Notes from a Mission Controller (part 4)

It is really the MC's responsibility to actively adjust the difficulty level of the game. If the players are having too easy of a time at everything, though they might be having fun at it for a while, they will start to feel like their success is coming to them for free, without cost. We tend to not value things we get for free as much as those that we paid for in some way. Games without a challenge lose their reward, and players are likely to move on to something else that feels more difficult. Yet overwhelming difficulty is discouraging, too, so an MC should keep a healthy balance running throughout the game. As an example, in a recent game I ran, the enemies the players faced were generally level 1, but the players were level 2, which gave them a solid advantage over most of the enemies. However, by using terrain, advanced tactics and outnumbering the players, I was able to make the encounters difficult for the players--there were certainly moments when things looked very dire for them! Still, while I was conducting these encounters, I was careful not to overdo it. I know how it feels to have a Game Master out to kill you, and this just builds resentment between the players and the GM.