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You mean sapience.

2014 DMG, p. 82. Granted, they fixed that in 5.5.

I mean that is just due the bizarre idea that every character needs to be equally good in combat. Bunnies are way better at hiding than rottweilers and a lot of cuter too! Like sure, we want characters to be able to contribute in some manner to most aspects of the game, but this does not require...

In this case the miniature not looking like the official WotC art is a definite plus!

Yeah, definitely. I like them better when they are just draconic humanoids that might be distantly related to the dragons, and that's how they are in my setting.

No they haven't beyond "nuh-uh." In skill challenge if fictional positioning was such that the early obstacle would be bypasses swiftly, the GM either has to invent reasons why it cannot be done, or concoct further obstacles so that the success quota can be fulfilled. This is simply the logical...

I agree with the first part of your post, but not the second. It has gotten much worse, not better lately. The de-facto leader of the fascist totalitarian and genocidal Imperium is depicted as a noble shiny, if tragic, heroic figure. And the Custodes being depicted as "good guys" is not...

Yes, there can be several causally possible outcomes. This doesn't mean there is no causality. And now you have found out what we have rules for: to decide between these several causally possible outcomes, the odds being preferably weighted by the contributing factors (the skill of the ball...

In other words, the fiction needs to conform to the rules of the challenge, making this a rules first rather than fiction first process. Like look at my prison escape example. One approach would have taken two steps, another took five. If this was a skill challenge, in the case of the first...

Yes you have. Thus demonstrating that there is an expected causality between fictional things, and if you significantly deviate from it, it is obvious.

Perhaps, but some of them were suggested as possible contributors by the person who came up with the example. But why would the characters refrain from doing those things? Causally nothing bad should follow from thinking and observing, one would think, it is just the structure of the skill...

A man kicks a ball. The ball moves. There was no man, nor a ball, just text, but you might have imagined a man and a ball. And the causal relationship is pretty clear too.

According to everyone who wanted get rid of species ASIs that +2 was the difference between a perfectly playable character and unplayable trash, so obviously it is a huge difference!

Yes, I understand how this works. I am not saying that, except in a sense that the GM will put on the map things that are fun and appropriate too. But the things are predefined, just like in map and key, there just isn't a literal map. I am trying to get to why you think that the format of the...

Same way than in map and key, it is just written/mental instead of there being map. Like my prison escape didn't have a map, nor even written notes, the pertinent details were merely in my head. Now I don't know why this would make any sort of a difference, but as you apparently do, you can...

The fiction evolves causally due the actions of the characters. The mechanics merely represent this. This is different than the GM inventing more obstacles because the players overcome the first one so effectively and more successes are still needed to complete the challenge.

Yes, but it seemed that you needed help. So here is an alternative: instead of having map, the GM makes mental or written notes of the situations and then adjudicates the fiction based on that. Is that the sort of thing you were looking for?

The characters could observe the keep from afar, they might want to roll history to see whether they might know something that would reveal best direction of approach, they could roll perception to see the guards, and perhaps insight to assess their morale, dungeoneering to assess the structure...

I mean you can keep denying it all you want. Skill challenges force the fiction to conform to the rules instead of other way around. This lessens the impact of character actions and fictional positioning. I have several times explained how this occurs, and no one has refuted the actual logic...