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<blockquote data-quote="NoWayJose" data-source="post: 5522879" data-attributes="member: 84810">Yes, I realized that the definition of &quot;difficulty&quot; is still up in the air. You mentioned emotional (maybe moral) choices, puzzles, etc. I can also imagine that &quot;difficult&quot; means realistic and gritty, as in you're 5th level but a lucky dagger strike from a petty goblin can still unexpectedly drop you (forget the bloodied buffer). I don't know if D&amp;D could succeed in creating that experience, and if it would be any fun.&nbsp;I remember those Fighting Fantasy choose-your-adventure books. When you face certain obstacles, there was usually a clever way of circumventing it, if you said the right thing or used the right item. The alternative was just to fight, but the book might 'punish' you by forcing you to fight a high Strength, high Stamina monster.&nbsp;Movies are another example. Some action movies is just one battle after another, and there's no real tension. Other action thrillers may have only one or two fast and furious action scenes which really puts you at the edge of your seat because the protagonist seems so human and you're not entirely confident that he'll make it through alive.&nbsp;And if you're playing a video game on Insanity, you're probably not going to rush into battle like you would on Normal difficulty, so you play more carefully and methodically.&nbsp;I was wondering if D&amp;D might succeed in this fashion by increasing the difficulty levels. Instead of expecting you to fight every encounter, the adventure module might almost expect you to think of alternatives, especially if the players don't feel confident that they will beat every encounter like they're used to in a standard D&amp;D game. This might seem contrary to the spirit of D&amp;D, and especially to the philosophy of 4E, but for someone like me who considers consecutive battles to be often repetitive and tiresome (tactics is not the end-all-be-all for me), could it work to increase difficulty to tweak the feel of D&amp;D?&nbsp;And like a video game, could the difficulty level be layered over the standard adventure so that you could play one way or another without segmenting your customers?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="NoWayJose, post: 5522879, member: 84810"] Yes, I realized that the definition of "difficulty" is still up in the air. You mentioned emotional (maybe moral) choices, puzzles, etc. I can also imagine that "difficult" means realistic and gritty, as in you're 5th level but a lucky dagger strike from a petty goblin can still unexpectedly drop you (forget the bloodied buffer). I don't know if D&D could succeed in creating that experience, and if it would be any fun. I remember those Fighting Fantasy choose-your-adventure books. When you face certain obstacles, there was usually a clever way of circumventing it, if you said the right thing or used the right item. The alternative was just to fight, but the book might 'punish' you by forcing you to fight a high Strength, high Stamina monster. Movies are another example. Some action movies is just one battle after another, and there's no real tension. Other action thrillers may have only one or two fast and furious action scenes which really puts you at the edge of your seat because the protagonist seems so human and you're not entirely confident that he'll make it through alive. And if you're playing a video game on Insanity, you're probably not going to rush into battle like you would on Normal difficulty, so you play more carefully and methodically. I was wondering if D&D might succeed in this fashion by increasing the difficulty levels. Instead of expecting you to fight every encounter, the adventure module might almost expect you to think of alternatives, especially if the players don't feel confident that they will beat every encounter like they're used to in a standard D&D game. This might seem contrary to the spirit of D&D, and especially to the philosophy of 4E, but for someone like me who considers consecutive battles to be often repetitive and tiresome (tactics is not the end-all-be-all for me), could it work to increase difficulty to tweak the feel of D&D? And like a video game, could the difficulty level be layered over the standard adventure so that you could play one way or another without segmenting your customers? [/QUOTE]

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