Success over the challenge. There's a table there which says "Critical Failure, Failure, Success, Critical Success." It's the third one in that list. You can succeed at the challenge by moving at slow pace (at the cost of time and Supply, of course). If you're in a hurry, that's obviously not an option available to you.
I agree with @Stalker0, if you name a monster, the PCs will want to fight it. Unless it is obviously overwhelming. Just say a horde of Treants, or you maybe fighting is an option. If so, how does that affect the challenge. Perhaps that counts as a failure and the grove sends more treants.
Got it. They way I was reading it was like the 4e skill challenges. So I was thinking a certain number of success vs a certain number of failures was needed. My bad. To be clear, I didn't have that thought when I read the Survival part, just when I got down to Slow Pace.
I don't quite know what that means, but the treants aren't the challenge. They're really just a message that you failed. You can fight them, or not, whatever you prefer. The fail is not getting any XP and losing Supply.
No, these aren't 4E skill challenges. Different game.
Agreed - I was just explaining my confusion / mistake - I tend to do that. It comes from my soccer/football days I think.No, these aren't 4E skill challenges. Different game.
Well I think I would get a question like: "why did we loose 2 supply when we fought and defeated the treants easily without them taking our supplies?" Sure I could make something up, but I would prefer not to have that burden. Maybe the failure is the treant battle and no XP? IDK It just seems like a DM vs PC fight waiting to happen.
Stuff gets damaged during the encounter. Supply can be lost in lots of ways. Drop it in a river, burned in a fire, damaged in a fight, stolen, it goes bad, mule runs off in terror.
Sure, I just have to work it into the narration of the fight with the treants now. A pressure I prefer not have, but not insurmountable. It would be unsatisfying to my group if I just explain it after the fight.
from the sounds of it, think of it like trying to navigate that awful puddle between you & your car. It's not exactly hard to spend a few minutes hopping between islands & near islands to the point that even total failure probably won't be that bad just on a much larger scale. Even "lets go slow & play it safe" can leave you as the gm a ton of room to narrate tension & drama or present choices.. "how do you guys want to navigate the wagon with the provisions though this area up ahead where bit of terrain it looks like a huge stretch of irridescent.... wince like your searching for a word .... liquid up to the left & to the right is.. well... your fairly certain those were moles & your going to need to be careful getting your mule/horses across without breaking a leg in a mole hole... You guys can probably do either one but I want to hear your thoughts on how" Over time they will start realizing that they can have a lot of fun thinking up creative solutions to low stakes problems & still keep applying those beefed up braincells in ways that surprise you when it counts.
