by LipaB
I'm currently in the process of play-testing.What's fun about this variant is that it retains the feeling of peril and unpredictability, yet still manages to reduce the number of Encounters (at least on average) and forces the player into new decisions ("Should I spend those Experience points or no?"). Also, it makes the differences between the characters more thematic. A stealthy rogue will probably draw less attention to herself than the fighter etc.
Of course, the main problem (challenge) is to find just the right Stealth values for each of the characters. This is the purpose of play-testing. So far I'm considering the range between 10 (rogue) and 5 (fighter), but more testing is needed.
Finally, the mechanics of the variant also call for new Treasure or Ability cards. Or even Encounter cards. Something that would raise/reduce your Stealth etc.
And as a variant of the variant, instead of assigning Stealth to the characters, the dungeon tiles could be assigned "Peril" values instead. Before drawing an Encounter card, the player should try to roll lower than the Peril value on the current tile in order to skip the Encounter. This would make some tiles much more dangerous to be on, and others more safe. Of course, the Experience points can still be used as before to lower the rolled number in order to cancel the effect.