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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Crazy Jerome" data-source="post: 5460949" data-attributes="member: 54877">It is roughly equally good for both ways, but probably not for the same DM, and certainly not at the same time. You can't totally remove personal preference and other DM skills from the mix, after all. In my case, I very rarely use prepared skill challenges except when using them to supplement a combat encounter (which I do a lot, with 7-9 players typically at the table--another monkey wrench that makes my experience different than the norm). Other than that, skill challenges are for me a more abstract tool in practice than they are presented in game. I no longer even think about "X is a skill challenge" or "Y is just a few skill rolls". The though process is more along the lines of, "Hey, everyone is interested in this, several people are using different skills, there is something at stake. We are in a skill challenge. Record successes and failures!" Or, "Hey, I'm just asking for the same skill checks. I should resolve the action and get on with the next thing." One of the rather underappreciated bits of skill challenges as actually implemented is that they do use those same skills, and how this lets you move seamlessly in and out of skill challenges on a dime. Got a prepared skill challenge that is getting a little boring? Just call those three skill checks so far successful skill checks and forget the challenge. Those first two skill checks revealed info that sent the players off on a wild tear? Hey, turn it into a skill challenge and give 'em some XP for it. In fact, the only house rule we have with skills at the moment is something we just started trying to help reinforce this dynamic in a large group, without making massive changes. We are uniformly charging a cumulative +5 DC penalty to each successive skill check of the same type done by the same person for a given goal. This applies for straight skill checks and skill challenges alike. Coupled with a "Let it Ride" mentality from Burning Wheel, this says that every skill check matters, but the players have a vested interest in varying them as much as possible.  When we did it by the book, the artificialness of "everyone doing something" in the skill challenge was off-putting. Now they regulate player participation to suit themselves, and it just flows. We'll see if it causes bad side effects.</blockquote>

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