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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8993662" data-attributes="member: 42582">Doesn't it solve the problem of deciding how many tarrasques to place?Only if we assume some sort of &quot;balance&quot; between D's resources and that of the participants to whom D plays the adversaries. And [USER=7027139]@loverdrive[/USER]'s mechanic is one way of achieving that balance.Burning Wheel has an explicit rule that the players can always ask the GM to tell them the points cost of a monster the GM introduces into play.4e D&amp;D has rules that tightly connect the challenge posed by an encounter, and the XP awarded, and the XP needed for a level, and the number of encounters needed for a milestone, and the number and content of treasure parcels per level. This is a more convoluted but, in my experience, nevertheless functional version of the &quot;threat pool&quot; approach. In my experience it basically solves the problem of &quot;trust issues&quot;.Presumably the elements in the adventure are mechanically defined in a way that produces good play.This is an important issue in a threat pool or 4e-type design: the actual design work has to be properly done.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 8993662, member: 42582"] Doesn't it solve the problem of deciding how many tarrasques to place? Only if we assume some sort of "balance" between D's resources and that of the participants to whom D plays the adversaries. And [USER=7027139]@loverdrive[/USER]'s mechanic is one way of achieving that balance. Burning Wheel has an explicit rule that the players can always ask the GM to tell them the points cost of a monster the GM introduces into play. 4e D&D has rules that tightly connect the challenge posed by an encounter, and the XP awarded, and the XP needed for a level, and the number of encounters needed for a milestone, and the number and content of treasure parcels per level. This is a more convoluted but, in my experience, nevertheless functional version of the "threat pool" approach. In my experience it basically solves the problem of "trust issues". Presumably the elements in the adventure are mechanically defined in a way that produces good play. This is an important issue in a threat pool or 4e-type design: the actual design work has to be properly done. [/QUOTE]

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