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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KarinsDad" data-source="post: 5703527" data-attributes="member: 2011">I seem to recall that you brought up earlier editions.And what happens if two players or even three players want to be the Expert? What if a player doesn't want to be made fun of as the Backup?Dynamic roles sound like they will work better in theory than practice. Although intriguing, this doesn't sound like something that will be easy to implement and to teach players. The game system is complicated enough without having discussions at the beginning of every skill challenge where the players plan out ahead of time which PC will be taking which role.Roleplaying becomes game mechanics decision making.Player 2: "I forgot. Kragnor has Perception. Maybe we should make him the lookout instead of the grunt."Player 3: "Well if Kragnor is the lookout, can Max be the expert?"Player 1: "No, Celine has to be the expert because we need to convince the barkeep. Both Kragnor and Max can be lookouts."Player 3: "But if they are both lookouts, then we won't have a grunt."Even in combat, whenever a group decision has to be made, it takes a while as people discuss. Whenever each player makes his own decisions without group consensus, it tends to go much faster.And then as discussion is done on which role each PC will take, it could morph into a discussion as to how the group should handle the skill challenge.Player 2: "Ok, so if Celine is the expert and talks to the barkeep, Max will try to distract the drunk with Bluff."Instead of the spontaneity of (at least for our group's) 4E's skill challenges, there could easily be a lot of pre-planning of them with such a system. It might not happen with every group, but people are people.I just see dynamic non-combat roles as having a lot of potential issues that are not necessary in the current system of each player using the PC's skills the best way s/he can as part of a spontaneous roleplaying session.Does it even sound fun to have a table discussion as to who is going to take the grunt role? Doesn't that just sound like a big old game mechanics discussion? meh. Personally, I'd rather spend that time roleplaying the skill challenge.</blockquote>

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