I really enjoy the game, but I've been pondering something for some time, and I wonder if anyone has a homebrewed solution to this problem.
I'd really like to play the game "Hardcore," because I think it would be more fun to succeed within the rules. However, I have certain friends that I'd like to play with who would, I fear, not be willing to play a scenario a second time if we failed on the first attempt.
Do you have any suggestions for my group to make the game a little less challenging, so that players don't get discouraged, but still keep it challenging?
I think a lot depends on the AP, group size, party composition.
Different groups will have different play-styles and lose in different ways. Do you time out because players are afraid of using cards to explore, or fail to beat villains because you burned through all your blessings already?
We've only played one game so far, and I think the problem was that the group just didn't understand the need for speed. Everyone was just figuring out the basic rules.
Once the rules are well in hand, I dread this inevitable conversation:
"That's it, guys. We lose."
"Well, I'm not playing this scenario again!"
Most players I've seen take losing a scenario almost personally. It becomes a 'that's it, I'm ticked, let's BEAT this thing!' situation, even on the fourth or fifth try, where I'm usually the one saying 'let's just say we beat it and move on' out of frustration.
The best solution I can think of for the 'not doing this again' camp would be to move on to the next scenario, but without the loot/rewards for the scenario you lost, if everybody agrees to that.
Edit:
If your friends are that averse to losing scenarios, do not play Wrath of the Righteous with them.
A few observations about game balance:
In my opinion, the game is not completely balanced. Play tested = yes. Balanced = no and this is not a bad thing to me.
If you find the game to be too challenging, double check your team characters choices:
1. Overlapping skills
2. No healer
3. "Missing" skills (like Survival, which is a MUST in some Skull and Shackles scenarios)
...can all doom your party to constant failure.
Failing scenarios all the time is not fun, but is winning all the time fun? What if your team wins the first 8 scenarios with no failures, won't that get boring too? Finding the "trick" to a difficult scenario, playing as a team and beating it can be very, very satisfying.
When I've wanted to play some non optimal characters through an Adventure Path, I keep track of how many times I fail a scenario. If I want to keep going, (since I don't like skipping scenarios...) what I do is house rule that every time a group fails a scenario, they each get to pick one boon to swap out from their hand (pick, not random, pick one). This gives a (admittedly small) sense of accomplishing something even when a scenario is failed and makes the characters just a little more powerful to try the scenario again.