ending a session with unspent Threat is fine.
If players keep constantly feeding the Threat pool, then spending it during the session is often the more entertaining way.
I reset threat at the beginning of a new adventure/story.