A game I moderate, Temple of the Four Serpents, basically go as follows: There are 4 main sections where you do some platforming and puzzling stuff, and after completing all of them you unlock a "boss battle", after which the game ends. The game is based on cycles of spikes, but they always work the same when you enter each section of the game.

The "boss battle" itself, however, is RNG based. It is a kind of survival mode where you need to stand on a large button which gradually lowers (as long as you stand on it), while having to dodge incoming waves of projectiles in different forms. Some of those wave types require you to jump or leave the button, so it doesn't lower at all in this time, making you slower. I classify getting those kind of waves as "bad RNG", and the difference between bad and good RNG on this can go to about 20-30 seconds.

I personally don't like RNG much, and so I set the categories like this: any% where you have to do anything as normal, and "any% - no boss" which only counts the time up to the point of unlocking the boss battle, and then the category ends. This can hypothetically create a non-RNG competitive leaderboard.

While "solving my issue" of RNG, I don't really know about that. No runner will stop the game at an earlier point, they can always do the final stage with hoping for good luck, and you won't lose anything from that. So, I guess any run for this game will just end up as submitting the same run to both categories, and it feels redundant to me. What do you think?

(This is mostly theoretical because I am the only runner and moderator so I am the whole community and I can probably do whatever I like...)

Removing parts of the game from timing or creating categories just to remove RNG just doesn’t make sense to me. Nobody likes RNG, but if it’s a part of the game then there’s nothing you can do aside from learn to manipulate it if possible or try for the best luck. I’m all for creating arbitrary categories when there’s a solid goal in mind, but the category you’ve described is basically “complete 80% of the game then just stop and say you beat it” and that’s what doesn’t make sense to me.

If the rest of the game operates on a set cycle, then without the bosses you’ll essentially get runs that will be identical as long as the rest of the movement in the level is the same. What you’ve described is essential ILs for the different levels, but even then, arbitrarily stopping the time before a part of the game - especially one that indicates an end of a level - is just...weird.

Thank you for the feedback. I agree with everything you both said. I guess that was what I thought too, because it didn't feel right to me, especially when the categories don't have any different gameplay, one is just a cut version of the other.