> Hello-
> 
> I've just read your article on the Spiderweb Page about setting the
> difficulty level for BoE scenarios. I'm working on a small scenario myself,
> and I have to say that this is an issue that has been bothering me. I really
> have no idea how to rate scenarios.
> 
> I don't enjoy the combat side of BoE, I'm much more into exploring and
> figuring out how to find the correct people/items/etc needed to learn the
> next bit of the story. I suspect my scenario will reflect this and be more
> rewarding for the careful explorer than the hacker/slasher. There will not
> be hordes of Haakai to kill in each dungeon, though I may put one as the
> final step to conquering one dungeon.
> 
> Anyway, I suppose what I'm asking is more advice on scenario difficulty
> rating. What else do you take into account besides the type of monsters
> placed? As a consequence of not being sure of the difficulty level of my
> scenario, I'm having trouble deciding on the difficulty level of traps, of
> towns, what items to have my shopkeepers offer, etc.
> 
> Thanks,
> Marcy
> 
> 


General advice for a plot oriented scenario such as you describe: decide
the main outline of the plot first. That done, you will know the
characteristics of the kind of party that will fit into that plot. 
Are your heroes a bunch of shipwrecked ordinary seamen with nothing
but water-soaked clothes? Are they a world-renowned bunch of adventurers
that a local king hired on as a desperate last ditch attempt to save
his crown? Are they a regular army detachment of middling grade sent
to a humdrum border post that turns out not to be so dull after all?
You get the idea.

That decision will tell you the kind of skills and equipment that a
group that fits the plot you have designed will have. Now imagine that
you have a brand new party in Exile I-III and play it until it has
about the skills and equipment that you are looking for. Now ask
yourself: what is the average level of the characters in that party.
The seamen would be level 1, or maybe 2 or 3; the hired guns would
be level 25 or 30 or more; the army detachment would be level 8 or 10,
right? 

That number tells you the level of the parties you expect your players to use
if they are to fit into your plot. In turn, it dictates the level setting
of the whole scenario. The scenario with the seamen would be rated low;
with the mercs it would be high or very high; the army would rate medium.
When you have settled on your story line the scenario level should be 
similarly obvious.

Next, the monsters. Plots are usually quasi-linear, a "first kiss the frog,
then marry the resulting prince" sort of thing. Sometimes (especially in
the better scenarios) there are several linear pieces in parallel that can
be done in any order. Still, there will always be identifiable parts
of the plot that the player will encounter at the beginning of play, and
parts that won't be seen until much later in the scenario. The monsters
in those first parts should be hard enough that they are challenging but
not impossible for the kind of party you specified in the scenario
level. The seamen might be challenged by a couple of Goblin Warriors;
the mercs might laugh at a couple of Haakai. As a rule of thumb, let the
level of the typical monster be 3-6 times the level of the average
party member expected at that point of the plot. Because the
party will gain in level during play, the monsters should get tougher
the further along the plot line you go. 

Similar rules of thumb apply to wandering monsters, but based on distance
from the start point rather than distance along the plot. WMs near the
entrance should be lower than those far away, because the party has probably
gained levels during play as they get farther from the start. Of course,
you may need to change the difficulty pattern if your plot sends the party
traipsing all over at the beginning. And by the way, have your WMs be related
to the plot, and not just unrelated randomness. The seamen on the beach may
encounter monkeys throwing coconuts, but they won't hit ice puddings.

Town level (as opposed to the level of the monsters therein) determines
two things: how hard are the doors to open, and how often do WMs
show up. Because I find that most scenarios are rated too high, I often
run a party much lower than the scenario rating would indicate. I will
start a level 1 party in low and medium scenarios, a level 8 party in highs,
and a level 18 party those rated very high. Usually this works well, though
sometimes I have to start over with a tougher party. However, I often
have the experience that my party can take all the monsters in some town with
ease, but can't get to them because the party can't open the doors.
Frankly, I don't see the fun of casting half a dozen Unlocks just to get
through the next door, even for players who started parties matching the
scenario. So my personal taste is to set all towns to low level, regardless
of the scenario level, so all the doors open easily. Doors you want
to keep shut for plot reasons you control with specials anyway, so
this decision will not impact the plot. 

Traps are a quite different story. A trap is passive, because the party
isn't forced to take it. So long as the town is quiescent, there are
really only two kinds of traps: those that kill the party, and those that
simply force the party to 'W' a few time to recharge. Traps of the first
sort can be used as puzzles. For example, a dragon hoard with a high
multi-bang trap doing 500HP damage or so is a real puzzle for the
party. It's doable with the right equipment even for a low level party,
but figuring out how (and then getting the equipment) can be a fun part
of the game.

