The breakdown of challenge difficulty
An oddity of the current system is that one big challenge is much easier to 'win' (i.e. get a Strong outcome) than a number of smaller challenges.
All the players need is a single Strength and a bunch of neutral cards to get a strong outcome on a challenge - so to make challenges actually a problem, Ithe narrator needs to make them run out of Strengths, and thus force them to play Weaknesses.
The best way to do that is to play multiple challenges - five 1-box challenges require 5 Strengths to fully overcome, whereas a 5-box challenge only requires one Strength.
You can see an example of this in the campaign 'Intrepid Dawn' - https://storium.com/game/intrepid-dawn# - where the Narrator plays multiple small challenges at different stages of the scene, breaking down actions into sub-parts. A Narrator who amalgamated those into one high-difficulty uber-challenge would actually be making much easier scenes.
I'm not saying that this is a good or a bad thing - but it is kind of counter-intuitive. It's the kind of thing that you should probably acknowledge in the 'How to Play' notes for Narrators, so that they understand that up front.
Artbroken
shared this idea
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Graf
commented
This may not be the right place to ask but is there an "economy advantage" in playing weakness cards? In games like Fate you get tokens for compels, which helps the narrative along by encouraging characters to fail forward into their character. (sorry for the buzzwords, I'm thinking about characters like Dresden from the Dresden Files..... the more the player digs the character into the story by doing the "stupid" thing that advances the story the more the player builds up the ability to do a an amazing reversal that makes it all worth while)
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Bajorque
commented
I agree with this, It should be explained in the basics. High points challenge are long challenge that promote team effort but not difficult challenge and it give the spotlight to the one finishing it. So it's good to mix them with individual challenge. I do that by adding (Character's name) in the name of the challenge, so the player know, it's for him to tackle. Or i create copies of the same challenge (usually 1-3 points), one for each players allowing them to demonstrate (and use) their strength or weakness in this challenge and creating a form of gentle competition. Everyone resolving it in a different way.
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Declan Feeney
commented
I would recommend against 1 point challenges since they prevent teamwork. I tend to use a lot of two point challenges.
High point challenges are not tough challenges - they are long challenges. Things which encompass an entire scene. Hence I might set a high challenge for a dogfight which is the core challenge of the scene and needs to involve all the players, and a low point challenge for taking a prisoner alive, since its something which takes a moment, and can be done by individuals.
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Joel
commented
PS. Thank you for this comment. I will be suggesting 1-point challenges to more narrators. I've also noticed this stuffing of neutral cards with one Strength card in quite a few stories already. I think it sabotages the point of the game a bit... to give in and let the cards prompt the writing - and also, you know.. let your characters be human and fail.
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Joel
commented
Agreed! I intend to make multi-challenge scenes when I finally start my own game, because of this exact situation. I also find that because challenge points are limited.... narrators can fall into railroading the storyline... by no fault of their own.