Yes. It's a problem. Writing stories I can do, I keep at least *some* control of the characters there, but GMing is harder.
> > So when *they've* decided, not me, to go to the
> >Frozen Wastes and hit things, they won't need much of a hint to do
some
> >snowshoe training and combat practise.
>
> Well, even worse, then. I mean, how do you know that they'll
> decide to go precisely when they've hit the benchmark in
> question? Or anywhere near it?
Because I tend to provide them with a target-rich enviroment, and let them know the approximate difficulty of each target. They can adjust priorities accordingly. And HQ takes so little prep work that even when I was doing this F2F, I could start the session with no idea which of half a dozen possibilities they were going to choose to do, and still generate it all on the fly as needed. If they've got a particular challenge in mind, they'll know in advance how hard it is, and sort out the levels for themselves.
> I mean, if they've not yet seen a
> particular wall, why can't it be precisely as tall as it
> needs to be for it to be the right challenge when they encounter it?
> Who'll know otherwise that it was always that height?
For walls, yes, this is what I do. Unless they've heard about its height beforehand (from a reliable source), as you say, who's to know?
But if a 16-year-old decides to challenge next-door's clan champion - sorry, he's at the level given in the "sample resistances". And they knew he was far better than them before they did it. Their choice. Climbing Kero Fin, ditto.
Powered by hypermail