Short of that, traps in quiescent situations can add verisimilitude,
but don't add any challenge to the play. So set the level to what the
plot would have the trap-setter do. For example, the trap on the desk of
an Evil High Priest deep within a secure dungeon (he thought) is there
to keep curious altar boys out, not to stop an adventurer party that has
already trashed the main defenses. Set it low. And so on.

The above applies only to traps which will be encountered in quiescent
situations, say while the party is searching the place for loot after 
already killing all the monsters. Active situations are different.
If the party has to take an unavoidable trap while in (or just before)
active combat, the resulting pain can seriously impinge the party's
fighting capacity and so will greatly increase the challenge of what would
otherwise be a straightforward fight. I'm talking the boiling oil over the
portcullis kind of thing here. Such traps are usually part of fixed defenses
that the defenders have had a long time to set up. As such, they can be
much tougher than the defenders themselves. 10HP goblins can easily
boil 200HP of oil. For these, consider the overall tactical challenge
you are trying to give the party, and set the traps as high as necessary to
achieve that challenge.

Shop levels: poorly set shop levels can seriously unbalance play. You
don't want the party buying things that will make the surrounding
plot and combats trivial. This is especially true for scenarios other
than 'low', where the parties often start out with an enormous goldhoard from
previous Monty Haul scenarios. BTW, have the plot divest the starting
party of everything they bring in if possible. For example, the party
is robbed at the start of Erika's Legacy to solve this problem. Unfortunately
there is no way to similarly strip the party's equipment.

To set the item list of ordinary shops, consider the probable loot of the
kinds of monsters you have in the neighborhood. For example, if you
have a low level scenario and the WMs around the start town are goblin
parties, look up what kind of treasure goblins leave when killed (treasure
type 1). So have the shops in town also sell items which are type 1
too - leather armor, bronze short swords, and so on. Also put the same
types in the town loot positions, such as dressers in people's rooms.
But be sparing of town loot - 5GP or a sandwich are much more likely
dresser contents than a Mist Orb or crossbow, even in high level towns.

Use a similar strategy for loot in hostile towns, setting incidental
loot to the type dropped by the usual inhabitant monster, and the
special loot to the type dropped by the toughest monster. BTW, 
scenarios are often much too rich, and a good way to control this is to have
reward be information or plot advance rather than cash.

You can improve verisimilitude by having your shop contents match the
plot period. For the usual medieval scenarios, the modern full line
shop wouldn't exist. No period shop would offer (for example) every
shield from crude buckler to Shield of Klin, because the sort of
people that would buy the latter are completely different than those
that would buy the former. Think what your plot calls for: that army
outpost no doubt has a quartermaster store that carries the kinds
of things that ordinary soldiers use at prices within the range of
those paid a shilling a month. So put boots, studded armor, bronze
weapons of all sorts, iron knives, kettles and backpacks all in the same
store. Manufacturers (smiths) are different - they will specialize in a 
process, and will sell what the process makes. A bow maker will sell
all sorts of bows except crossbows (different process) and magic ones
(requires post processing elsewhere). The smith that makes iron maces
will not also sell steel ones, but will sell horseshoes. And so on.

Make sure that you have frequent buyers of loot. Parties that haven't
got Identification and those that are higher and can be expected to
have a lot of equipment both tend to run out of loot slots often, and
it's a drag to have to trot to some distant town to dispose of loot.
Ditto Identification (sages) in low and medium scenarios.

As for spell sellers, restrict these to filling in what the party
probably has already gotten through play. For example, you will put 4th
level spells in dungeons around the start of a low level scenario.
The party already has all the 3rd spells, so you wouldn't have any
spell sellers around the start. But a town that the (initially low) 
party will only get to after it has worked up to level 8 or so (and
found most of the level 4 spells as rewards) would have spell sellers 
with all the level 4 spells so the party can buy those it didn't
find. The dungeons around _that_ town would have the level 5 spells, and
so on. The same applies to scenarios of other levels: medium parties
can be expected to have most of the level 4 spells, so a seller
in the start town can offer the level 4 list for fill in, while the
local rewards are level 5; in a high scenario, sellers in the start town
offer levels 4 and 5 and rewards are level 6; etc.

Junk stores have lists based on treasure type. Don't put a junk store
with TT4 items in a TT1 town. And make sure that any unique items you
create have a special item number, so they won't be sold in junk
shops.

Hope this helps.

Ivan
ig@kala.com