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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lacyon" data-source="post: 4191835" data-attributes="member: 63046">In the prototypical skill challenge (Escape From Sembia) and the example of the crushing walls trap, yes. You pretty much have to be trying to escape, or you'll fail. One team members successes can be detailed as rescuing another from his or her failures, but throwing up your arms and saying "I'll just let Bob do all the work" isn't really an option.Yes. If all your "ands" hold, you probably shouldn't use a skill challenge. If your players are willing to play along, then it can work anyway, but if they're hardcore about being optimal, it's not worth the energy.The accumulated failures are time pressure. If 4 failures loses the challenge, and 6 wins it, you cannot roll more than 9 times in total. The only way you can reach the 9th roll and not already be done with the challenge is by having 5 successes and 3 failures accumulated. That means for a 5-person party, less than two "rounds" (where a round is whatever abstract unit of time is appropriate for the situation, but enough time for everyone to act at least once). For a 4-person party, it's just over 9 rounds.It's possible (accumulate 4 failures right away) to botch the thing so badly that escape withing the next 5 "turns" becomes impossible - that's not a problem in my mind.Then don't look at it as making things worse - failure happens automatically, and doesn't rely on what the PCs do. The walls are crushing in (or the guards are chasing you down) and if you do nothing they win. It's only by overcoming some aspect of the challenge that the PC makes a step towards overcoming the challenge as a whole. "Failure" in this case just means failing to do anything useful with the time you have before the trap finishes killing you.Sure thing.</blockquote>

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