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<blockquote data-quote="Mengu" data-source="post: 5464715" data-attributes="member: 65726">Skill challenges are what you make of them. If you and your group have a problem with them, don't run them by the book, I don't think anyone does. However, I'm not going to ask people to pick up shovels and show me how they are digging themselves out of a cave in, or quiz them on their knowledge of the structural integrity of a natural cavern. I'll be content with dice rolls to see how well their athletics, dungeoneering, and endurance skills are.Personally I treat social skills much the same way. Sure we role play the social encounters. But when the 8 charisma shaman (with a player of 18 charisma) does all the talking, rest assured I'll ask for a diplomacy check and give NPC responses accordingly. For me the structure of a skill challenge, just gives me a rough outline of a script to go by, with branching points for success or failure. When people make compelling arguments, I'm perfectly happy giving them bonuses on their skill checks or even automatic successes (if I'm tracking successes which I don't always). But I'll always leave a little something behind, a piece of information, some secret they don't quite know about, until the last possible moment, so there is a consequence to failure.As DM, skill checks in social situations help me with deciding NPC responses first and foremost. I might not always like what the player is saying, but asking for an insight check, I can give them some guidance on how to handle the NPC. When a PC lies, I as DM know that it's a lie, but does the NPC sense it too? That requires die rolls. I could run a diceless game where I make up all the results ala something like Storyteller, but that's not D&amp;D. In D&amp;D, players have skills, and they like to use them. So as DM I feel my job is to provide them with opportunities.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Mengu, post: 5464715, member: 65726"] Skill challenges are what you make of them. If you and your group have a problem with them, don't run them by the book, I don't think anyone does. However, I'm not going to ask people to pick up shovels and show me how they are digging themselves out of a cave in, or quiz them on their knowledge of the structural integrity of a natural cavern. I'll be content with dice rolls to see how well their athletics, dungeoneering, and endurance skills are. Personally I treat social skills much the same way. Sure we role play the social encounters. But when the 8 charisma shaman (with a player of 18 charisma) does all the talking, rest assured I'll ask for a diplomacy check and give NPC responses accordingly. For me the structure of a skill challenge, just gives me a rough outline of a script to go by, with branching points for success or failure. When people make compelling arguments, I'm perfectly happy giving them bonuses on their skill checks or even automatic successes (if I'm tracking successes which I don't always). But I'll always leave a little something behind, a piece of information, some secret they don't quite know about, until the last possible moment, so there is a consequence to failure. As DM, skill checks in social situations help me with deciding NPC responses first and foremost. I might not always like what the player is saying, but asking for an insight check, I can give them some guidance on how to handle the NPC. When a PC lies, I as DM know that it's a lie, but does the NPC sense it too? That requires die rolls. I could run a diceless game where I make up all the results ala something like Storyteller, but that's not D&D. In D&D, players have skills, and they like to use them. So as DM I feel my job is to provide them with opportunities. [/QUOTE]

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