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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 7733989" data-attributes="member: 42582">Possibly. I think that WotC lost the courage of its convictions when it came to "everyone has something to contribute". And so they were happy to advocate pseudo-contributions ahead of actual engagement with some meaningful fiction.The difference from 3E is that skill challenges clearly contemplate narration of consequences and fictions that aren't just read off the causal consequences of whatever it is that the PC did in the fiction. I think that is one issue that caused problems with uptake - many D&D players won't come at that in relation to checks, other than perhaps saving throws.The other issue, I think, is finality in the fiction. There is a very strong idea in some parts of the D&D play culture that, except perhaps where combat is concerned, the GM is the sole arbiter of finality. There is a great deal of hesitation in allowing finality to be settled mechanically, let alone as a result of a player-side mechnanic like a skill check.The two points I've made relate, in this way: for a skill challenge to work, the GM has to accept player successes - ie the fiction really does change as the player wanted it to - but also keep the challenge alive (until the last die is rolled) by introducing new complications or developing the existing ones. I think that's just as clear as the diret mechanical consequences that are inflicted in Cortex+ - the players know what they've done, and can see what still needs to be done - but it requires treating the fiction as constrained by something other than the will of the GM.I think that Cortex+ Heroic social conflict is more colourful than skill challenge resolution. But I've never seen it generate situations as deep as I've seen in skill challenges, precisely because the player can hide behind an "I do this to step up that complicatoin" action declaration, rather than requiring the player to directly engage the fiction as a skill challenge does.</blockquote>

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