Mountain Missive Nr. 9
The Borders
Limadad’s hand trails the border of the entry, solid stone. A deep breath, musky scent of earth. The introspective look, fears older than her. This is not a grandmother’s story. The electric light sparks to life and she steps inside. Wind comes and goes and with it a late realisation, then the maw closes behind her. Rumbling drowns the cries.
Defines my returning the success of a blog on game design or yours?
Mountaineering is pushing borders. Human frailty against human stubbornness. Strained muscles versus harshest cold. Skin breaks when minds collide with peaks. The Welzenbach assessment of difficulty ends at human limit.
I (1): easy
II (2): moderate
III (3): hard
IV (4): very hard
V (5): extremely hard
VI (6): human limit
Yet, pushing this is mountaineering. The stratification is gamification. An almost arbitrary number system against a threshold defined by player skill.
The player chooses if they want to use Agility or Might for their climb, reflecting their different approach.
The effective climbing difficulty (see page 32) changes the actual Climbing Check.
<1: Automatic Success
1–2: Climb at Advantage
3–4: Climb Normal
5–6: Climb at Disadvantage
>6: Automatic Failure
Roll under or fail. Fail upward for one. Crit fail downward for doubles. Advantage [+] for a sum of expertise and preparation. Disadvantage [-] for environmental factors. A numbers mini game in a game. A relational guide of difficulty for GMs.
A relational guide of progression for players. In a game another numbers mini game. Removed from Disadvantage [-] or Advantage [+]. Shifting crits and failure upwards. Every segment added to thresholds. Brave Actions rewarded further.
Mountain Resonance. Game name and game feature. Peaks collide with minds, skin remains broken. Experience versus success. Mountain acceptance against past pain. Pushing borders is mountaineering.
What is your first Brave Action?
Gabriel Loppé - Sunset from Mont Blanc, 1873
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