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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mistwell" data-source="post: 5180197" data-attributes="member: 2525">If they are not in an encounter, there is no need to worry about things like standard, minor, move, and free actions.  You present the description for the scene, your players describe the actions of their characters.  If the action has some risk to it if they fail, then it probably requires a skill check.  If not, then people just describe what they are doing (or do it in the first person).  If the scene requires many people making skill checks, it's probably a skill challenge.  If it's easier to just have one person speak at a time, you can use initiative order or just go around the table in order.Yes, combat is an encounter, even if it is easy, and even if it is just one monster.  Pretty much anything which places the characters at risk, involves multiple characters in the action (or probably will), and which might get confusing if it's not done in an organized manner, is an encounter.  In other words, all combat, and any event requiring multiple skill checks.If there is no risk to failure, then just let them "take 20".  In other words, if your rogue rolled a natural 20, and added his bonus, would that beat the DC of the lock? If so, you can just describe it as "you work at the lock for a few minutes, and eventually you manage to open it".  If that 20+bonus would still not beat the DC, then you instead say "try as you might, this lock is simply beyond your skills."  There is no need to make an encounter out of this, or roll initiative.  It's just a single skill check, and you shouldn't stop the action too long to deal with it.Unless the NPC is a 1 hit point minion, it's combat.  Combat is complicated, and usually involves multiple characters.  You should treat combat as an encounter.Lock picking and door smashing, if done as a single event, do not require the use of the formal encounter.  It's just a single skill check, and you should try to not bog things down by delaying that event with a formal encounter. Yes, you can use powers (such as spells) outside of combat.  As long as your characters have had a 5 minute break since their last encounter, then their encounter powers are usable again, and can be used outside of combat.Yes, rituals are usually used outside of an encounter.  If you want, you can describe the scene to add some flavor to the adventure.  Or, you can just say "Ok, you make the necessary preparations, use the appropriate ingredients, make the right gestures and movements that you learned, and the ritual triggers.  Roll the skill check to see how well you did with this ritual".  Rituals are usually a single skill check event, just like a lock picking event or door smashing event.  You CAN sprinkle them into combat or connect them in some way to combat or a skill challenge, but usually they are just a stand alone short event.Your confusion is perfectly natural, and many of us went through the same kinds of questions when first starting to play.Chris's sessions are good, but he is focusing more on the intricacies of combat and skill challenges, rather than non-encounter events.  His videos are more intended to teach the rules, than how to role play.  You don't need tiles and maps and miniatures and speed and movement amounts and such for all the events that happen between encounters.  You just describe things, and the players interact with your descriptions.  Only when it gets complicated, like with combat or a skill challenge, do you need to use the formal encounter format.  And even then, if it is just a skill challenge, you often still won't need a map and tiles and miniatures and such.</blockquote>

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