pemerton's latest activity

This terrain system seems like it generates a "playing board" - with the players ("sides") already determined. Have you used it in a...

A possible alternative to map-and-key as described in the OP, and possibly somewhat resembling the way "best interests" are generated in...

You don't stop running the game because you are in a skill challenge. The individual actions/roll still change the situation state...

Yes, in a manner of speaking. A shorter path relies on the idea that there is some 'right answer' in a situation. It denies that the...

I don't want to get so wrapped up in SCs, so, lets say one last thing about them which is pretty important IMHO: The way they are...

And another possibility - that I'm used to from 4e D&D and Burning Wheel - is that the player has to tell us what their PC is saying in...

It occurs to me that a parallel situation might be 'I roleplayed out that conversation so well, why is the GM still making me roll a...

It is used literally: OK. I don't think the OP makes any claim about how preponderant various approaches to establishing and...

Based on my reading of your example, one significant difference I noticed from a skill challenge is that a player (or the GM?) can...

Where is this finish line? The truth is less sanguine! In a vacuum there's no 'path' with any specific 'length'. The GM can simply ask...

Seriously? Because this is not a fair, or accurate, description of SCs in total. The rules ALSO state that skill use has to make sense...

Do you mean like describing them literally as “alternatives”? Like in the title of the thread. Good grief. Imagined ones. It’s...

Exactly! Right. Now, a valid criticism of a technique might be that it incites this kind of thing, but I don't think that is the case...

I agree with this. Skill challenges and similar mechanics are just a way of applying slightly more structure to regular play in order to...

OK, but if a GM is lazy and unimaginative to the point of just describing some fiction that always lets you do one thing to solve every...