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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5468883" data-attributes="member: 2011">Ok. Cool.But with this idea in mind, it's now a dungeon with some skill rolls. The skill rolls occur sporadically over time in the game between the other encounters, not in a 1.5 hour non-stop marathon (which is what I had a problem with). It's 2 rolls per PC per day, possibly punctuated with an encounter or two.The difference with our POVs here then becomes one of the skill challenge itself. Why is it a skill challenge at this point? For the XP? The real fun and the real adventure here is in the interactions with the hermit, the yaun-ti, etc. The swamp skill rolls and descriptions are flavor and mood at this point, not adventure. Why is it an encounter all its own?You didn't use it as a single encounter. You interspersed bits of it between other more interesting and fun encounters.I'm not convinced that our tastes do differ that much. A SC is just a mechanical way of accomplishing some goal and in this case, getting through the swamp and not getting diseased.I have zero issue with that.As you describe it now, the Swamp is just a big dungeon. The PCs go from encounter to encounter, making a few skill rolls in between.You as DM decided to make those skill rolls a skill challenge, but there is no real major reason that you should or should not do it that way (except maybe as an additional XP tracker).Personally, I just see the Nature and Healing skills for this (viewing this scenario from this perspective) as a few extra rolls, no different than a Thievery roll or a Perception roll in a normal dungeon. Skills are used. They either help out the PCs or they do not. Success in them are their own reward, so no need for a SC and no need for extra XP for a SC.Failing the Nature check is no different than failing a Perception check and not finding a secret door that leads to the next room in a normal dungeon. The skill failure limits one choice option of the PCs.From one perspective, the entire D&D gaming experience is just going from one room in a dungeon to another room. In other words, a flowchart of going from one scene in the story to the next scene.So to me, using a SC for moving through a swamp is ok, but not necessarily required or desired. It's not an individual "encounter" where combat isn't an option, so skills must be used. It's a collection of skill rolls based on the environment between one scene and the next scene that give some flavor and might add a bit of disease.No real difference than the Athletics skill rolls made in a dungeon where the PCs have to climb to get from one room to the next.So my confusion remains for a more typical use of a skill challenge (i.e. the players make decisions, rolls skills, and the skill challenge itself IS the encounter) and I'm still looking for a good example of it (PC said that he would post some). The wonkiness remains. Some PCs tend to be excluded because they don't have the required skills. They become the sidekicks to the superheroes of the skill challenge who are the ones with the primary skills. And even the superheroes are straightjacketed into a few skill options, no matter how well they try to describe their actions, they are still limited to rolling the same skills over and over.The mechanics and the spotlight on the PCs just seems to be wrong.In combat, every player can contribute, every player can shine, and every player has multiple viable options.In roleplaying, every player can contribute, every player can shine, and every player has multiple viable options.In puzzle solving, every player can contribute, every player can shine, and every player has multiple viable options.Not necessarily so with skill challenges.Skill challenges just seem so restrictive in options and only one or a few PCs shine. Yes, a different player can come up with a cool idea, but it's like watching Family Feud. Just because the other players clap their hands and say "Good answer, good answer" doesn't mean that the idea is really worthwhile. And when rolling skills, the greatest idea in the world doesn't mean much if the player rolls a 1 on the die.</blockquote>

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