Wow, this thread readlly did take off. Very cool. Lots of good stuff.
An idea here, purely for a game-mechanic-balance, is to allow a certain number of chances. That way those obstacles can still be obstacles without the single all-or-nothing aspect. Just an idea.
Maybe SD can come into play here. This is like me and putting the prefab furniture together. My low SD means that I get frustrated fast with these types of projects and can mess them up - hence, 'failing' at something even when taking time to do it. Maybe SD can be used as a limiting factor. That thief might be fantastic at lock-picking, but when he does fail his low SD means he gets too frustrated to keep trying. Heck, maybe he won't even wait for the fighter to kick in the door - he may try that himself.
Of course, there are numerous ways to limit their time, in game, but those cannot be there everytime.
Thor, I couldn't disagree more. Interactions with NPCs, information gathering, solving puzzles (whether they are presented as puzzles or not), learning to work together as a team, creating combat and scouting strategies, and trying to obtain assistance from NPCs are all things characters can do with few or no rolls.
Though, the solving puzzles thing (with a caveat, see below*) and learning to work together as a team are things that usually don't require skill rolls and can be very fun to enact, the others have numerous skills that cover them. Yes, I prefer to do them in combined manner - using the skill rolls, but modifiying them by how well or poorly the
player is handling the 'role'-playing.
*The character usually has much different "stats" & skills than the player so they should not be punished (too much) for not being as good as their character. I'm not a (compleat) idiot, but I am sure a character with a 101 reasoning , a 98 memory, & a 99 intuition would be able to handle puzzles much, much better. The same goes for social skills and presence.
I firmly believe that RPGs are an exercise in the balance between the 'role'playing and the 'roll'playing. Usually, I lean more toward the former, but I always try to keep the latter in mind as I game.
1st level characters are weak, and like many people said, they should be. My only input on this is that to go out adventuring
on your own, you shouldn't be 1st level. But that's just
my take on the subject.