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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8505436" data-attributes="member: 82106"><p>Right, and this is why in my own game design there are only 3 allowed modes of play (2 really, combat and challenge are fundamentally the same in a basic sense). If there's nothing at stake it is canonically not a challenge, its an interlude and thus you just 'climb the cliff'. If it IS a challenge, then the 'resolution of intention' is really fundamentally at the entire challenge level, and individual checks can thus incorporate resolution mechanics tied to "how capable am I of overcoming this situation?" I don't run into situations like the meaningless secret door, because the GM will simply narrate an outcome, no mechanics exist here. OTOH if finding the secret door is critical to advancing the Challenge (IE success or failure at least partly hinges on the outcome) then we're all good, the consequence is some sort of failure to attain intent, and the mechanics marks a tally on the fail side of the challenge. The GM is now obliged to frame some new situation, in the case of failure it presumably must be one in which the possibilities of overall success have become more tenuous (or possibly the whole enterprise has failed and we now get to the meaty fictional consequences, though Challenge failure can also have a mechanical aspect to it, as could success).</p></blockquote><p></p>