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This is another repost from my blog on the Geek. Comments are welcome.

Work continues on the framework for skill challenges in D&D 4E that I've discussed previously. I think the ideas I've presented in my earlier posts are solid and can be developed into something quite snazzy. I thought I'd make an update here to give myself a chance to talk it through, as it were - I often find I think better (and discover more mistakes) when I present an idea to someone else, in this case you who are reading this.

[b]1. Progress Tracks and Effect Rolls[/b]
Each skill challenge will have at least one [i]main progress track[/i] measuring the party's success (corresponding to counting successes in the RAW version) and a single [i]main setback track[/i] counting the effects of failures (corresponding to counting

That thing that I felt was missing? Found it.

[b]Idea the Fourth: Hindrances[/b]
(I got enough thinking done on status effects that they in combination with this have grown into a full-scale idea, just in case anyone's wondering what happened to the last .5 idea.)

Hindrances are a bit like monsters: they have a hit point-equivalent reduced through effect rolls and they attack the characters' passive skill values, giving them status effects and reducing their progress, but also - perhaps primarily - increasing the failure track.

Hindrances are created by combining two parts: [i]category [/i]and [i]behavior[/i]. Category is something like Social, Geographical, Mechanical or Knowledge and determines which skills are used to combat it. Behavior is something like Barrier, Puzzle or Aggressor and