Interesting notes on Encounters, Paul. I’ve had little experience with them, and thought I wasn’t getting them right, but it sounds like you had a similar experience… bummer. I feel like cutting those out entirely.

The Math part… yeah. It’s easy to get lost in the mechanics. I’ve had problems with my group in the Journeys, where it all just becomes a series of dry, storyless mechanical mathematical procedure. Soulless. 

Funny how Burning Wheel, a game which might have similar problems when it comes to engaging subsystems like DoW or Fight! doesn’t have that problem (at least for me and my group). Engaging those complex mechanics and rolls is fun to us. Probably because each roll is BW is deeply tied to the fiction, whereas in Journey, only some rolls seem to be more important than others. It can feel like just bookkeeping.  The actual EFFECTS of the Journey only come into play during a combat encounter.

Good stuff, as always. Keep it coming.