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Message: <blockquote data-quote="thedungeondelver" data-source="post: 3331794" data-attributes="member: 34865">IMC I handwave all the "little details" like who can climb what and jump this and that and the other.  Only for truly, extremely difficult tasks do I break out the dice and make a roll based on, say, DEX, to determine if you can make it over that crevasse without falling...Generally things like the thieves' abilities cover truly extraordinary situations and events.  Move Silently isn't just creeping down the hall without making noise: it's moving down the hall while there are critters nearby straining to listen to hear any possible sound.  Hide In Shadows isn't going down a totally dark hallway and not being seen, it's moving down a well lit hallway in full view of a guard without being seen, dashing from shadow to shadow, knowing how to pull your cloak around you to appear as nothing more than an exaggerated trick of the light.  Climb Walls isn't just up some steep hill or rough-hewn corridor wall: anybody can do that.  If they can't, why are they adventuring?  No, it's going up a glass-smooth polished marble wall without a place to hook a rope or drive a piton, feeling minute cracks and using those as traction.Little things, like riding horses, swimming across a pond (without your gear!), building a fire, making a snare for small game - these are all "skills" that adventurers pick up along the way.I don't dice for them because that's a degree of granularity I'd rather not get in to.Now your magic-user, he wants to climb that glass smooth wall?  That's something he never trained for.  Even standing at the base of it, watching the thief go up, all he's done is shake his head in wonder and say "Wow...how does he do that?!"It takes a dedicated study of that topic and that topic only to really "get it".  Just like I can't be a writer and an Army Ranger.  Am I going to join up, spend nine weeks in Basic, try out for the Rangers, get in (hopefully), then spend however long Ranger school is and keep in practice using my skills every day and staying on top of Ranger abilities...and keep on top of the writing projects I have?Highly unlikely.So I write (less heavy lifting and being shot at involved).However, with that said, I can spend a Saturday hiking through the local hammock, along the trails and whatnot therein without becoming fatigued or hopelessly lost, and I represent things in a similar fashion in my D&D games.</blockquote>

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