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<blockquote data-quote="bert1001 fka bert1000" data-source="post: 8543168" data-attributes="member: 7029588">Agreed.&nbsp; A lot of the WotC skill challenges had poor consequences/stakes.&nbsp;&nbsp; I'm pretty convinced that skill challenges should only be used when there are meaningful narrative consequence with some teeth.&nbsp;&nbsp; So you don't make it to the village you care about in time and it's sacked, you lose the person you were chasing who then goes and does a bad thing, you convince the King to lend part of his army which allows you to both defend city X and city Y at the same time, you break out of the prison but on failure the fellow prisoners that you were trying to save get recaptured and later seek you out for revenge, etc.&nbsp;&nbsp; I find that people I play with find that kind of heavy consequences ok since 1) it doesn't hing on a single dice roll, 2) it's also not dependant on DM fiat of when enough is enough.&nbsp;&nbsp; That last example was actually from Start Wars Saga edition Galaxy of Intrigue which I think has the best official example of a traditional skill challenge -- reprinted here.&nbsp; The consequences of failure were having fellow prisoners be recapured, which if the party had befriended them have all kinds of fun moral and story implications later...[URL unfurl=&quot;true&quot;]https://swse.fandom.com/wiki/Skill_Challenge_Example_of_Play[/URL]I also like more of a loose skill challenge as well but that makes it even more important that the DM understand the underlying math I think.&nbsp;&nbsp; You can be super loose and abtract because in the end the mechancial consequences are spelled out -- a successfully check gets you closer to your goal.&nbsp;&nbsp; So you can have all kinds of fun describing your character doing cool stuff and you know it will have impact if you succeed on a roll.&nbsp; &nbsp; Some people don't like this because the impact is set -- no matter what you do you will only get X more ways toward the goal and if you haven't gotten to Y success there will be some other complication introduced.&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Personally I find it more freeing because you basically don't have to stop and negotiate the stakes of each role.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="bert1001 fka bert1000, post: 8543168, member: 7029588"] Agreed. A lot of the WotC skill challenges had poor consequences/stakes. I'm pretty convinced that skill challenges should only be used when there are meaningful narrative consequence with some teeth. So you don't make it to the village you care about in time and it's sacked, you lose the person you were chasing who then goes and does a bad thing, you convince the King to lend part of his army which allows you to both defend city X and city Y at the same time, you break out of the prison but on failure the fellow prisoners that you were trying to save get recaptured and later seek you out for revenge, etc. I find that people I play with find that kind of heavy consequences ok since 1) it doesn't hing on a single dice roll, 2) it's also not dependant on DM fiat of when enough is enough. That last example was actually from Start Wars Saga edition Galaxy of Intrigue which I think has the best official example of a traditional skill challenge -- reprinted here. The consequences of failure were having fellow prisoners be recapured, which if the party had befriended them have all kinds of fun moral and story implications later... [URL unfurl="true"]https://swse.fandom.com/wiki/Skill_Challenge_Example_of_Play[/URL] I also like more of a loose skill challenge as well but that makes it even more important that the DM understand the underlying math I think. You can be super loose and abtract because in the end the mechancial consequences are spelled out -- a successfully check gets you closer to your goal. So you can have all kinds of fun describing your character doing cool stuff and you know it will have impact if you succeed on a roll. Some people don't like this because the impact is set -- no matter what you do you will only get X more ways toward the goal and if you haven't gotten to Y success there will be some other complication introduced. Personally I find it more freeing because you basically don't have to stop and negotiate the stakes of each role. [/QUOTE]

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