Balancing scene threat rating with character 'level'

So the GM book has a fairly light take on how to create a scene. Has anyone looked at methods to ensure the difficulty of a scene to the level of the party? I know A!C doesnt have levels as such, but I want a quick and easy system to be able to create scenes on the fly like in more established RPG systems.

I was thinking of something like this.
Add a PC’s attributes and skill points to get a total point count. Bracket amounts into a recruit, experienced, and heroic level. Each level gets a 1, 2 or 3.

As an example with a new PC they get 51 attribute points and 17 skill points, so their total is 68 points. The recruit bracket might be 68-75 points. They are worth 1 level. There’s 4 members in the party with 2 at recruit, 1 at experienced, and 1 at heroic. So the party is at 1+1+2+3=7 levels.

Then use this party level to balance a scene. I havent fleshed this out at all but was hoping to see how other GMs approach this.

But the number of Advances the characters had for their XP actually are a measure of their increased competence. So for campaign play, I take note of how many advances the PCs had.
I do not look on what the players spend those advances. They might increase stats or gain new Talents, this is not of much importance, as the “worth” of higher base stats (attributes, skills) or Focus fields or Talents are quite different depending on the actual situation the character is in at the moment.
So even counting the advances does not give you any kind of numerical value to gauge a fitting “challenge rating”.

It is a game that has “Cthulhu” in the name after all. Though the PCs are VERY competent and much tougher to harm than in regular Call of Cthulhu (using the BRP system), they might, and should, encounter opposition where they have to RUN! Run like hell!
That is part of the setting.
So don’t worry about creating “manageable encounters” or such. Throw whatever the inner logic of the scene requires at them and let them deal with it. The smart way is often, avoiding any head-on confrontation.
This is not D&D 5E where winning an encounter is guaranteed by the system. Although A!C is VERY pulpy, the characters are very competent and deadly for most of the typical troopers the opposition might muster against them, there are opponents that require a smart(er) approach, investigation, finding the weak spots, good timing, etc.
And if that does not work out, well, then RUN!

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Cheers for the reply.

I got a bunch of DnD 5e players I need to convince, some are on board, others not so much. It’s funny how much DnD payers fear PC death, it happens so rarely, so they tend not to run from dangerous encounters as they havent been brought up in that environment.

That being said, do you find the very light guide in the GM book sufficient to craft custom scenes?

That is hard to answer, as I have most of the old A!C books (for BRP/Call of Cthulhu), which do contain much more material which I’m actually quite surprised that it is not included in the 2d20 version.
Maybe there will be some upcoming companions or source books where Modiphius will republish that material?

On the other hand, I tend to go with the inner logic of the scene, plausibility of the situation (as far as having monstrous beings walking the Earth can be plausible).
That means, it is a matter of feeling into the situation, less any “recipe” with actual numbers or procedures that I use.

Others might have come up with different solutions to design their scenes, missions and campaigns. (Have you asked about this in the Modiphius Discord, too? You might find other folks there, who do not visit this forum.)

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There’s a Discord channel? I’ll head over there, thanks!

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