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<blockquote data-quote="The Crimson Binome" data-source="post: 7399993" data-attributes="member: 6775031">That's kind of where I thought you were going with it. The passage of time is something that would be linked to whether or not the second murder has taken place, and it's something that the PCs would understand is a factor.I guess the issue I'm having is that you're automatically connecting the passage of time to the result of the skill check, without giving the player a chance to change their mind about what they want to do. If success gives information, and failure gives information after you spend a lot of time dealing with complications, then you're not giving them a chance to abandon the attempt before the complications set in. In your second example, the PC may well notice that the boy is running away, and choose to not pursue because they know they don't have a lot of time. (Or they might pursue for a minute, and then give up when it looks like it's going to take much longer.)In general, the inability to change your goal was a big problem with skill challenges in 4E. More often than not, the players would want to change their goal as soon as the dice started turning against them, but the format required that you stick with the original goal until you either succeeded or failed. (Imagine if combat worked like that, and you had to commit to going for the kill before you made your first attack roll.)In this specific case, you could handle the situation easily enough with just the basic skill rules, and you would get similar result. You just need to establish that each attempt to Investigate or Gather Information requires an hour to perform, and make a note for yourself that (unless circumstances change) the murderer will make their next strike in seven hours.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="The Crimson Binome, post: 7399993, member: 6775031"] That's kind of where I thought you were going with it. The passage of time [I]is[/I] something that would be linked to whether or not the second murder has taken place, [I]and[/I] it's something that the PCs would understand is a factor. I guess the issue I'm having is that you're automatically connecting the passage of time to the result of the skill check, without giving the player a chance to change their mind about what they want to do. If success gives information, and failure gives information after you spend a lot of time dealing with complications, then you're not giving them a chance to abandon the attempt before the complications set in. In your second example, the PC may well notice that the boy is running away, and choose to [I]not[/I] pursue because they know they don't have a lot of time. (Or they might pursue for a minute, and then give up when it looks like it's going to take much longer.) In general, the inability to change your goal was a big problem with skill challenges in 4E. More often than not, the players would want to change their goal as soon as the dice started turning against them, but the format required that you stick with the original goal until you either succeeded or failed. (Imagine if combat worked like that, and you had to commit to going for the kill before you made your first attack roll.) In this specific case, you could handle the situation easily enough with just the basic skill rules, and you would get similar result. You just need to establish that each attempt to Investigate or Gather Information requires an hour to perform, and make a note for yourself that (unless circumstances change) the murderer will make their next strike in seven hours. [/QUOTE]

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