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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cadfan" data-source="post: 4972429" data-attributes="member: 40961"><a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FakeDifficulty" target="_blank">Fake Difficulty - Television Tropes & Idioms</a>In short, if something is difficult because you need to come up with a good plan or else your character dies, that's real difficulty.  If something is difficult because you need to roll a 14 or better several times in a row no matter what decisions you make, or because you don't get the information that would have made smart decisions easy until after you're irrevocably committed (or dead), or for any other number of reasons that don't really involve you being challenged, that's fake difficulty.Fake difficulty can still lead to a sense of risk.  A slot machine is fake difficulty.  You put in the money, pull the lever, and find out what happens.  There's still tension because you've got something personally invested in the outcome, and you don't know what it is.  But its not "difficulty," its just random chance.Some people feel that older school "roll X to not die" gameplay is fake difficulty.  While I tend to agree, honesty compels me to note that this is a continuum.  There are a lot of possibilities between walking around the corner and coming face to face with a save vs petrification, and a long, involved wargame like tactical scenario in which bad outcomes slowly encroach on the players, and the players have multiple opportunities to intelligently respond.</blockquote>

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