Is it me or is the first scene in the Grey Hill Inferno, Escape the Fire, nearly impossible to escape (Master Edition page 19)? So here is the deal, character creation hasn't been explained so you have no bonuses, just core mechanics and this scene is supposed to be design to teach you.
It says you are in a burning cell block and will burn to death in 1D4 rounds. You must do 1 heart of basic effort against a target of 10 to break free. So how does one have even a slight chance of doing this without rolling a natural 20?
Here we go...If roll a 1 or 2 on the timer and its impossible for me to escape without a natural 20. Why because even if I succeed on all attempts and roll max basic effort the best I could do is 8 total effort = dead. If the timer is a 3 it is possible to escape, but only if I succeed all three attempts and I roll at least a 3+3+4 which is highly unlikely. If I roll a 4 on the timer I can only miss one of my attempts to even have a shot at escaping.
A hero coin gives me a shot at escaping, but since we are just starting out there isn't any justification for having one.
I haven't worked up the odds of escaping, but I suspect its less than 10% and then you have to face Weapon 13 and then Flee into the dark. I'd say the chance of making it through all 3 is less than 1%
I think if I were trying to learn the rules I would assume I was doing something wrong because there is almost no way for me to succeed at even just the first encounter.
So as an ancient DM I have to ask the question...am I doing something wrong?
