thread: 2009-05-04 : Dice and Cloud, the Death Threats thread
On 2009-05-05, Jesse Burneko wrote:
Jono,
Have you looked at Mouse Guard. One of the main reasons I've shied away from Burning Wheel games is because my experience with "GM sets the difficulty" games is EXACTLY like what you describe with SotC. I was too keen on constantly having to set Obstacle values.
That to me is different than what Vincent describes as "+2 for the high ground." Either the player does or doesn't have the high ground based on the fiction. Sure there's still an aesthetic call to make but it's grounded in something concrete, unlike the vague descriptions of "easy", "hard", "challenging" etc. You run through all the internal conflicts like you describe.
Mouse Guard on the other hand does two things. First of all EVERY skill has a list of "factors" that are concrete fictional elements exactly like "has the high ground." So all you do is add up the factors and bam, Obstacle number. Sure you still have to make the call between "short distance" or "long distance" for the Pathfinder skill but that's a hell of a lot easier to see than the line between "easy" and "hard."
Second there's a fail safe for making a bad call. If you set the value too low the players will likely penalize themselves using their trains meaning they'll make for the lack of action later in their player's turn. Too high and all that happens is they get a Condition and succeed anyway or a Twist happens and stuff just gets more interesting.
Mouse Guard REALLY eases that GM sets the difficult anxiety, I'm ALL too familiar with.
Jesse
