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Interesting Decisions vs Wish Fulfillment (from Pulsipher)
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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 6342550" data-attributes="member: 22779"><p>But the math doesn't add up. If you have a truly hard game, then there has to be a significant chance of failure. Combat or non-combat, it doesn't matter. If you have a 50:50 chance of success, then you will fail half the time. If the players are succeeding virtually all the time, then your game isn't actually that hard. It can't be. If it was truly hard, then people would fail. If it's possible to change the odds such that the party constantly (or nearly constantly) succeeds, then it's not really that hard. It might be a challenge to find how to change the odds, but, the fact that the odds can be changed belies the difficulty. </p><p></p><p>I've DM'd hard games. Last major dungeon crawl I did, I killed a PC every three sessions over the duration of the campaign (about two years). I had one player on his EIGHTH PC by the end of the campaign. One player actually managed to survive for 50 sessions. The longest living PC in that campaign. She died under a mob of Rasts that jumped the party. No one was ever safe.</p><p></p><p>But, we knew going into that campaign that there was a high chance of failure. </p><p></p><p>My current adventure has a pretty decent chance of a TPK. This one's just a short one though. Single PC level. But, because of the adventure, they won't be able to rest and regain dailies or HP for the duration of the adventure. I really don't expect them to succeed, but, I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do. Again, I made no bones about it going into the adventure. I was pulling out all the stops and turning the dials to 11.</p><p></p><p>Funnily enough, there is not a single monster in the entire dungeon higher level than the party. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> Fun times.</p><p></p><p>But, if your party is getting to 20th level without permanent death? Yeah, that's not a hard campaign.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 6342550, member: 22779"] But the math doesn't add up. If you have a truly hard game, then there has to be a significant chance of failure. Combat or non-combat, it doesn't matter. If you have a 50:50 chance of success, then you will fail half the time. If the players are succeeding virtually all the time, then your game isn't actually that hard. It can't be. If it was truly hard, then people would fail. If it's possible to change the odds such that the party constantly (or nearly constantly) succeeds, then it's not really that hard. It might be a challenge to find how to change the odds, but, the fact that the odds can be changed belies the difficulty. I've DM'd hard games. Last major dungeon crawl I did, I killed a PC every three sessions over the duration of the campaign (about two years). I had one player on his EIGHTH PC by the end of the campaign. One player actually managed to survive for 50 sessions. The longest living PC in that campaign. She died under a mob of Rasts that jumped the party. No one was ever safe. But, we knew going into that campaign that there was a high chance of failure. My current adventure has a pretty decent chance of a TPK. This one's just a short one though. Single PC level. But, because of the adventure, they won't be able to rest and regain dailies or HP for the duration of the adventure. I really don't expect them to succeed, but, I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do. Again, I made no bones about it going into the adventure. I was pulling out all the stops and turning the dials to 11. Funnily enough, there is not a single monster in the entire dungeon higher level than the party. :D Fun times. But, if your party is getting to 20th level without permanent death? Yeah, that's not a hard campaign. [/QUOTE]
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