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Message: <blockquote data-quote="surfarcher" data-source="post: 5465439" data-attributes="member: 84774">Well a fast and interesting thread!  While I might make some individual responses later, I'm more likely to spread some XP with little notes.I can't help but noticing that every person who says "Skill Challenges are bad, yadda yadda" seems to be playing the mechanic in the open.  IME this invariably leads to the kinds of problems everyone cites.Announcing an SC and bringing the mechanic out onto the table, like we do with combat, is incredibly negative IME.  At best your players typically hunt through their best skills and try to figure out how they can apply them to chug up successes with a modicum of RP on the side!  And at worst they simply pick through a set menu of skills and results.I prefer the transparent approahc - using the mechanic as an accounting tool and a way to measure and guide progress.  So I play it pretty loose and instead rely on adlib and roleplaying and it works incredibly well and seamlessly for us.I also love designing an SC that branches based on the player choices <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=":)" />  I make veritable bushes, trees and even forests sometimes!My groups seem to find my skill challenges very memorable and, besides the very first one with a group, I never make the mechanic visible to them at all.  And I think that's the key to making SCs meld and flow with the whole story.  That smooth flow is something I also try to achieve with combat, which is a different subject.A few of our recent memorable challenges: * The Dwarf Paladin getting jailed on a murder charge, the party proving his innocence. * Travelling to find info relating to the McGuffin. * A raid on a caravan of 75+ orcs/half-orcs/humans to destroy an arcane device.I think it's important to remember that SCs aren't just limited to skills.  DMG2 is very clear that you can open this up to many more things.  In other words the roleplaying is the important part, the mechanic is a tool for the DM.  So framing is incredibly important.It's funny.  If folks allow their players to misuse or abuse skills then I think that's an issue that group has with skills.  It's only natural that group will also have issues with skill challenges.  particularly if they are non-transparent SCs.  I mean, why allow folks to go "I intimidate him! A 20! Pwn3d!"?  In a sense that's really got nothing to do with SCs, but with allowing poor roleplaying.  Don't get me wrong I don't get my players to RP every word, and that would be unfair on less eloquant players.  But they need to at least give a sense of how they are being intimidating and there's no reason the rest of the players can't help them work that out.Consider my sig from rpg.net.  It's intentionally a little provocative, but please don't be offended:Not intended to upset of inflam, but intended to point clearly to my own beliefs on the topic.</blockquote>

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