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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Fenris-77" data-source="post: 8493909" data-attributes="member: 6993955">I might not have been clear enough about what I was getting at. I wasn't specifically indexing success without a check, but rather problem solving that escapes the gravity of the basic game mechanics. Let's assume for a moment that there is an obstacle that the characters need to overcome that looks like it might involve climbing (just to keep the example the same). 5E has skill checks and systems that handle wall climbing, specifically the Athletics skill and sliding DCs. I was indexing the nature of 5E play as play that doesn't really step past those mechanics (obviously I'm generalizing here).  The idea that a successful perception check and a close examination of the wall might make it easier to climb isn't something 5E really works toward, by design anyway. Let's add some further detail to our example now, just to give ourselves some narrative handles. A character is in the outer keep of an enemy fortress and needs to climb the wall to escape, and just for giggles lets say this character isn't one with a high Athletics modifier, so they go looking for options. They find some sticky pitch in a barrel and give the wall a close examination to find the best place to climb (Perception or Investigation or whatever, with a good success). How do we adjudicate this?For my part, I probably wouldn't even ask for an Athletics test, they'd just climb the wall. My contention is that many people probably would, and more importantly that it wouldn't occur to them not to ask for the check. The notion I'm driving at here is the idea that playing the mechanics and systems can be a problem when it gets substituted for playing the fictional position, on both sides of the screen. I still feel like I'm struggling to make my point. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> I'll circle back in a bit and see where the above gets us.</blockquote>

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