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<blockquote data-quote="ryryguy" data-source="post: 5050190" data-attributes="member: 64945">I also bump up the difficulties in my RL sessions.&nbsp; stonegod's formula &quot;5+1/2//10+1/2//15+1/2&quot; looks pretty good.&nbsp; One thing I don't like about the official skill difficulty table, besides the fact that they are just about 5 points too low, is that they give the same DC for a range of three levels.&nbsp; So if you go strictly by the rules, the DCs are exactly the same in a level 1 vs a level 3 challenge, yet the level 3 challenge awards more XP.&nbsp; How does that make any sense?I also agree with others that an interesting failure case is essential.&nbsp; I often find that to be one of the most difficult things to come up with when designing a challenge.&nbsp; Often the problem is that if you want failure to send the adventure down a different (but still interesting) branch, how much effort can you realistically put into designing an alternate branch that there's a good chance you won't use?&nbsp; Actually I wonder if this might be a little bit less of a problem in PbP due to the slower pace.&nbsp; The DM still needs to at least have a sketch of what will happen, but should have more time to fill in the details if and when it becomes necessary.Partial success and failure effects are also great if you can manage to work them in.&nbsp; Relatedly, making specific successes and failures have visible impact beyond just the success/failure count going up seems to help.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ryryguy, post: 5050190, member: 64945"] I also bump up the difficulties in my RL sessions. stonegod's formula "5+1/2//10+1/2//15+1/2" looks pretty good. One thing I don't like about the official skill difficulty table, besides the fact that they are just about 5 points too low, is that they give the same DC for a range of three levels. So if you go strictly by the rules, the DCs are exactly the same in a level 1 vs a level 3 challenge, yet the level 3 challenge awards more XP. How does that make any sense? I also agree with others that an interesting failure case is essential. I often find that to be one of the most difficult things to come up with when designing a challenge. Often the problem is that if you want failure to send the adventure down a different (but still interesting) branch, how much effort can you realistically put into designing an alternate branch that there's a good chance you won't use? Actually I wonder if this might be a little bit less of a problem in PbP due to the slower pace. The DM still needs to at least have a sketch of what will happen, but should have more time to fill in the details if and when it becomes necessary. Partial success and failure effects are also great if you can manage to work them in. Relatedly, making specific successes and failures have visible impact beyond just the success/failure count going up seems to help. [/QUOTE]

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