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<blockquote data-quote="Starfox" data-source="post: 6185219" data-attributes="member: 2303">Emphasis mine.I agree, it's not controversial, I was making an intentionally bad example to point out a possible pitfall. I completely believe it is possible to make a physical skill challenge exiting (or any skill challenge, or even any time spent gaming), especially if you have Rl experiences to quote from. I used to rock climb in the past, and I still draw inspiration from that short time hobby to describe climbs even tough it was just a few short months 30 years ago. I am sure that more experience =&gt; more narrative ideas. That was never in doubt.The problem I was trying to focus on is that it becomes harder to narrate a series of events if you make that series very long, as skill challenges tend to do. Many rolls -&gt; many narrative steps - &gt; small progress in each step -&gt; hard to narrate. If you are better at narrating this problem will kick in later, if you are worse, it will kick in sooner. For each of us there is a limit on how long a progression of events can be before we run into repetition narrating it.&nbsp; A GM with little imagination will have that &quot;one rock, another rock&quot; approach&quot; I used above and run out of steam quickly. A better GM can run a long skill challenge without becoming repetitive. The more skill and familiarity with the situation you have, the more variety you can add, but there is always a limit. The trick is to keep the resolution mechanic long enough to be an interesting challenge yet short enough not to lose narrative tension.Not even Indiana Jones climbs rock-by-rock for more than maybe 5-10 rocks, and that's with a visual vista adding to the excitement. Showing more than that of a climbing scene, and it becomes an Endurance test more than a Climb test in the eye of the audience.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Starfox, post: 6185219, member: 2303"] Emphasis mine. I agree, it's not controversial, I was making an intentionally bad example to point out a possible pitfall. I completely believe it is possible to make a physical skill challenge exiting (or any skill challenge, or even any time spent gaming), especially if you have Rl experiences to quote from. I used to rock climb in the past, and I still draw inspiration from that short time hobby to describe climbs even tough it was just a few short months 30 years ago. I am sure that more experience => more narrative ideas. That was never in doubt. The problem I was trying to focus on is that it becomes harder to narrate a series of events if you make that series very long, as skill challenges tend to do. Many rolls -> many narrative steps - > small progress in each step -> hard to narrate. If you are better at narrating this problem will kick in later, if you are worse, it will kick in sooner. For each of us there is a limit on how long a progression of events can be before we run into repetition narrating it. A GM with little imagination will have that "one rock, another rock" approach" I used above and run out of steam quickly. A better GM can run a long skill challenge without becoming repetitive. The more skill and familiarity with the situation you have, the more variety you can add, but there is always a limit. The trick is to keep the resolution mechanic long enough to be an interesting challenge yet short enough not to lose narrative tension. Not even Indiana Jones climbs rock-by-rock for more than maybe 5-10 rocks, and that's with a visual vista adding to the excitement. Showing more than that of a climbing scene, and it becomes an Endurance test more than a Climb test in the eye of the audience. [/QUOTE]

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