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How is this relevant to the thread topic? Are you interested in talking about alternatives to map-and-key as a way for establishing latent situations, and progressing scenes/situations.

Here are some examples; they frame the situation as one of overcoming an obstacle or resolving an obstacle: The 4e DMG (p 72) uses different terminology ("goal" and "obstacles"): What’s the goal of the challenge? Where does the challenge take place? Who is involved in this challenge? Is it a...

The scenario in B2 is not about identifying motivations or enjoying a plausible story. It's a dungeon to be beaten. I know, from experience, that it is possible to use the module in a different way (see eg Keep on the Borderlands shenanigans). But that's a departure from what it is written for.

The DMG says the following (pp 72, 74-6: More so than perhaps any other kind of encounter, a skill challenge is defined by its context in an adventure. Adventurers can fight a group of five foulspawn in just about any 8th- to 10th-level adventure, but a skill challenge that requires the PCs to...

By whom? I mean, I know very little about your play. I don't recall ever reading an actual play thread started by you. This thread isn't about classifying anyone's play. It identifies a method, one that I believe is fairly well known, and asks about alternative ways of establishing latent...

This terrain system seems like it generates a "playing board" - with the players ("sides") already determined. Have you used it in a version/variant that will establish latent scenes/situations?

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 order to enliven a check at all; and that if their narration or performance is terrific, then they get +2 (in 4e) or an advantage die (in BW). The idea that...

It is used literally: OK. I don't think the OP makes any claim about how preponderant various approaches to establishing and progressing scenes/situations are. Although @Micah Sweet seems to think that map-and-key is common enough to count as a norm or a default, so you may wish to take that up...

Based on my reading of your example, one significant difference I noticed from a skill challenge is that a player (or the GM?) can attempt to resolve at any point, whereas in a skill challenge the players can't attempt to resolve until they are one success short. So the pacing/dynamics are...

Just for the sake of clarity: am I right that you've got in mind that the whole "shorter path" idea only makes sense if the GM is making relatively unconstrained decisions about the consequences, in/for the fiction, of the PC succeeding at this action or that action; and so decides that this...

I will summon @thefutilist on this: I think that one point thefutilist has made in previous posts is to contrast the relatively "closed" situation of In A Wicked Age (all the "players" are on the board from the outset, with their "best interests" laid out) with an approach like how you describe...

I mentioned Classic Traveller trading play upthread, but didn't put it in the context of GM-less play. Which is something the rules expressly flag. It relies on the players being able to use random generation for worlds, for cargoes, etc.

@AbdulAlhazred Generally I would use complexity 1 or 2 challenges in a broader context (eg combat), in which case they are generally more of an action sink than a chance to fail. With more complex skill challenges, as you say these will tend to absorb more resources. Mostly the players...

It's a decision about "weight", about the degree of focus/attention to be given, in play, to this particular matter. Which is no more arbitrary than, for instance, deciding that when the PCs crest the ridge they see 20 rather than 10 or 100 Goblins waiting to attack them (or to attach the...

Here are some examples from actual play, when I GMed a session for a parent and two kids - I've started from the list of characters, to help the best interests make sense: They are motivations/desires/goals - but authored, especially on the GM's side, to drive play by underpinning scenes that...

There is no "shorter path". The idea of a skill challenge is to establish a degree of "weight" to the attempt to achieve some overall goal. The complexity of the challenge shapes pacing - eg complexity 4 or 5 means this thing won't be resolved quickly - and hence degree of focus/attention that...

That sounds like it is in the neighbourhood of map-and-key? Though I'm not sure if video games really compare to RPGs - I don't think there's coordination of fiction in the same way, as there is not the creation of a shared imagined space.

I'm not very familiar with video games - I've heard the phrase "rogue-like", but don't know much about these games. So I don't know how they handle the establishment of scenes, and the transition from scene to scene.

I'm not sure how you're envisaging the randomly-generated content actually being introduced into play. There are different ways to do this. Some replicate map-and-key (eg Appendix A random dungeon generation). And some rely upon map-and-key. For instance, a hexcrawl with random encounters...

Here is the relevant rules text, from p 6 of In A Wicked Age (I've elided some stuff that deals with particular mechanics and examples): Naming your characters’ best interests GM, you start. Start with one of your strongest NPCs, and name two best interests for her. Each should represent a...