this might be a hot take but imo Ghost Stories addresses it by making almost every course of action subjected to a hefty amount of luck, thus no choice is foolproof

Sup!

Great article! As a novice IF writer I tend to fall -more like start from!- into the pitfall of occluding what's really going on too much.

You should! The comic is GREAT (and you should most def read it afterwards) but it's also old, a tad verbose. And knowing nothing about the story adds a lot to the experience, because this is a very unique apocalyptic tale. I watched it with my gf who hasn't read it and I had to bite my lips a lot.

Your deck starts small but each fall lets you and all players off the wall add new cards (you're sharing advice, the best part of bouldering!). And if you run out of cards and still have holds to resolve, you can pick from your discard! Fortune favors the bo(u)ld 😝

The exact value on holds starts hidden and you uncover it (for everybody!) as you climb. You know their type, tho: explosion means higher numbers but you can go overboard, precision needs to be exact (but your supports can also be substracted!). And the caution symbol means extra difficulty.

I know the feeling! Two of my regular groups bounced hard from it: one because it was too aggressive, the other because it was too unstable. But these dudes loved it. Third time's the charm, I guess!