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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MrMyth" data-source="post: 5468907" data-attributes="member: 61155">Ok, if your comments were intended mainly for that SC in particular, I admit to being much more able to understand where you are coming from.  But I dunno. Even then, it seems like exaggeration. The group has scenery to interact with and remember - a rickety boat to tinker around with, an algae-filled pond to explore, snakes erupting forth out of the bog.  I admit that it may not be for everyone. But many people do like that sort grounding the world in this sort of flavor, to feel like traveling across the countryside is a genuine task, and you aren't just fast-forward teleporting to the next stop in the game. You could handle it in various ways - simply description, intersperse it with combats and random encounters, etc - but the skill challenge approach also seems a viable one. The players get to feel their characters dealing with the dangers of the swamp and overcoming them.  It at least seems like a good option to have, for those who thrive on that sort of in-depth exploration.   I actually tend to like a combination of the two, an overall 'exploration' skill challenge that breaks down into mini-scenes along the way, some of which could be interaction, or combat, or the like. And it sounds like that is what the 'swamp expedition' ended up being overall, between the skill challenge and the other possible encounters along the way.  EDIT: For myself, I probably wouldn't go with quite as generic pieces of scenery as seen in the 'Finding the Ziggurat' skill challenge. Or rather... one thing I like to do is make sure that every mini-scene serves a second purpose. Whether that is providing some background for the setting, or providing useful clues or tools for future plot, I've found that having that second layer can really help players thrive on the RP opportunities of such things.  What sort of things am I talking about? Well, let's take that boat they found, for example. Why is it there? Did it belong to some earlier explorer looking for the Ziggurat? Or a native of the swamp?  Later, we have the blue mud with the stone altar. Who worshipped here, and what was worshipped? Now, these are all sorts of questions the Jester probably has some answer to if the PCs do investigate deeper, even if there wasn't a need to flesh them out in the Skill challenge itself. But it is the sort of thing I find that players like - finding markers of lost civilizations or wild tribes.  You can even support it with other elements elsewhere. If it does belong to swamp tribefolk, maybe the party were warned about them before entering the swamp. Throughout their journey, they run across other signs of them, like the altar. Even if they never actually encounter them, having those details build together helps give the feeling of being in a living, breathing world.  That can be the advantage of the 'swamp expedition' - even if it features no other encounters at all, it helps ground the PCs in the setting. Again, you don't need to run it as a skill challenge in order to do so, but it certainly is a viable framework for this sort of exploration.</blockquote>

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