Difficulty Level

## **Difficulty Setting**

Each metric has three levels, the first being the easiest.

**Encounters:**

1. Baby's First Campaign: All encounters are scaled to the party.
2. **Seasoned Veteran: All main quest encounters are scaled to the party, whereas side quests can still be above their level.**
3. I Hope You Fucking Min/Maxed: No encounters are scaled.

**Healing:**

1. Big Damn Heroes: All combatants stand with 1HP after combat. Characters can use an action to spend hit dice to heal in combat (no more than ½ hit dice in one turn). Short rests last 5 minutes, and long rests last 1 hour.
2. **Hurt Me Plenty: RAW**
3. Glass Cannons: Must use a healer’s kit to expend hit dice on short rest. A short rest is eight hours, and a long rest is seven days.

**Magic Items:**

1. Forgotten Realms: Magic items are fairly common and are readily available in shops of developed settlements. Ruins and other areas typically have a magic item to be found.
2. **Greyhawk: Magic items are rare, but some shops in sufficiently large cities might carry them. Most ruins and some other areas will have a magic item to be found.**
3. Hyboria: Magic items are extremely rare, and they are horded by those with power. As such, shops will never sell more than common (rarely uncommon) curios. Magic items are rare to find in the wild.

**Carry Weight:**

1. Hoarder: Carry weight is ignored completely.
2. **Pack Rat: Your character can carry most anything, within reason.**
3. Ascetic: RAW

**Provisions:**

1. **Fat and Sassy: Your party is considered to generally be able to feed themselves in all but the most inhospitable terrain.**
2. Eh, I Could Eat: RAW
3. I'll Suck Your Dick For Some Beef Jerky: Players must maintain a diverse influx of foods. Eating the same thing constantly will bring about morale penalties and possibly fatigue. Players will have to rely on fishing, trapping, foraging, and hunting to fend for themselves in the wild.

**Ammunition:**

1. Pew Pew!: Characters are always considered to have enough ammunition. If magical ammunition is acquired, they are assumed to have enough of it.
2. **Pew!: Mundane ammunition is unlimited, but magical ammunition is not.**
3. Ew!: RAW

**Encounter Difficulty:**

1. Rip and Tear: Encounters will generally not be of Deadly level unless it is a boss fight, and the party will generally never face more encounters in a day than they can handle.
2. **Slice and Parry: Fights will constantly tax the party, and they might sometimes get overwhelmed.**
3. Duck and Shit Yourself: Fights will be brutal, and every advantage must be pressed if the party has a hope. Encounter difficulty will often be above what the current level should be able to handle.

**Treasure:**

1. Make it Rain: Most creatures will have treasure of some sort and gold/items will be plentiful.
2. Fair and Balanced: Some creatures will have treasure and gold/items will be passed out in a fairly constant manner.
3. **Minimum Wage: Most creatures will not carry coins or wealth and gold/items will be hard to come by.**

**Travel:**

1. Pokemon Snap: Random encounters will generally not occur unless part of the story or a quest.
2. **Oregon Trail: Random encounters will sometimes occur while traveling in dangerous areas or resting in dungeons.**
3. FTL: Random encounters are rolled for each day of travel, and resting in dungeons is especially dangerous.

**Leveling Method:**

1. Level Council: At the end of each session, the party will vote if they have gained enough experience to level up yet.
2. **Milestone Leveling: Characters will gain levels at appropriate points in the story, typically after completing great feats. The pace of this leveling style will be slower than experience at first but then become faster as the campaign progresses.**
3. Experience: Characters will gain experience based on fights and challenges overcome, and they will follow the standard EXP table. This is typically the slowest leveling pace after midlevels.

**Endgame:**

1. Peasants With Swords: The campaign will last until around level five.
2. **Lords of the Realm: The campaign will last until around level ten.**
3. Heroes of Legend: The campaign will last until around level fifteen.
4. Planar Explorers: The campaign will last until level twenty.

**Story/Action Balance:**

1. Murder Hobos: 15% Story 85% Combat. NPCs are mainly there to kill or give you reasons to kill.
2. Light Reading: 30% Story 70% Combat. Some narrative strings will be embedded into the game, and NPCs will be somewhat fleshed out. The game is still mostly a wargame with occasional bad accents.
3. **Loremasters: 50% Story 50% Combat. Some sessions will end with little to no blood being spilled. A lot of focus will be placed on religion, politics, and NPCs. Players will be presented with situations that require more than brute strength on a regular basis.**

**Campaign Pacing:**

1. Choo Choo!: The story will seek out the players at every turn, and they will typically not have to seek out adventure on their own. Very few sandboxy elements (side quests, rumors, etc) will be added.
2. **Narrative Choice: Players will be steered down a main quest and given opportunities occasionally to seek out their own interests or side quests that appeal to them. Light sandbox elements will be added.**
3. Sand Castles: There will be pressing issues in the world, but the party will decide if and how they respond. This is completely off the rails sandbox adventuring. The party will be given rumors that they can investigate regularly, and many sandbox elements will be added.