Ok so, as i stated in another post, i tend to structure my info intop different tiers and some of it is in the "just show up" side, some of it in the "make some typical choices and then some of it is in the "success and major success levels of "gating." The HAS TO KNOW for there to be a scene is in the first two tiers and the "HELPS TO KNOW stuff is in the second two. Depending on the risk level, it may be really really really bad idea to just muscle through with the first two tiers.
So, what i was describing to your was not "the extent" of the info from each but the type of info from each type of skill check.
And also, as described in another post, its not a challenge but a scene. The players and their characters help to shape what comes out of that scene and even to a notable degree (in my games) what is in it.
To be very explicit about this - unlike say a section in a pre-fab tourney module, a player's choices and his characters efforts and especially exceptional successes can wind up ADDING stuff to the encounter that was not previously there in my mind. Just like tere are some here who talk about adding a chance of failure if the players roll even if there was not one before, i do this the opposite way - allowing the player who works his character's skill and his narrative and the mechanics all together to get the chance to be rewarded with it.
One benefit of this is, it doesn't require me to do so much work at "balancing" their characters. See, actual balance comes from the instersection of challenge, gain and abilities and that puts a lot over on the GM to kind of watch if their stories feature enough of each character's abilities to play out close. But, if i see the ROLL as not only a PASS/FAIL CHALLENGE PASSER but alos a INSERTION ATTEMPT, then they can do some of that for me.
So, while for you a religion test might no be part of the CHALLENGE PATH for me it might be an opportunity to add in some relgion linked elements that can play a role and take the story or sidebars into a direction that leads to that sort of theme. Simplest would be that be recognizes some symbols from some trinkets that he can return to a nearby temple, helping them recognize the as beloniging to missing acolytes who have been gone without them knowing why.
The roll to me was an opportunity and a request to "see if my good-at is useful" even if it is not part of the preset CHALLNGE PATh you have pre-defined.
We build campaigns differently, that is for sure. i can see why you do not want to share the call for rolls with your players.
No, you don't, you see the strawman characterization you've built. It has almost nothing to do with my game or why I've chosen to disallow calls for rolls.
Again, since you seem to be slow on the uptake here -- nothing I do limits my players from taking the actions they wish to take. They have as much freedom as your players. The only difference is that I actually ask them to state what actions they're taking and what they're looking to accomplish with those actions and not just drop dice and name a line on their character sheet. The former allows me to work with the player to achieve their goals -- goals that might also broaden the fiction that I originally placed. I dislike having to guess what approach my players mean by a roll result declaration.
So, if the players want to do whatever they can imagine to investigate the altar, they can do that. Depending on their approach, I may call for a roll, if I feel the outcome is both uncertain and has a price for failure. Otherwise, it succeeds or fails based on what my players declare, not some hidden desire of mine or a fixed set of immutable gates that they must guess the right actions to pass.
As for scenes, again, I fail to even grasp the point of a scene being set that doesn't have some kind of challenge. Given I said the altar was 1) dangerous to touch and 2) had treasure hidden in it, what would you call that? I call it a challenge -- can you get the goodies without the ouches. If my players are uninterested and decide to wander off, great, no skin off my back, we move the the next scene (in this dungeon concept, the next room). They can come back or whatever. If one of my players comes up with a goal and approach that's way cooler than what I had imagined (and this certainly happens), then I'll adapt the scene to allow the cool. I do this quite often. Most of my scenes are written as vague as possible to allow for easy manipulation of the fiction to allow cool player declarations. Literally, the example i gave for the altar is just about the totality of what I might prep for that challenge -- that there's a danger, what it is, and and rewards. So, an altar that explodes in negative energy when touched that has a nice goodie hidden inside. The owners of the alter would have been determined in earlier play by player interest and the goodie would likewise have been determined by earlier play as something the players want to go get. If these things aren't tied to things my players care about, we'd be doing something different.
And, to be clear, right now I'm running a sandbox game, so there are lots of things already loosely set, but everything being played is because the players want to do that thing, not because I've pre-written some stuff. I have no plot for my game, right now, because we're only a few sessions in and the players haven't developed one yet. They'll do that by their choices and the consequences thereof. I have a few setting themes that are guiding play right now and will remain, but I don't have reasons solidly in place for why those themes exist -- we'll find out in play, if they players care, too.
So, no, you don't understand why I play the way I do. You have it very wrong. I play the way I do because I got tired of guessing all the time and the frustration of a failed roll preventing things that shouldn't have been behind rolls to begin with. Oh, and pointless rolling, like all of the rolling you've discussed about the altar. As far as the game I run, it's very open to player desires and declarations. I enable a broader range of things now than I used to when I expected players to call out what skills they were using instead of telling me what they want to accomplish and how they're plan to do that.
Again, you're welcome to play the way you want to. I'm excited and happy there's more than one way to play this shared hobby of mine, because that means I have more to learn about it. I have room to improve. But, I would ask that you stop trying to assume why I do things, especially when I haven't been at all shy about telling you.
