blainedeyoung: I'd like to be able to send my adventurers to the infirmary just to heal HPs or fatigue.

blainedeyoung: I think there should be more random awards of items and free skill points. Where I come from a 5th level adventurer should have at least one +1 item, and since you're handing out free skill points it seems like should go with the same rule. Maybe you could keep track of how many freebies you've given a character to keep them from getting too many or too few.

blainedeyoung: I don't really like all the characters who have one skill in a field (combat, brains, social, survival). Cautious actions weren't an option the last time I picked the game up, but that it is I use cautious ALL the time and it's inclusion incentivises keeping characters' fields balanced (50% only increases once for every 2 points added). But when a character only has one skill in a field, I end up giving them absurdly high skill levels in that one skill in order to keep the field value high.

blainedeyoung: Maybe you make a balanced skill use guarantee a 25% contribution. As the game stands, I never, ever use a balanced approach.

blainedeyoung: I really like this game, and it's gotten better since I picked it up last. Keep up the good work. It's better than it was, but it also has more bugs in it.

blainedeyoung: Well you obviously have the advantage of actually understanding how the mechanics work while I'm just reading what the options say, but here's how I've got it figured:

Cautious guarantees that a character will contribute 50% of their score, so I start every contest by having the character with the highest score go Cautious.

If it looks like we're going to pass the test, everyone else chooses Defensive to avoid damage. If it looks like we might pass but it's going to be close, everyone goes aggressive to contribute everything they can.

Almost every contest contest goes: Cautious, Cautious, Defensive, Defensive. There is a narrow window where the heavy-hitters' Cautious got us close enough to the target number that the weaker characters' base values would put us over, but I've never seen that happen in practice.

blainedeyoung: I spent another couple of days playing and I wanted to add some more thoughts. I see the problem, but traditionally adventuring is done for the promise of profit (glory AND gold). Some adventures you've got even advertise that you're going to make money. The way this game runs now, you're running a tavern to support your adventuring habit. Adventuring is an expense and not a source of profit. It should be an investment that pays off- and sometimes doesn't.

It may be an illusion, but it seems like I'm getting poorer as I go up levels. The cost of provisioning multiple quests and building upgrades is bankrupting me. And I would never serve a drink if I listened to every person who wanted to tell me their story.

I'm torn but sometimes I wish there were more low-level adventures. It's kind of difficult to integrate new adventurers into your roster. The Disaster mechanic can make rookie adventurers a serious liability on high level quests. And you've frequently got people benched because you've got one and then two and then three full teams but a few people are left with nothing to do. It would be nice if there was something simple I could with idle adventurers that would make me gold and get them experience. Maybe have them compete in a regular tournament or some kind of exercise. Or even tell them to chop firewood or clean out the attic.

Some encounters give you gold, and I'm like "Why? I was attacked by coyotes and I got gold? I was caught in a trap and I got gold? Where'd it come from?" Meanwhile there are lots of monster encounters where it seems like gold is in order but not forthcoming.

The game is full of bugs. Swapping equipment between adventurers doesn't work right, and neither does sending them to the infirmary. I once had a person checked into both beds in my infirmary.

But the game's coming along. I look forward to the finished product.