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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AZRogue" data-source="post: 4161845" data-attributes="member: 3963">The 4E system won't be for everyone, I'm sure. Some groups already have an effective way to negotiate out-of-combat scenes that they will prefer. That's a good thing.My group, however, are not big "roleplayers" with the exception of one in particular, and another (not so much). For example, if they ever get into the story enough to start speaking in character they will instantly stop and start looking around to make sure the windows are shut and no one is snooping in on them. They're not that comfortable doing it, though sometimes they get so immersed that they just start. For the most part, though, they don't see the point so they purposely pull back from doing it and are big on just making a Skill check and getting the RP moment "over with". In my 4E-Lite playtests I've tried the skill challenge as best as I understand it and it has made a big difference for my group. I do, actually, announce a Skill Challenge (though I haven't announced a DC before, not sure if you're supposed to). They invariably sit up straight and treat the challenge like "something-that-matters" and, lo and behold, they don't seem to mind speaking "in-character" during the challenge because it helps them describe what they're doing. Their immersion increases, IMO, and they know that there's a goal they're trying to achieve beyond combat, which is usually their favorite part. I haven't noted this change to them as no one else has said anything and I don't want to rock the boat by making them aware if they aren't already, but I love it. It provides a structure which seems to help us (them, I mean) focus instead of treating the event as a "boring part" between combats. In the past it was always left to my group's two roleplayers to act out of combat while the rest of the guys smoked or grabbed drinks waiting for them to do their job. Now (and I've ran a total of 3 skill challenges at this point) they have all been involved.So, I would say that if the real skill challenge system is roughly the same as the one we've inferred from the tidbits we've seen then it will work great for my group. I can understand if it's not that needed for most people, but I, for one, am grateful as it seems to provide a structure that encourages my group to roleplay a lot more. My problem right now is how often should I include a skill challenge? And, what's an appropriate event for a skill challenge? Should I use them only for events like finding a way through a swamp with no roads? Or should I include them for such mundane things as finding information on a particular NPC in town? So far I've limited them to "bigger" things and am curious what the DMG says on the matter. There may be times, such as researching info on an underworld contact who MAY hear about it and not take kindly to the snooping, where it's easy to decide a challenge is appropriate, but without the element of danger, or a negative result, I'm not sure if it's needed. Once again, I'd really like to read the DMG and the advice is has.None of that made any sense, I'm sure, as it looks like a long ramble to me, but there it is. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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