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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CuRoi" data-source="post: 5467592" data-attributes="member: 98032">So turning back to fiction and mechanics, and, if I can, your discussion with Raven Crowking about Rules First or Story First - I think your example looks to me to be more "Story First". I'm also not sure how much you are employing the Skill Challenge idea by your description. An exciting chase, rolling skill checks and casting spells along the way fits any of the DnD editions in the hands of a competent DM. So, if I were at your table, do I hear you calling for skill checks and advancing the story as things go along and using a natural storytelling pace? Or for the above chase scene, do I hear you calling for intiative, telling players they need "x successes" to catch the guy, telling each player when they fail that they just got a "-2 toward completion", they are "X successes away from catching the guy", etc.? I can see the material in the Skill Challenges section being used either way. One way puts a very heavy emphasis on the "rules" as the story unfolds. True, RPGs are all about using a set of rules to play out a story. However, when the numbers and the procedures take center stage at the table, the fiction almost automatically takes a backseat.  I think the novice DM would probably lean toward the regimented style which has each skill challenge looking and feeling like another combat (initiative rolled, bonuses being bandied about, chalking up what amounts to "hits" against the challenge "hit points"). Given time, that same DM may develop a more story first style in time.  Then again, they may just keep running the game like a series of regimented challenges ruled less by a flowing narrative but more by a focus on bonus stacking, re-working combat powers to fit out of combat roles, and dice rolling to resolve everything.</blockquote>

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