Tension is an one page RPG from Late Night Zen.
The RPG blog introduces the ghost hunting one-page system by explaining how several years of thought found a home in this one game.
Tension is a game of hunting ghosts. Once you start, you’re committed because ghosts can hunt you too. The pressure keeps rising until you’re finished or until you’re finished.
The heart rate mechanic certainly adds tension. To succeed in a task you roll 2d6 and you need a 5 or 6 to be successful, abilities or lack of them can add or remove one dice. However, each time you roll you add the total to your heart rate.
Once you’ve passed your maximum heart rate, you’re in danger, and from then on it, any time you roll a 1, your character has a heart attack or a breakdown and is out.
Why would your heart attack prone PC be snooping around in the scary darkness?
Well, your character has become attuned. They’ve had an encounter with a spirit, now has visions and has nothing else in their life. Here’s the game’s intro.
You had a near death experience which opened your eyes to the spirit world. You lost your job, your relationships and your friends because people think you’re a flake. Now you catch and sell ghosts for a living. It’s a high-stress high-risk life, but it’s the only one you’re suited for. Investigate rumours, learn the ghost’s secrets, then grab it.
Creative Commons art credit: Broken Words by Sephiroth-Art. You can buy this print and others from Sephiroth’s Society6 page or support them directly via Patreon.
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