Game Master Volatility
Game Mastering in Sunder's Volatility System
The Volatility Dice system mentions that GM players in the Sunder TTRPG can use Volatility Dice just as the players do with their character sheets. Here, the rules and bounds to which this is true will be defined.
Volatility Dice
A GM keeps track of their Volatility Dice and Perks just as any other Sunder player: for each Potential, they have a die type and a number of Perk slots corresponding to the die type. A GM still gains Beats on failed Tests, and can spend that Experience on Perks to fill these Perk slots. Since the GM plays different creatures throughout the game, the GM's Volatility will fluctuate throughout gameplay.
The tracked Volatility Die values and Perks serve as maximum values. The GM may have up to that die type, they may have a smaller die type, but they may not have a higher one until it is unlocked. A GM's effective Volatility Die for a given roll is determined by both their maximum Volatility Die type, and the creature's maximum Potential score. If the highest value on the maximum Volatility Die type is greater than the creature's Potential score, then the GM must roll a die type with a highest value of equal to or less than the creature's Potential score (e.g. if a GM has progressed their Tether Volatility Die to a D12, but the creature they are rolling for only has a Tether of 9, then the GM must roll a D8 for Volatility). If a GM's Volatility die type is reduced in this way, they can only benefit from Perks assigned to the indexes available to the effect Volatility Die (i.e. if the Tether D12 had three Perks assigned to it: Anchor in the 2 slot, Fracture on the 8 slot, and Spite on the 9 slot, then reducing the D12 to a D8 would only allow the GM to benefit from Anchor and Fracture, since those are faces on a D8. This does mean that the GM can have a Perk assigned to the highest value on their effective Volatility Die, but only if they had assigned it on their DV due to having it as a valid Perk slot on a higher caliber die type).
Using GMPCs
If a Game Master elects to have a Game Master Player Character, they must keep track of the GMPC's character sheet, and can use the GMPC as a method of generating Experience, as well as purchasing new Perks. Any Perks purchased by the GM or the GMPC are shared between the two: track GM Volatility Dice on the character sheet, and treat the GMPC's Potentials as any other creature's Potential scores when determining effective Volatility.
Themes & Chapters
Knacks, Domains, and Goals for Game Masters
Since the Game Master is playing many roles in a single story, and much of the roll mechanics are tied to a character's narrative specialties, it can be hard to give a GM the same benefits without giving them their own player character.
Instead, Game Masters will be given access to Themes, which come with several parts (described below), but represent the main moods, tone, and common topics that a GM plans to incorporate into a campaign's plot and story arcs.
Building a Theme
A Theme consists of 6 parts:
A Theme's Name gives it an identifier to describe it's relationship to the narrative. This is used to justify and define how often the Theme should be able to effect the gameplay mechanics.
A Theme's relevant Domain is one of the 13 Domains that relates the most to the chosen Theme. This gives the GM a Domain to benefit from on their rolls, gaining Advantage in the same way any player would gain Advantage from being proficient in a Domain.
A beneficial Subtheme works the same way as a Knack would to a player: it grants Advantage when its title is narratively relevant to the Test being resolved. A hindering Subtheme, on the other hand, is a Knack whose title grants Disadvantage when narratively relevant to a Test being resolved by the GM. These Subthemes are like sides of a coin: Hope and Dread incarnate to represent the opposing sides to the grand-scale conflict present in your story.
A Scene Ability has the same limitations as a Loom Boon, except it is only accessible to the GM. The GM may build this Ability as they wish, ensuring that they are abiding by the Experience Limit determined by the current party level.
A Common Fallout is a free Intervention available to the GM, which can be used by any of the GM's controlled actors, adversaries, and creatures. Depending on the current Tier of gameplay, this Fallout can have different intensities:
| Tier | Fallout Level |
|---|---|
| 1 | Narrative Fallout |
| 2 | Minor Fallout |
| 3 | Major Fallout |
| 4+ | Severe Fallout |
Developing the Plot
Acquiring new Themes with Chapters
While Themes can be overarching, the story may still develop to have more Themes applicable to it as the game progresses. To give the GM more chances to develop Themes into their story, they can establish Chapters.
Chapters are the Game Master's equivalent of goals; they determine a question or conflict within the world that needs to be resolved by the players before they can continue onto the next "chapter" of the narrative. At the beginning of a campaign, the GM may define one Chapter. When the defined Chapter is resolved, the GM may gain a new Theme, then define a new Chapter for the next section of the campaign plot.
