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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5410656" data-attributes="member: 2011">There are two schools of thought here. The situation is what it is and the situation is fluid. In the first case, the players have to overcome the challenge based on what the DM gives them as environment. In the second case, the players can change the environment in order to have it match whatever idea that enters their minds (still with DM approval).My preference is for the first type of gaming. If the player asks me what is in the alleyway, I will give him a list of what he sees. If a barrel is there, it is. The player doesn't tell the DM that he needs a barrel for his idea to work. The player asks about his options and the DM supplies them.The player is not thrown a bone. He is not entitled to have things go his way. He has to earn his success.In the second type of gaming, the players are more interested in a group story that always works out like a novel. The adversity and challenge is limited because the DM allows things to happen, all in the name of (as you put it) cool.Is it cool to allow your players to dictate the surroundings? Maybe.But for some DMs, it's cooler for the players to overcome adversity on their own without the DM helping them to do so. It just depends on what works best for a given group.You misunderstand. Skill challenges have their places. Combat isn't one of them. IMO. I also think that skill challenges are overused. We have a PBP game over in LEB where the DM set up a 12 3 skill challenge to find out some information. After a few successes, the players had what info that they thought they needed. A little bit of roleplaying and a few skill rolls total would have handled this. The DM might have more information that he wants the players to have a chance to acquire, but the players really shouldn't know this based on knowing that they are in a skill challenge. And, the players gained the info that they wanted, so they should be able to just cut off the skill challenge and move on. The mechanics of a skill challenge interfere with the decision making of the players. The players are encouraged to continue the skill challenge, even though they have a different idea as to what to do next. On top of that, since it is an info gathering skill challenge, some players are sitting around snoozing, waiting for the skill challenge to be over so that they can do something. Sure, they can do the group challenge roll. zzzzzz That's as exciting as watching paint dry. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/yawn.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":yawn:" title="Yawn    :yawn:" data-shortname=":yawn:" /></blockquote>

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