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<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 5290319" data-attributes="member: 99">Planning is a GOOD thing.&nbsp; The problem in gaming (in my experience) is OVER planning.The players will huddle up and start coming up with their brilliant plan using available resources.&nbsp; Then they'll reach that first point where something might go wrong.&nbsp; Then they start planning contingencies.&nbsp; Then they'll plan contingencies for those contingencies.&nbsp; Then somebody will realize that they have a spell/ability/item that makes for a better initial plan.&nbsp; Then they start over.I am embarrassed to say so, but I'm a Tactical type of player and I used to be one of the worst in my group about doing this.&nbsp; My (more narrative focused) GM took me to task for this and deservedly so.&nbsp; I have since mended my ways and learned that a good plan that we can come up with in 10 minutes is far better than a perfect plan that takes us two hours.The reason that Skill Challenges help this is because once you're in that mode there is feedback.&nbsp; While in &quot;planning mode&quot; there is no feedback, only a lot of vague possible scenarios that are purely theoretical.&nbsp; Once the dice start rolling we know right away how successful the initial plan was and what the consequences were for failure.&nbsp; So the players can then quickly reallocate their skills and resources to actual events rather than plan for every possibility.&nbsp; This moves things along much more quickly while still allowing for creative solutions (for which I give bonuses or automatic successes based on the idea proposed).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rel, post: 5290319, member: 99"] Planning is a GOOD thing. The problem in gaming (in my experience) is OVER planning. The players will huddle up and start coming up with their brilliant plan using available resources. Then they'll reach that first point where something might go wrong. Then they start planning contingencies. Then they'll plan contingencies for those contingencies. Then somebody will realize that they have a spell/ability/item that makes for a better initial plan. Then they start over. I am embarrassed to say so, but I'm a Tactical type of player and I used to be one of the worst in my group about doing this. My (more narrative focused) GM took me to task for this and deservedly so. I have since mended my ways and learned that a good plan that we can come up with in 10 minutes is far better than a perfect plan that takes us two hours. The reason that Skill Challenges help this is because once you're in that mode there is feedback. While in "planning mode" there is no feedback, only a lot of vague possible scenarios that are purely theoretical. Once the dice start rolling we know right away how successful the initial plan was and what the consequences were for failure. So the players can then quickly reallocate their skills and resources to actual events rather than plan for every possibility. This moves things along much more quickly while still allowing for creative solutions (for which I give bonuses or automatic successes based on the idea proposed). [/QUOTE]

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