Discussion: obstacle system

On the whole I'd prefer an AP style of system, which then allows a whole range of different choices to the player, from hurrying through the cave as fast as possible to lingering and discovering extra things.
That way, obstacles can add to the AP requiremnt and equipment can reduce the AP requirement for various tasks.

This seems the simplest solution to the problem, albeit one that leads us towards a game that resembles too many others! (Which is why I support the "one pawn per player" system so that it doesn't resemble the "teams" in Tikal :))

I feel that adding dice rolling to a game can introduce a level of randomness that distorts things unless it is smoothed out over the whole game - if you are rolling two dice then you need to be taking 36 rolls to even start getting a fair spread. It's a different issue with one die, of course, byt then the "granularity" of the results is somewhat coarser.

I think I'm interpreting it more or less as you said (and that's probably because of my lack of knowledge of the RPG genre).

To clarify what I said before about dice. I do think it's a bad idea to use them because it will add too much randomness.

The reason I like APs is that it makes it possible to have a subtle granularity without the inherent randomness of dice. This means that for instance you can have major and minor cave-ins, both of which would delay explorers, but they would require different levels of AP to pass (and, as Darke suggests) if there were skills or equipment applicable, that would reduce the APs needed.

Whereas simply having a "cave-in: miss a turn" feature I think risks losing any tactical decision making.

So do I :) See other thread.