See, part of what I do for a living is being an analyst and a software developer - I like to understand, I like rules and I'm used to sticking to rules.

As odd as it sounds, computers don't work any differently - they follow their rules to the letter and our human understanding is usually the thing that fails.

My point - for, gasp, I have one - is that I believe that the "rules" aspect of skill challenges, as described in the DMG has blinded me.

I looking at skill challenges as a way to completely orchestrate a non-combat event as some sort of a dice 'mini game' based on skills.

That's not exactly wrong, but even more so - not exactly right.

It pretty much had me sand-boxing and railroading players into a multiple answers gauntlet, in which the dice tell you if you had it right.

It felt odd because - to me - RPG is mostly about "thinking outside the box". And I was trying to build a bigger box.

Building my skill challenge, I was trying to figure out what was the story line I was going for and what my players were allowed to do.

Here is a recap of what I learned:

• A Skill challenge's goal is not about letting you avoid improvisation - it helps you prepare for it.
• Skill challenges are not just a 'dice mini game' - role play and creative thinking on the part of the player play a great role. The DM too!
• Skill challenges force you to consider failure as well as success as an interesting outcome.
• Planning cases for primary and secondary skills helps creating a more complete and fleshed out encounter.