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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5786516" data-attributes="member: 42582">Yes, but not at the point of action resolution. (Contrast a game like Traveller, or one reading of early D&D, where the bulk of the challenges aren't created via metagaming but via die rolls on tables.)But the sort of metagaming I had in mind was at the point of adjudicating the consequences of action resolution. If a 12/3 skill challenge is going to engage the whole party over the course of its resolution, then (in my experience) the way to achieve this, as a GM, is to narrate consequences of skill checks that pour the pressure onto other PCs. For example, if (in a social challenge) the "face" PC successfully stonewalls with a good Bluff check, the NPC antagonist turns his/her attention to the dwarf fighter who was hoping to lurk unnoticed at the back of the party! Now the player of that PC has no choice but to get involved - even if it is only in the form of letting his/her PC look like a dork as the other PCs step in and cover for him/her.This example is based on the actual play episode I linked to upthread, although in that particular episode things were complicated by the fact that the dwarf fighter was not lurking at the back of the party but was in fact the party leader (as far as the NPCs were concerned) and so was therefore very much at the forefront of the party, but relying upon his Machiavellian companions to make social situations work from behind the scenes. This became very hard when he found himself seated at a dinner party in between the Baron with whom he was in the process of forging an alliance, and the Baron's chief advisor, who was also (unbeknownst to the Baron) the PCs' chief adversary.Adjudicating things in this sort of way - to keep the pressure on all the PCs so that they have to remain engaged or else fail to get what they want from the situation - does require metagaming, I think. And this is why I think that skill challenges continue to be somewhat controversial as an action resolution mechanic, or are often said to be nothing more than a version of 3E-style complex skill checks.</blockquote>

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