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Message: <blockquote data-quote="clearstream" data-source="post: 8204449" data-attributes="member: 71699">Reading back I can see I put my concern in a vague and perhaps unpalatable way. I'll try and correct that.What concerns me is that on a mechanical level what seems to be advocated is this - pass an Intelligence (Investigation) check or be attacked by wandering monsters. It feels to me like I am not making an Investigation check to figure out the secret door - I did that automatically - my check is really to do it quietly. Say I have great Dexterity (Stealth)? I am wondering why I'm not using the skill I invested in that is specifically aimed at doing things quietly? If a wide range of skills are really just forms of stealth - again at the mechanical  level - that seems to me to have narrowed the game. As you can see, that mechanical concern can't be addressed by foreshadowing.I suspect what is happening is that I'm more concerned to immerse my players in the game world, so I lean more into game-as-simulation elements. I want setbacks to have tighter valency with the abilities and skills used, and the player goal. I aim to use both sides of the rubric - a palpable risk of failure, and a meaningful consequence of failure. Players decide what the aim to do and how they approach that goal, and their choice impacts what is at stake. They get some control over that. If they decide climbing is their way forward, they've chosen failing to climb or falling as their consequence. If climbing is automatic, the risk and consequence feels to me less natural... a weakened valency.What I like about more diverse setbacks is just that - diversity. For my mode of DMing it works well to prioritise other factors. Bottomline, I think we agree there should be risks and consequences that propel the narrative in interesting directions. I suspect we also agree on empowering our players to have input - to make meaningful choices - regarding those interesting directions <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=":)" /></blockquote>

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