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<blockquote data-quote="kaomera" data-source="post: 4885915" data-attributes="member: 38357">That was my experience as well, but not so much for mechanical reasons.My usual response to this sort of thing (ans Stalker0's response gives me some pause on this) has been to ensure that succeeding is a bonus, rather than making failure a penalty. That was the rule of thumb I used to follow with complex tricks / traps, etc. in AD&amp;D &amp; 3.x Not that there shouldn't be some sort of penalty (traps blow up, resources get used), but in terms of the overall goal (usually: get through the dungeon to the boss and/or treasure) they should provide a shortcut or beneficial result (buffs, etc.) on a success, but not close anything off on a failure...Of course, if the benefit is nice enough, then not getting it is a penalty, I guess...I've seen several suggestions to stick to larger-scale (or long-term, time wise) stuff for Skill Challenges. I'm also beginning to think that making each check a discreet thing, with it's own lesser rewards and consequences may be the way to go. Not sure entirely how to handle that, but it would tend to make the players more thoughtful about what skill checks they made (rather than just sticking to their one best skill). At best it might get players thinking of how many failures (for the overall Skill Challenge) they can risk to go after personal gains (via the individual rolls)...One other thing I'm kind of wondering about: Secondary skill checks and Aid Another. These seem like a really interesting resource for the players, but I can't really see how they would work that way, instead of just being the recourse of characters otherwise unsuited to the challenge, or everyone piling on to every check...</blockquote>

[QUOTE="kaomera, post: 4885915, member: 38357"] That was my experience as well, but not so much for mechanical reasons. My usual response to this sort of thing (ans Stalker0's response gives me some pause on this) has been to ensure that succeeding is a bonus, rather than making failure a penalty. That was the rule of thumb I used to follow with complex tricks / traps, etc. in AD&D & 3.x Not that there shouldn't be some sort of penalty (traps blow up, resources get used), but in terms of the overall goal (usually: get through the dungeon to the boss and/or treasure) they should provide a shortcut or beneficial result (buffs, etc.) on a success, but not close anything off on a failure... Of course, if the benefit is nice enough, then not getting it [i]is[/i] a penalty, I guess... I've seen several suggestions to stick to larger-scale (or long-term, time wise) stuff for Skill Challenges. I'm also beginning to think that making each check a discreet thing, with it's own lesser rewards and consequences may be the way to go. Not sure entirely how to handle that, but it would tend to make the players more thoughtful about what skill checks they made (rather than just sticking to their one best skill). At best it might get players thinking of how many failures (for the overall Skill Challenge) they can risk to go after personal gains (via the individual rolls)... One other thing I'm kind of wondering about: Secondary skill checks and Aid Another. These seem like a really interesting resource for the players, but I can't really see how they would work that way, instead of just being the recourse of characters otherwise unsuited to the challenge, or everyone piling on to every check... [/QUOTE]

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