The Tension Engine is a set of basic building blocks for a pen and paper role-playing game. It's a way to tell a story with others by using physical objects, unlike digital games. Full Tension Engine games provide a backstory and world with rules, and the players craft the details of the story. You'll need to write down details and progress with a pen and paper to keep track.

The Players

Most participants will create a single character to control for the game or that character's life (whichever is shorter). You'll make decisions, converse, and act out as them, like being the main characters in a movie.

The Game Master

The Game Master (GM) is a combination of scriptwriter, director, and supporter. While Players represent the main characters, GMs are the world. They determine the plot and act out the lives of other characters. Everyone is a player, and they are all working together to tell a compelling story.

What You Need

To play a Wound by Tension game (games based on the Tension Engine) you'll need a copy of the appropriate game book, a character sheet for each player, and a way to mark down stats and relevant changes such as damage, several six-sided dice (hereafter called d6) for each player – probably 5-10 each.

Safety Tools

Player safety is an important element of collaborative storytelling. In keeping with the cinematic theme of the Tension Engine, you might think of these tools as being akin to the US movie rating system of G, PG, PG-13, and R. They're a way to help make sure that folks know what they're getting into upfront and avoid content that they may find objectionable or hurtful in some form. And thanks to the live action nature of roleplaying, they can even be employed in the middle of the game to help keep things on track during ongoing scenes.

There are a variety of safety tool systems available for use. Tension Engine does not advocate the use of any particular one but instead encourages you to check out several and find the option that works best for your group. If you need a starting point, a few examples are the Lines & Veils, Red/Yellow Light, Roses & Thorns, Script Change, and X-Card.

Play

Over the course of the game, players may come into conflict with each other, their adversaries, or even the environment. These moments are when you will need the previously mentioned dice. In most scenarios the GM and one other player will each be building a die pool based on the values of various stats for their characters and then rolling the pools and selecting two dice to use for their total that round. Standard player characters for instance will be selecting the appropriate inherent Attribute of their character plus the appropriate Skill being applied to this situation to make their pool. Full resolution rules are discussed later in the document.