by VTSvsAlucard
I was asked this last night. I took this approach:When you do the quest phase, you compare the threat in the staging area to he characters' willpower. So I surmised that threat in the staging area is more of an intimidation; the heroes must overcome the fear of what lies ahead to carry on with the quest. Conversely, if they fail to overcome it they are stalled; the dark powers continue to grow as the heroes make no progress.
Once you actually commit to something (and I don't mean commit in game terms) it is often easier. Getting over that inertia is the hardest part. So once the heroes have traveled somewhere, or engaged enemies they are facing the obstacles head on.
Threat counters might be the dark powers growing or perhaps the breaking point for their spirit. Up until it hits 50 setbacks are just minor hesitations. But at 50 they give up on the quest.
tl;dr: I think of staging area threat as the heroes trying to overcome the hard road ahead of them, and sty strong enough to carry on. Once they have engaged or traveled they are determined to overcome the current threats.