Here’s a design principle that I’ve known most of my career yet still find myself writing on whiteboards because it’s that important:

“Never give a player a problem when you can give them an opportunity.”

Quest based on clearing out a local ogre camp? Chore. Map to the evil wizard’s secret library filled with their personal spellbooks? Cool opportunity.

Designing a defense mission with a base that has a huge number of weak points and scarce resources? Frustrating problem. Give the players high ground, tons of resources, and awesome choke points to let them defeat overwhelming assaults they could never face otherwise? Now that’s cool.

Players famously dislike escort missions because the character they’re escorting a new problem. Have the escort be very hard to kill and give the player powerful buffs instead, or be a super powerful combatant you’re trying to impress by fighting alongside them? That’s cool.

Reframing a problem INTO an opportunity makes the player feel extra clever. Give them a curse that deals minor fire damage to them whenever they attack, then let them find a piece of gear that converts fire damage they take into healing. This feels a lot better than just equipping some fire resistance gear.

Players like seeing opportunities. When they read an item description, quest, event, or scan the battlefield planning their attack – they like to see opportunities. That gets them excited to play.

This is one reason why killing enemies to get xp, gold, gear, or points is so popular. It adds a little sense of opportunity to the most common kind of problem.

Sometimes you want to give players problems, sometimes it’s thematically correct or key to a design goal to make them feel weak, disoriented by a seemingly unfair challenge, or you need to force them to change tactics for various reasons. That’s where “when you can” in the advice comes in. No design choice is always correct regardless of context. Even mechanics that make players feel uncomfortable and paranoid are great for a horror game. Just make sure that’s what you’re aiming for.

Even dark souls worked opportunities into many of their bosses. Ever try cutting off one of those boss’ tails? How about knocking the iron golem off the bridge? Good times.