> I find this fairly interesting 'cause virtually every GM I've talked
> to/corresponded with/played with in the last 25 years has used
> a pass fail cycle in their games*.
If I understand what you are talking about, then I have never used a pass/fail cycle in any game I've run. And I'm neither a callow youth nor inexperienced gamemaster (having been doing it in various systems for over 30 years now).
I believe you are making an implicit assumption on the type of play when you make this statement. Your assuming you have a set of players which you are running through a pre-designed scenario/storyline fed by the gamemaster. This is not necessarily the case, especially if you and your players prefer sandbox play (in that the players are free to do as they like within the world). And this is even more important if you have multiple players/groups of players adventuring in the one campaign. At which point consistency becomes paramount, and the only way to maintain consistency is to be objective, rather than subjective, in determining the capabilities of any possible opposition.
Sometimes (actually "usually" is a more accurate choice of word here) players will have a unique approach to the situation, for good or for worse, that the gamemaster never really thought of. The will approach a problem from oblique angles if they can't see themselves winning in a direct encounter ("there is always another way"). Setting the difficulty level to the character's abilities robs them of the incentive to come up with these off-the-wall ideas, some of which have resulted in great fun and memorable stories. Especially when players earn their chance to brag and tell their war stories.
So yes, there will be encounters in this type of play that will not provide much of a challenge and that the players will breeze through, and encounters that will destroy the adventurers fairly readily. The players should exercise discretion in what they do and never be afraid of uttering the immortal lines "run away, run away!" And if that fails, well, Runequest was the game that introduced the idea of "ransom" to many of us.
Ian
-- Ian Borchardt (iborchar_at_...) Philosoph, Fool, and Magician "That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange Ians, even death may die."
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