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<blockquote data-quote="Benimoto" data-source="post: 4127133" data-attributes="member: 40093">I didn't listen the podcast, but it seems like the point was that the player's fate should be decided more by the actual decisions they make than the result of their skill challenges&nbsp; The skill challenge shouldn't decide&nbsp; whether the player accomplish something, period, but instead whether they manage to succeed without some undesirable consequence.I think it's more of a caution to the DM to avoid creating what are essentially dead ends in in his adventure design by requiring players to succeed on a skill challenge to keep playing the campaign.&nbsp; Combats can end in a TPK, but in most circumstances &quot;win or TPK&quot; are not the only two ways out of a combat.&nbsp; Players can run, negotiate a surrender, withdraw, achieve a Pyhrric victory or end up with a number of results that are different from complete victory or TPK.&nbsp; There are a greater amount of die rolls in a combat, and when you consider a greater number of die rolls, you end up with a more consistent distribution of results.&nbsp; The skill challenge system, in contrast, is set up for only two results, overall success or overall failure.&nbsp; There is a relative lack of tactical options, and a relatively low number of die rolls in the skill challenge system.&nbsp; Thus, there is typically a much higher chance of overall failure than there is in combat.It seems like these are more just suggestions for adventure design than concrete rules for the game.&nbsp; So of course it's still going to be possible for the DM to ask for a skill challenge where if you fail, you're all imprisoned and the game's over.&nbsp; I just think that given the greater randomness and fewer options in a skill challenge, it's somewhat equivalent to including a corridor in the dungeon that has a 25% chance of killing the entire party &quot;rocks fall, you die&quot; style.On a separate note, the main difference between the 4e skill challenge and the 3e skill system is that the 4e skill challenge system is designed to decide the results of an entire encounter, while the 3e system is designed to model the success or failure of a single task.&nbsp; There was previously no explicit guidance on how many tasks make up an encounter.&nbsp; Now there is.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Benimoto, post: 4127133, member: 40093"] I didn't listen the podcast, but it seems like the point was that the player's fate should be decided more by the actual decisions they make than the result of their skill challenges The skill challenge shouldn't decide whether the player accomplish something, period, but instead whether they manage to succeed without some undesirable consequence. I think it's more of a caution to the DM to avoid creating what are essentially dead ends in in his adventure design by requiring players to succeed on a skill challenge to keep playing the campaign. Combats can end in a TPK, but in most circumstances "win or TPK" are not the only two ways out of a combat. Players can run, negotiate a surrender, withdraw, achieve a Pyhrric victory or end up with a number of results that are different from complete victory or TPK. There are a greater amount of die rolls in a combat, and when you consider a greater number of die rolls, you end up with a more consistent distribution of results. The skill challenge system, in contrast, is set up for only two results, overall success or overall failure. There is a relative lack of tactical options, and a relatively low number of die rolls in the skill challenge system. Thus, there is typically a much higher chance of overall failure than there is in combat. It seems like these are more just suggestions for adventure design than concrete rules for the game. So of course it's still going to be possible for the DM to ask for a skill challenge where if you fail, you're all imprisoned and the game's over. I just think that given the greater randomness and fewer options in a skill challenge, it's somewhat equivalent to including a corridor in the dungeon that has a 25% chance of killing the entire party "rocks fall, you die" style. On a separate note, the main difference between the 4e skill challenge and the 3e skill system is that the 4e skill challenge system is designed to decide the results of an entire encounter, while the 3e system is designed to model the success or failure of a single task. There was previously no explicit guidance on how many tasks make up an encounter. Now there is. [/QUOTE]

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