A Storyteller's Toolkit
New Ability Modifiers for Game Masters
When making a Scene Ability, Game Masters have access to new and more specific usages of the Experience Market system. Many of these options focus on the GM's unique ability to influence the world around the players without having the spotlight on their influences. This means that while the adventurers are focused on one thing in one part of the world, the GM is capable of progressing the state of other parts of the world, such as political shifts, progress in a villain's schemes, or new connections made between non-player characters (NPCs) from previous scenes in the campaign. Here are a few special ways GMs can interact with the world on a storytelling level:
Utility Narrative Weight
A Game Master may use the Utility Narrative Weight modifier in new ways while the characters are developing their side of the story. Here are some ways this can manifest in-game:
- Once per Chapter, select a non-player character who was introduced previously and unexpectedly bring them into the current Scene.
- Two non-player characters who were introduced previously cross paths in some other part of the world.
- A time-sensitive event resolves by the roll of a die: make an appropriate Test and determine the outcome before the players can witness the events.
- Describe a natural disaster or third-party conflict that has crossed the path of the adventuring party; start a Countdown Die and initiate a Scene where the players can decide to avoid or interact with the event.
- Connect a non-player character within the current Scene to the adventuring party; perhaps they heard of their deeds on the road, or were directly affected by their actions and hold a grudge, or conversely took a sympathetic stance on the villain's side of the story. These events would be retroactive in relation to the current Scene, and would be considered part of the NPC's history.
Monsters
Quick Combat for a Juggling Puppeteer
When it comes to running Scenes as a Game Master, you don't always have the time to create characters or Custom Abilities for every adversary your players come across. This calls for Interventions; Interventions allow adversaries to choose how adventurers' Fallout manifests.
The Game Master may interact with the Experience Market in a different way than players. This is to facilitate a sense of ease when creating the many adversaries characters will encounter throughout a campaign.
Natural Weapons
Monsters come with many different adaptations for hunting down their prey, but making custom abilities for each variation is unreasonable. Instead, consider these physical attacks as Natural Weapons, and use the weapon properties table on the Equipment page.
You may also create small Special weapon properties from scratch, but try to restrict the String Cost to the Difficulty rating:
Special. [Example]
When you successfully attack a target creature with this weapon, the target must make a Squirm Test or become Rooted (Here).
Difficulty
To make a judgement about what your adventuring party can handle, calculate the average party Tier. To do this, take each character's Tier, add them together, and divide by the number of characters (rounded up) to get the average character Tier. Then, add the players' Party Level.
$$
\left\lceil\frac{T_{\text{\:1st PC Tier}}\:+\:T_{\text{\:2nd PC Tier}}\:+\:...\:+\:T_{C\text{th PC Tier}}}{C_{\text{Number of characters}}}\right\rceil\:+\:P_{\text{\:Party Loom Level}}\:=\:D_{\text{\:Difficulty}}
$$
This results in a value called Difficulty. Difficulty can be spend in various ways, including the purchasing of Interventions.
Different levels of Interventions are associated with the different levels of Fallout.
Intervention Trigger Table
| Fallout Type | Difficulty Cost |
|---|---|
| Mechanical Fallout | 1 |
| Minor Fallout | 2 |
| Major Fallout | 3 |
| Severe Fallout | 4 |
Choosing an Intervention's Fallout Type determines what kind of Fallout the adversary is able to "intervene" upon. For example, say you have created an adversary with a Minor Fallout Intervention that causes the Muddled (N) Condition as alien paralytic excretions start to numb the player on contact. If a player would have a Stress Overflow due to an adversary's attack, and that Stress Overflow would result in Minor Fallout (see Levels of Fallout), then you may choose to immediately apply the adversary's Minor Fallout Intervention effect instead of coming up with an appropriate type of Fallout based on the narrative context. Interventions cannot be activated on Fallout triggered by an Intervention.
Additionally, Interventions can be used to define the outcome of Narrative and Situational Fallout. This oftentimes occurs when a player rolls a Test that results in Mixed or lower. Different kinds of Interventions can affect different success levels that would incur Fallout (see below).
| Success Level | Intervention Level |
|---|---|
| Mixed | Mechanical |
| Failure | Minor |
| Miff | Major |
| Natural Miff | Severe |
| * Certain Interventions could be given increased durations to accommodate for higher levels of Fallout than what an adversary's Interventions cover. This only applies to Interventions that inflict a Condition, and is up to GM discretion. |
The Difficulty of an adversary manifests in its ability to increase the Fallout Level taken by a target creature, though the effect is restricted to what is predetermined in the definition of that adversary's Intervention. To increase the Fallout Level, the original Fallout Level must be Narrative, Minor, or Major, and the adversary must succeed on a Test determined in the Intervention's definition. Increasing the Fallout Level taken by a target creature causes the GM to skip their next turn.
Expanded Intervention templates are available through the Sunder Vault.
Example adversary Interventions are available through the Sunder Vault.
Escalation rules and examples are available through the Sunder Vault.
