what defines fun?
Losing isn’t fun either. A: There is a balance that can be reached between the fun of succeeding and the tangible perception of failure (or possibility of failure). There doesn’t have to be an actual possibility of failure, just the perception. Ideally you have an actual one. It’s just a matter of gauging that balance. If you can set things up so that when PCs fail, they can look back and say, “I can see here why we failed, and we won’t do that next time.” If that failure doesn’t mean TPK, it can just become the setup for next adventure. Q: The not fun right now moments can turn into moments the players talk about for years. A: Fiction writers will take characters that readers identify with (like Frodo and Sam) and want to succeed, and then put them through hell. For some perverse reason, that’s enjoyable. The same is true in roleplaying games. Everyone wants to enjoy the game, but they like it when they’re overwhelmed but pull it out in the end. Lose the battles, win the war (and win
