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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 5388321" data-attributes="member: 22779">I like your example Surfarcher, but I have a question.&nbsp; How is that actually a skill challenge and not just play?&nbsp; At what point is that a skill challenge and not just applying skills to individual questions as they come up?&nbsp; To me, this isn't really a skill challenge because it's too broad.&nbsp; Each element is barely linked to any overall goal and success or failure in one element doesn't really have any impact.&nbsp; If you failed the Nature check, for example, you stop until such time as another skill can give you the go ahead.I tend to think of skill challenges as more compact.Here's an example from our current campaign.We enter a chamber and are ambushed by bullywugs.&nbsp; The fight starts, and we enter the center of the chamber.&nbsp; The bullywugs trip a trap and portcullises fall across the exits, trapping us inside and spikes begin being lowered from the ceiling.&nbsp; The Dm announced it as a skill challenge (although he did not say how many successes we needed).&nbsp; Time was essential as the ceiling is going to impale us fairly soon.&nbsp; It was exciting and certainly kept our attention as we both had to fight the bullywugs and slow down the roof while trying to get through the lowered portcullises.&nbsp; But, since he announced it as a Skill Challenge, we knew that no single check was going to solve this.&nbsp; Without knowing this was a Skill Challenge, a player could argue that his Theivery check should stop the roof in a single check.&nbsp; After all, outside of skill challenges, that's precisely what a Theivery check would do, disarm the trap.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 5388321, member: 22779"] I like your example Surfarcher, but I have a question. How is that actually a skill challenge and not just play? At what point is that a skill challenge and not just applying skills to individual questions as they come up? To me, this isn't really a skill challenge because it's too broad. Each element is barely linked to any overall goal and success or failure in one element doesn't really have any impact. If you failed the Nature check, for example, you stop until such time as another skill can give you the go ahead. I tend to think of skill challenges as more compact. Here's an example from our current campaign. We enter a chamber and are ambushed by bullywugs. The fight starts, and we enter the center of the chamber. The bullywugs trip a trap and portcullises fall across the exits, trapping us inside and spikes begin being lowered from the ceiling. The Dm announced it as a skill challenge (although he did not say how many successes we needed). Time was essential as the ceiling is going to impale us fairly soon. It was exciting and certainly kept our attention as we both had to fight the bullywugs and slow down the roof while trying to get through the lowered portcullises. But, since he announced it as a Skill Challenge, we knew that no single check was going to solve this. Without knowing this was a Skill Challenge, a player could argue that his Theivery check should stop the roof in a single check. After all, outside of skill challenges, that's precisely what a Theivery check would do, disarm the trap. [/QUOTE]

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