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<blockquote data-quote="5ekyu" data-source="post: 7309527" data-attributes="member: 6919838">i agree with much of this including the part about determining difficulties as if it was someone else setting it against them and who they were and how they did it.In my game i use a derivative of the difficulty advice from IIRC the DMG - untrained and unexceptional ability = easy 10, oen of those gets you a medium 15. both of those gets you a 20. add in some other aspect of resource like lotsa os time and or money going into it 9or the reverse) and go up or down more.As for your vier, in my game i have each player deal me a card face down at the start of each session. Clubs = fights, spades = environmental challenge, diamonds equal loot/greed/resources hearts = help, assistance, mercy healing etc. When it comes to things like encounter flavor or ciccumstances, i use those cards and their magnitudes to help me decide some of the flavor and challenge bits. So if a high spade had appeared, the river would be flooding from up-river or even current rains, the crossing rope or bridge would be broken, etc. No clubs would mean no problem with a ford, other results in between. Add in a clubs of note - maybe am ambush during the crossing. Add in a hearts of note, someone else struggling and needing help. Add in a diamonds, an overturned cart or goods that may be difficult to get out of the river - possibly something valuable or not. Any or all, in combination. keeps me on my toes and adds an element of spontaneity to most every session. more to the point, it pushes me to build my setups differently, thinking along each of these lines for options for each set-piece, which helps keep me from just building to &quot;the story&quot; and seeing everything as &quot;challenges along a path&quot; by needing to add in a bit of each to each session - after all - things need to be foreshadowed when possible.It works for me and mine and i like the extra prod to my improv a bit.But the &quot;why&quot; behind the difficulty is IMo a key point.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="5ekyu, post: 7309527, member: 6919838"] i agree with much of this including the part about determining difficulties as if it was someone else setting it against them and who they were and how they did it. In my game i use a derivative of the difficulty advice from IIRC the DMG - untrained and unexceptional ability = easy 10, oen of those gets you a medium 15. both of those gets you a 20. add in some other aspect of resource like lotsa os time and or money going into it 9or the reverse) and go up or down more. As for your vier, in my game i have each player deal me a card face down at the start of each session. Clubs = fights, spades = environmental challenge, diamonds equal loot/greed/resources hearts = help, assistance, mercy healing etc. When it comes to things like encounter flavor or ciccumstances, i use those cards and their magnitudes to help me decide some of the flavor and challenge bits. So if a high spade had appeared, the river would be flooding from up-river or even current rains, the crossing rope or bridge would be broken, etc. No clubs would mean no problem with a ford, other results in between. Add in a clubs of note - maybe am ambush during the crossing. Add in a hearts of note, someone else struggling and needing help. Add in a diamonds, an overturned cart or goods that may be difficult to get out of the river - possibly something valuable or not. Any or all, in combination. keeps me on my toes and adds an element of spontaneity to most every session. more to the point, it pushes me to build my setups differently, thinking along each of these lines for options for each set-piece, which helps keep me from just building to "the story" and seeing everything as "challenges along a path" by needing to add in a bit of each to each session - after all - things need to be foreshadowed when possible. It works for me and mine and i like the extra prod to my improv a bit. But the "why" behind the difficulty is IMo a key point. [/QUOTE]

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