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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 9224401" data-attributes="member: 42582">My three "bibles" for thinking about how to GM 4e D&D were The Burning Wheel Adventure Burner, Maelstrom Storytelling (probably the earliest game with a closed scene resolution framework base around free descriptors), and HeroWars/Quest (both the original HeroWars books, and HeroQuest Revised). Skill challenges are closed scene resolution, although unlike HeroWars/Quest don't involve opposed checks, which has some consequences for how to frame and adjudciate.The Maelstrom Storytelling rules for "quick takes" inside a scene helped me think about how to adjudicate secondary actions within a skill challenge.And Burning Wheel's advice on how to bring the pressure, and how to think about the way to frame and narrate consequences having regard to situation and to character, just can't be beaten.I didn't have the experience you describe in relation to "non-magical" challenges. To add to the examples I've posted upthread, including Demon of the Red Grove and post 2982, here's an actual play account of an assault on Torog's Soul Abattoir:As per the advice in the DMG and DMG2, the players in my game used their powers to enhance/shape actions in skill challenges, and we did not have any strong magical/non-magical divide.</blockquote>