I was wondering if any one had any guidance on what is a suitable challenge for a party of three new players, one duelist.

What sort of level of Brute Squads or Villains should they be facing? To be an easy, average or difficult challenge?

Okay, let's say a character is in an action sequence. He is on the second floor of a large manor, and wants to escape from a group of enemies who are catching up to him from behind. He can jump and swing on a chandelier to stall the pursuit. But he wants it to be a bit of comic relief, so he says he wants to swing, then fall as if he'd failed the roll, and then land in an area where he is surrounded by even more enemies.

So I know from reading some threads that DS have been one of the game's big bugbears. We have played about 5 sessions so far and DS have been a sticking point for our group. For us the big issue seems to be running out of raises in a DS. We've tried a couple of fixes and they've not worked well. 

- We've tried just re-rolling if the DS seems to be taking a long time, this wasn't a satisfying for anyone (the players complained the most)

I might be reading this wrong but one thing that doesn’t sit well with me is how quickly longer action sequences can be resolved. You know, when you want a bit of ‘back and forth’, a bit of ‘ebb and flow’. For example:

Action Sequence: Storm and Sail

The Heroes are leaving Avalon on a ship bound for Montaigne. Though the weather was overcast, everything was going fine until about half hour into the journey a storm hit them seemingly from nowhere.

Cons

I know there has been a ton of clarifications but I am working on a story and wondering how you would handle the following:

Typically when I am writing my stories if I think something is a RISK. Then I include something like below

Risk: Example

1 success does this

1 success avoids this wound (consequences)

1 success notices this object (opportunity)

After listening to the last episode of the Fear the Boot podcast, I've become intrigued by the possibilities presented by the Progress Clock mechanic used in John Harper's Blades in the Dark RPG.

So, I'm working on my first game for net month convention, and I've been thinking about starting In Media Res, with the players already deep in a naval battle with the ship from the Villain-of-the-day. The starting scene have our Heroes aboard their ship, in the middle of a crazy storm, fighting against the Villain... And after a little bit of tension and danger, suddenly the storm will stop, substituted by a strange fog, and the Villain ship will be out of view...  

I have a suggestion regarding dramatic sequences. I want to send it to John, but I wanted to see if others had similar concerns first.

My specific concerns with dramatic sequences are:

1) Costing an extra raise for approach change

2) Length of sequence.

Bottom line, my suggestions are: