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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 4573946" data-attributes="member: 743">Importance and time required, plus variability of solution and how it affects campaign continuity.Importance: major occurrences such as bathing in the Pool of Elements in an attempt to become one with elemental Chaos or tracking down a secret that is actively hiding itself are more likely to become challenges.Time required: If it's a single action, it will never be a skill challenge. If it's something that will take multiple tries over several weeks, it almost certainly will.Variability: If bluff, diplomacy, and acrobatics could all play a role in solving the problem, it'll probably become a skill challenge. If multiple skills are necessary to solve it, it almost certainly will be a challenge.Continuity: If everything falls apart if information X or route y aren't found, it will never be a skill challenge, and probably won't be a skill check. Things that important should be handed out for free or as a reward for other deeds, not left to make the campaign teeter. But we play pretty free form, so total destruction of a campaign would be hard to achieve.If 3 of 4 factors warrant a challenge, it'll be one. Not that I actually sit and think things through like this, but that's how my instincts seem to play out when I use hindsight to figure out why I've decided what I have in the past.The biggest one to me is Importance. If the problem and its solution aren't important (whether it be to storyline or the players) then there's no reason to waste game time rolling it out.</blockquote>

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