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<blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 5435590" data-attributes="member: 42582">Well, I can't speak for chaochou, but for me they do three jobs - the first in relation to character build, the second in relation to the affect of character build on action resolution, and the third purely in relation to action resolution. First, they make it possible to have a picture of the PC which extends beyond his/her combat abilities, to mechanically express also his/her personality and social inclinations. This is purely an aspect of character build.Second, they make it viable for players who aren't themselves terribly fluent or charismatic to play PCs who are. This is where character build feeds into action resolution.Third, and purely at the action resolution stage, they do the same thing as good combat mechanics: they introduce tension, drama and the possibility of unanticipated outcomes into the game. LostSoul gave a good example of this on another thread: even though the PC in question had no chance of failing a diplomacy check against the relevant DC, playing through the skill challenge still produced and interesting result, because as part of the give and take of the conversation in the course of making those 4 diplomacy rolls the PC made some concessions to the NPCs he was negotiating with.Without a mechanical structure, it can become too easy for the GM to simply say &quot;auto-success&quot;&nbsp; or &quot;yep, that sound reasonable, they agree&quot;. Conversely, a mechanical structure provides these points at which something surprising or unexpected gets injected into the encounter and taken up and run with by everyone at the table.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="pemerton, post: 5435590, member: 42582"] Well, I can't speak for chaochou, but for me they do three jobs - the first in relation to character build, the second in relation to the affect of character build on action resolution, and the third purely in relation to action resolution. First, they make it possible to have a picture of the PC which extends beyond his/her combat abilities, to mechanically express also his/her personality and social inclinations. This is purely an aspect of character build. Second, they make it viable for players who aren't themselves terribly fluent or charismatic to play PCs who are. This is where character build feeds into action resolution. Third, and purely at the action resolution stage, they do the same thing as good combat mechanics: they introduce tension, drama and the possibility of unanticipated outcomes into the game. LostSoul gave a good example of this on another thread: even though the PC in question had [I]no chance[/I] of failing a diplomacy check against the relevant DC, playing through the skill challenge still produced and interesting result, because as part of the give and take of the conversation in the course of making those 4 diplomacy rolls the PC made some concessions to the NPCs he was negotiating with. Without a mechanical structure, it can become too easy for the GM to simply say "auto-success" or "yep, that sound reasonable, they agree". Conversely, a mechanical structure provides these points at which something surprising or unexpected gets injected into the encounter and taken up and run with by everyone at the table. [/QUOTE]

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