What makes a game - particularly an RPG - a rewarding, worthwhile experience for you?
Tell me if I’m way off base here, but I think it’s the challenge it gives you. Not just the “wow that fight almost wiped us” sort of challenge (but also, like, not not that, you know?) because there’s loads of different ways a game, a session, a campaign, etc. presents challenges.
Learning the rules, social aspects of scheduling and playing with others, understanding what the F is happening/what your options are, stories and events that try to make you think differently about something, opponents that wipe the floor with you…
The challenges just keep piling up and that’s not really the worst thing. One of my favorite authors, Raymond Chandler, put it like this:
“There is no success where there is no possibility of failure, no art without the resistance of the medium.”
So I guess my point here is to ask how different kinds of challenges influence your game enjoyment. What difficulties would you rather just not have? Which ones feel good to beat?