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Message: <blockquote data-quote="D'karr" data-source="post: 6578267" data-attributes="member: 336">I believe the issue is one of significance and suitability.  If a task is not really significant then a skill challenge might be used but it's not like it's necessary.  It does not matter if you use a skill challenge or not.  After all where is the challenge if there is no significance to the goal.  Skill Challenges are meant for goals that are significant to the emerging game.  The emerging story in which the PCs are somehow challenged.For example if my goal was to craft the first Dragonlance in The War of the Lance, that is a suitably significant goal.  Therefore a skill challenge might be a good way to address that.  Part of the challenge might be gathering materials or craftsmen.  Finding the secret to the lances, and the actual crafting.  It would also be important to note that the crafting of the Dragonlance might be a skill challenge or multiple challenges posed across a large span of time.  Finding the secret might be a challenge that happens in session 1 but the actual crafting does not happen until session 7, for example.  The same might be said about an important magical item that the PCs might want to craft.  When it comes to the boat the significance only emerges based on the situation.  Is part of the character's plan to use a boat to escape across the lake from the dragonarmies that are surrounding them?  Is there a boat readily available?  No, then maybe crafting a boat becomes important.  The goal might be significant.  Crafting a boat as part of my downtime activities, not really significant.Also note that in a skill challenge the failure of the skill challenge is not supposed to be a show stopper, it is a disadvantage (sometimes a severe one).  When crafting a boat for escaping from the dragonarmies a failure in that challenge is not that we don't get a boat.  The failure might be that we delay too much and end up running into a patrol, or the boat is so poorly constructed that we end up sinking off shore and have to make our way with depleted resources (loss of HP, HS, Action Points, etc.)  Those are all complications/disadvantages, but they don't short circuit the game.  If we fail to craft the Dragonlance, does that mean that we break the lance?  Is that a show stopper?  If it is then that is not an appropriate failure for the challenge.  Then again having the lance break when used against a dragon is a pretty interesting disadvantage.  All these things are part of what make skill challenges an appropriate tool.  If a goal is a single roll task then it does not require a skill challenge.  When to use and when not to use a skill challenge is part of knowing the appropriateness of the tool.As someone mentioned crafting a boat, depending on context, is one of those things that are probably not appropriate as a skill challenge because of significance.</blockquote>

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