Quote Originally Posted by Skrum View Post
I guess, but that's an awful lot of work on the DM's part. The skill system alone is about 50% complete by my estimation, and that's not even factoring in wanting to use skills when character death is potentially on the line. I'd be extremely underwhelmed by a DM that created a whole scenario and then was like "Roll athletics. Oh wow, 11? Looks like you fell. The crevasse is 700 ft deep, so...you died." For skill checks to be used that way, it can't just be a single roll, and it can't just be the DM asking for specific rolls. Player agency has to be inserted somewhere. And making a skill system that supported proper branching Skill Challenges, it's no small feat (I've tried!)
I think, in that scenario, it'd depend on what was happening that went into that Athletics roll. Are they trying to jump across? Is that the only way to get across the crevasse? Because I think at my table a player who tries to jump across a crevasse and fails to do so just... falls the 700 feet and dies, so they're trained to not try to do that if they don't have to. Presumably they could throw something across to use as an anchor -- lasso a rock or something, I dunno -- or construct a temporary bridge, or go around to somewhere easier. And if I, as the DM, know the crevasse is 700' deep and that it's a long way to the other side, I'm going to have to communicate that in a way that makes them make intelligent decisions, because I don't want to be responsible for my player thinking it's a trivial jump when it's not. There have to be multiple ways to get across that ravine, and if there aren't there's gotta be a reason why.