One thing has come out of playtesting Temple of the Abyssal Winds (http://prankster.com/totaw). Especially in the higher chapters, some players find the game very difficult. However, I don't want to just make the game easier, as the difficulty is pretty appropriate for the core audience of the game: old school RPG power gamers. So, I think the only thing to do is to introduce player-controlled difficulty levels.

I plan to do the difficulty levels something like:

• Core: Standard rules.
  
• Normal: Player actors get +10 on saving throws, and only take 75% of Core damage.
  
• Easy: Player actors get +20 on saving throws, and only take 50% of Core damage.
  

The default difficulty level will be Core, but changeable through the settings any time. Also, when the party is wiped out (which seems to happen pretty often for the challenged players), there will be a single-click option to lower the difficulty level of play. I'm not sure yet whether to put in an option at "New Game" to set the difficulty level.

Thoughts, opinions, questions?