I played this for a while (without the additional 1d10 mnemonic tables posted in the comments) and here are my thoughts:
- I thought it did a great job of pressing modulating the action. Twists sneak in there at the right pace. Release usually comes in time. Sometimes the states repeat themselves and you're not expecting it, creating a insane drama or a deeper moment of reflection and regrouping.
- Occasionally you get a triple state. Three pushes in a row for example. I think it would be better to instead treat that as a random event trigger. Then characterize the event into one of the three pacing states and continue from there.
- The PACE system does nothing at all to manage the number of threads you are dealing with. That's really still all on the player. It's possible thread management could be worked into the mnemonic tables, but I'd want to make sure they balanced having too few or too many threads.
- I wonder if I can get by with a simpler random system, rather than memorizing 1d10 inflection points into a 4 entry table and a P-T-R-T sequence. Probably. :)
- This worked great for scene setup. It doesn't have to but can drive the beats of the mid-scene moments. I really felt the tension ebb and flow. This can also be used to put together an adventure like a miniature version of Adventure Crafter.