Quote Originally Posted by Amphetryon View Post
If you make the game harder, then you're increasing the amount of suffering - certainly the amount of potential suffering - the characters are undergoing. Given that causing them any suffering is apparently contrary to the point, and those that disagree are , it matters not if the GM is causing the suffering, or if the players/characters are voluntarily "throwing themselves at pathos." If causing suffering of any sort - and, note there was no nuance given in the quoted statement, so assuming any is putting words in Sartharina's mouth - is not relevant to the game, and doing so makes one a 'twit,' then I'm still genuinely curious as to how one progresses any game of this type without it. Conflict is not viable, because conflict is a type of suffering.
You're confusing 'challenge' and 'suffer'. Stop doing that.

A challenge is when you make something hard. Suffering is when you're making something hard on someone.