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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Neonchameleon" data-source="post: 6269586" data-attributes="member: 87792">Find a different game than D&D I'd suggest.  D&D is very combat heavy - find something that gives as much weight to non-combat solutions as it does to combat ones.  It's what the rules point you at; they give more weight to combat than anything else except spellcasting (and that mostly for combat). [MENTION=23240]steenan[/MENTION]'s already suggested <a href="http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/" target="_blank">Fate Core</a>, Smallville, and Mouse Guard.  To that I'd add <a href="http://apocalypse-world.com/" target="_blank">Apocalypse World</a>, <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/85727/Leverage-Roleplaying-Game" target="_blank">Leverage</a>, <a href="http://www.pelgranepress.com/?cat=222" target="_blank">Hillfolk</a>, <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/89003/Nobilis-The-Essentials-Volume-1" target="_blank">Nobilis</a>, and <a href="http://www.bullypulpitgames.com/games/fiasco/" target="_blank">Fiasco</a>.  <a href="http://buriedwithoutceremony.com/monsterhearts/" target="_blank">Monsterhearts</a> if you feel up to it (<a href="http://www.flamesrising.com/monsterhearts-rpg-review/" target="_blank">many won't, for good reason</a>).Hmm... just current experiences for me.Last night in my Firefly game, (not linked because this is the playtest version) the PCs were in a cheat-like-there's-no-tomorrow boat race.  Which included trying to drive their boat, trying to keep it afloat, trying to investigate the other crews to work out how they would cheat, trying to shame the race organiser into giving them their winnings, and above all trying to stay afloat in the boat race enough to win - which included when they were sinking and the only boat in front of them had no engines, driving their boat up the other one's back and using its bouyancy to keep theirs afloat long enough to cross the line.  Meanwhile when their boat was invaded by drunks jumping on, the drunk doctor invited two of them to join him at the bar (in the water) through persuasion while the third person on the boat kept hold of the last one so they had a full crew.  Very easy to run.Currently in my Monsterhearts play by forum game, my Queen is trying to rig a ballot (naturally), to rescue her best friend from as many of the problems as she can from becoming pregnant, to stay friends with everyone.  She's currently in darkest self and in a confession where she's trying to bring down the priest she's confessing to - or to find a way out of darkest self.  Oh, and to redeem the soul of an angel, to bring down a demon that's destroyed worlds, and try and avoid the attention of one of the Old Gods, all while keeping her grades up and concealing her dyslexia, and dealing with her budding psychic powers.  And the thing her best friend is pregnant with is spawn of the demon that has destroyed worlds.  Number of times she's physically lashed out at someone in the campaign so far: once (one attack roll.  It was a mistake - but what should you do when you're woken up outside the boys' dormitories having been summoned by black magic because the demon's rebellious servant (another PC) both has a crush on you and wants your help?)You're confusing the initial guidance (terrible) with the mechanics themselves, which [MENTION=42582]pemerton[/MENTION] and I (and many of the other 4e fans) use very successfully.  But we use them as improv and pacing mechanics. This is false.  Skill challenges do not abstract away character skill - they use the skill of the character.  They do not abstract away the difficulty of what the character is being attempted in the short run, they merely group it into easy, medium, and hard.  Player skill is setting such things up. This is false.  See point 1. You say organic as if that is necessarily a good thing.  Slime moulds, the smallpox virus, hemlock, and cancer are all organic.  And most of them are pretty bad things.Most experienced GMs do not need skill challenges.  If they are any good at all, they have a decent handle on pacing and difficulty.  On the other hand such tools are extremely useful for novice GMs who do not want to be thrown in the deep end and with a splash of common sense can be used by experienced GMs. This is false.  You have exactly the same number of branching points in a skill challenge as you do in an equivalent number of skill rolls.  Because a skill challenge contains an equivalent number of skill rolls, each of which is a skill roll and changes the fiction in exactly the way a skill roll should.Or tells the DM they can easily handle the mechanical side of whatever insanity the PCs can come up with without needing to slow things down much.  And thereby allows a new DM to run anarchy while still being supported by the rules.Skill challenges are like scaffolding.  Scaffolding makes ugly buildings.  But that's because scaffolding isn't meant to be a building.  It's to allow you to build a building underneath it much more easily. Abolish skill checks and skill systems!  After all those are generic systems for resolving problems.</blockquote>

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