What makes a Challenging Game?

Biggus Geekus

What makes a Challenging Game?

Episode 167 Streamed Live Tuesday November 28, 2023

Main Topic: What makes a Challenging Game?

CR vs random tables vs encounters to fit the ‘story’/adventure.

When does challenging become a meat grinder?

How can mechanics inform the challenge of a game?

Some examples for comparison:

DnD OSR : fairly random, expect that the ‘wilderness’ could produce almost any creature, no skill checks to challenge Player characters- proficiencies allowed for this to a lesser extent in later editions, combat dangerous to engage and sometimes players need to have superior planning and careful with resources.

DnD 3.X +: CR becomes a bigger thing, skills significant in 3.X, less so in 4e and 5e but big push to challenge PCs not players, combat usually lands in favor of the PCs especially if player skill is high enough to build a powerful PC.

13th age: skills more loosely defined via backgrounds, short of significant imbalanced encounter design PCs almost always win, very predictable combat if follow the patterns shown by the adventures provided by the game,

Savage Worlds: whole game is skill based, Pcs are heroes, but combat can be swingy

Rolemaster: critical tables cause the game to lean toward swinginess

Do you prefer games that are run so that they challenge the character more than the player or vice versa?

Some additional thoughts on magic systems

Joe:
Using 1e ADnD magic as a base, add the following:

Spell/Magic/Mana points Use an activation check (may replace a save*)

This is a alternate to having a magic phase in combat:

Divide spells into categories: Invocations (combat cast), Incantations (may be interrupted) , Ritual (not for combat)
Attack roll instead of saves as much as possible, one roll even for AOE. Use saves for spells that control or deceive, such as charm, sleep, etc.

Consider Entangle: An attack roll represents the plants initial grasping of targets. Anytime someone enters after the initial casting gets an attack roll as well. Magic attacks are based on caster’s magic stat with bonuses at higher level. Miss will mean the same as a save did.

Randy:

Prefer spells be re-written completely & would like more evocative names. Coarsal’s Conflagration (common parlance- Fireball)- think of it as a nod to Vance.

Might combat spells be automatically cast ( i.e., no disruption), but debuffed a bit so that they do not dominate. EX: Lightning Bolt: less damage, but still affect multiples.

Or some spells could be offensive, but be incantations such as:

Fireball (maybe increase damage), Haste(ritual version [affects a group of folks for s specified time amount maybe in rounds or minutes]/incantations version [cast at the spur of the moment, maybe in combat/maybe not, only affects one person and duration is but a couple rounds maximum])

So, some spells could be cast in a variety of forms: combat, ritual, incantation or mix Rituals take anywhere from Minutes to years in preparation, collection of components, performance of rites, and casting time. However, these should be highly useful and/or powerful/game changing.

Random Geek-itude

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We will need your email ,but will determine the winner based upon random roll

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