Are You Using Skill Checks and Skill Challenges

[fanboy2000]

So I'm curious, in taking the above advice into consideration... what in your oppinion differentiates a skill challenge from a series of skill checks?

Well, in my opinion, it's failure tolerance. By saying x number of success before y failures, it keeps a single skill check from ruining everything.

Degrees of success are good to, they give a scale which allows DMs to decide how successful the group is.

 

[fanboy2000]

Brevity. The shorter a post is, the more likely people will give you experience. And the more likely that people will read it.

 

[Obryn]

I love a good skill challenge... I just hate using them for social interactions. I'm comfortable with single die rolls for social stuff, but I find that the structure tends to artificially draw out the scene, or else make it nonsensical.

Stuff I've used skill challenges for recently: (Note, some of these were from published adventures and some were my own making.)

(1) Cross-desert travel to find hazards
(2) Disarming a trapped door
(3) Escaping from groups of templars and groups of Tyrian Guard
(4) Exploration of a large canyon

All in all, they've worked great for all of the above. I consider them an important part of my 4e campaign.

-O