Quote from: Bill;625814I want to create an rpg that has a basket weaver skill.

M74 Extended can do this. Just give the character a background of "basket weaver". Or a broader background that would include basket weaving. If nothing else you'd probably want to take either "urban basketweaver" or "rural basketweaver" Urban would likely give you knowledge of dealing with guilds and city regs where rural would likely give you knowledge of things like finding and harvesting your own reeds. Etc.

Quote from: Bill;625224That being said, who likes skill challenges, and why?

I use skill challenges. I just do not tell the players they are entering a skill challenge. I use the rules as a mechanical guideline to know when to wrap up the plot. It's a pacing mechanism with the player's determining the results. I usually have a list of events that could trigger a success or failure, but if the players come up with something I didn't consider, they get a check in progressing the skill challenge track.

The last time I played, my players were shocked to find out that I used skill challenges for the entirety of an investigation.

The real problem with Skill Challenges is they are mechanic that requires heavy GM adjudication without a frame of reference. In a way, I consider Skill Challenges to be one of the few old school mechanics in 4e. The rules allow the GM to run wars without having actual rules for wars.  I was blown away by the presentation of the skill challenges in the War supplement in Dragon magazine.

But overall, it's a shame SCs are not presented with clearer objectives and guidelines. Because I have a clear set of objectives, it's another tool in my GM toolbox, and I use them even in a non-4e campaign.

Quote from: RandallS;625885Urban would likely give you knowledge of dealing with guilds and city regs

Secret societies of creatures that look like humans but are in fact secretive and romantic predators of the night, using their supernatural abiities to create baskets and deposit them in the homes of ordinary people who are little more to them than providers of storage. They are embroiled in a constant game of deception as they struggle for dominance with bigger and better basket designs. Basket: The Weaving

Quote from: Zachary The First;625779In 4e, it was just hard-coded in as another system for a subsection of gamers who can't imagine not being able to win every encounter and situation, every time, or never having the right skill for the job at hand.

Except PCs fail skill challenges all the time. It's not an auto-win mechanic in the slightest.

Quote from: Exploderwizard;6257804E turned the whole exercise into a menu selective button mashing fest. Press your choice of X, Y, or Z repeatedly or in any combination enough times till you you win. Blech.

This is true for DM's who don't know how to properly use the skill challenge mechanic and mold the concept to what they want to achieve.

But not for the rest of us.

Quote from: Crabbyapples;625908In a way, I consider Skill Challenges to be one of the few old school mechanics in 4e.

This is why I love 4e. To me, 4e feels like an OD&D/Warhammer Quest hybrid. I get the boardgame skirmish combat and the total freeform non-combat rules.

Quote from: Spinachcat;625932This is why I love 4e. To me, 4e feels like an OD&D/Warhammer Quest hybrid. I get the boardgame skirmish combat and the total freeform non-combat rules.

I do not consider 4e a bad game. Very specific, even for a niche game, but not a bad one. Maybe it has something to do with my love for Warhammer Quest as well.

I'm a big WHQ fan as well. I think I played two "campaigns", both collapsing under their own weight (not necessarily a bad thing) around level 8.

Good times, but I never once thought of WHQ as D&D...it was its own game.