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Do You Think Encounters Should be Difficult?
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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7524966" data-attributes="member: 42582"><p>To build on what [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] said. <em>Difficult</em> can mean different things:</p><p></p><p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Mechanically challenging</strong>: you'll have to make good calls on how to use your abilities - 4e powers, AD&D spells, wands and potions, or whatever they might be - and perhaps also get some lucky rolls too.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Tactically/operationally chalenging</strong>: you'll have tomake clever decisions about how to engage the fiction - my favourite illustration of this remains taking doors of their hinges to "surf" down the frictionless corridor and thereby avoid the super-tetanus pits in S2 White Plume Mountain. This can also include making clever decisions about using equipment; coming up with ways to use terrain to advantage in a combat encounter; etc.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Puzzling</strong>: this sort of challenge can include having to piece together clues, or it might be somewhat independent of the fiction and mechanics of the game - eg a riddle, a chess puzzle or something similar. These latter sorts of puzzles don't invovle engaging the fiction but test ability at a different sort of intellectual activity; whereas piecing together clues is at least in principle still grounded in the fiction of the game.</p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"></p> <p style="margin-left: 20px"><strong>Thematically/emotionally challenging</strong>: You can save the day, but only if one of the PCs agrees to sacrifice his/her life; or you have to choose between preserving your PC's honour or doing jutsice, but can't achieve both; etc. This is probably the least common sort of challenge in RPGing, but personally I think it is one of the most important forms of challenge that players can face.</p><p></p><p>Different tables will want to have different sorts of difficulty - or, perhaps, even none at all - in their RPGing.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 7524966, member: 42582"] To build on what [MENTION=6696971]Manbearcat[/MENTION] said. [I]Difficult[/I] can mean different things: [indent][B]Mechanically challenging[/B]: you'll have to make good calls on how to use your abilities - 4e powers, AD&D spells, wands and potions, or whatever they might be - and perhaps also get some lucky rolls too. [B]Tactically/operationally chalenging[/B]: you'll have tomake clever decisions about how to engage the fiction - my favourite illustration of this remains taking doors of their hinges to "surf" down the frictionless corridor and thereby avoid the super-tetanus pits in S2 White Plume Mountain. This can also include making clever decisions about using equipment; coming up with ways to use terrain to advantage in a combat encounter; etc. [B]Puzzling[/B]: this sort of challenge can include having to piece together clues, or it might be somewhat independent of the fiction and mechanics of the game - eg a riddle, a chess puzzle or something similar. These latter sorts of puzzles don't invovle engaging the fiction but test ability at a different sort of intellectual activity; whereas piecing together clues is at least in principle still grounded in the fiction of the game. [B]Thematically/emotionally challenging[/B]: You can save the day, but only if one of the PCs agrees to sacrifice his/her life; or you have to choose between preserving your PC's honour or doing jutsice, but can't achieve both; etc. This is probably the least common sort of challenge in RPGing, but personally I think it is one of the most important forms of challenge that players can face.[/indent] Different tables will want to have different sorts of difficulty - or, perhaps, even none at all - in their RPGing. [/QUOTE]
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