Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mmu1" data-source="post: 4088906" data-attributes="member: 319">It's funny... I rarely have every single detail of something like an escape from the city planned out (usually because my players end up having to run from things suddenly and urgently), so I actually create little details on the fly fairly often, to flesh things out, or as a reward if a player comes up with a good idea and backs it up with a skill check.However, for all that, the 4E "skill challenge" system doesn't appeal to me at all. The whole point of playing an RPG, for me, is to take advantage of situations like these to let things work themselves out without having to resort to some sort of pre-scripted system. The idea that, even before the players have done anything, you decide it will take x number of skill successes before y number of failures take place strikes me as incredibly restrictive and artificial. What happens if the first idea they choose to try is awful, and not only that, they mess up the execution? Despite the fact that the results should be catastrophic, I shrug and say "well, that was bad, but you still have y-1 chances to not mess up?" Sure, I can always override any blatantly nonsensical results... but why not do that from the beginning? The fact the DM is the final authority doesn't make bad rules and systems into good ones. It just makes them a waste.</blockquote>