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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 7548114" data-attributes="member: 20323">No worries, I appreciate everyone's insights so far. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />OK, if I've understood you, it's a question of meaningful choices, and reducing the dramatic forced march to one die roll eliminates meaningful choice. That makes sense. Yeah, the RAW method – which would appear to be 12 escalating checks in this scenario – is also unsatisfactory. I think what you pointed out – forcing the party to use resources to overcome the march – is probably the more satisfactory way to go. And the meaningful choice comes in with which resources they opt to expend.My only issue there is that I've used an "opt into exhaustion" mechanic in a skill challenge a few sessions back, and no one opted into exhaustion. Players, IME, avoid exhaustion like a plague, treating it as a non-choice. If I want it to be treated as a possible choice, how nasty do I have to make the alternatives?Totally, that makes sense.Right, that's why I initially brainstormed reducing it to 1 gradated check, to avoid being predictable (and the boredom of throwing 12 dice at a problem). Now, as you point out, one check doesn't offer much wiggle room for meaningful choices due to the vagaries of the d20.Mhmm, very true. My objection wasn't about skill challenges in and of themselves (I use them in my own way on occasion), but rather about the consequences of the skill challenge.Maybe one option here is to turn it around and present the players with a choice:(1) You can automatically reach the settlement in time just as the fighting has begun, but it's going to be a brutal forced march in which you'll make a DC 20 Con save, and if you fail you suffer exhaustion according to the degree of failure.(2) You can attempt to navigate for shortcuts through the jungle in a skill challenge. You'll be able to expend other resources to avoid exhaustion, but you'll risk not reaching the settlement in time if you fail.That's a meaningful choice, yeah?</blockquote>

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