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Describing difficulty to players

Describing difficulty to players

Some RPG games have player mechanisms that affect success.
In D&D there's Inspiration, Advantage and a number of race/class abilities that can affect rolls.
In Numenera and all the other MCG games you can spend from your Ability Pools to affect success.
In Star Trek Adventures you can spend Momentum, use Talents, use Foci, etc.

Some games like Apocalypse World tell the players exactly what they need to succeed: 7-9, 10+, etc. But for these other games you need to know what your target for success is to play the game in the best way possible- which to me, means have fun, feel like you have knowledge and agency in game).

Explaining the rules to players is a part of the job for anyone inviting others to play a game. You can tell them to read the book, recommend they check out an article, or do anything beforehand, but at the time the game is taking place, if you want to run the game, you have to help players engage with the rules, including explaining things as many times as it takes to make sense.

Quick aside: you also need to listen to the players and make sure your explanations are making sense and relevant to what they have asked for. A reminder to me and to everyone else.

So in all these games, explaining target numbers is a part of the expectation of play. Not doing so reduces player agency and makes the game more adversarial. You should want your players to feel like they get the most from their abilities.

If they get Advantage, spend Effort, use their Determination, etc, you want them to use it where it counts, not because they don't know how high they need to roll. There is fun in suspense but your players are trusting you to play fair and present them with interesting challenges.

Keep it interesting but empower your players to make the best decisions they can. Tell them ACs, TNs and Difficulty #s.You don't need to tell them how many HP a creature has or what their weaknesses are. But you might want to give them a chance to figure it out.

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