i. direct confrontation or combat
ii. becoming stealth to reach the objective and/or to escape
iii. using diplomatic skill to one way only in persuade, intimidate or bribe
iv. solve a puzzle and reach the objective
What i want to talk about is "solving a problem creatively", for example
The player character is in a building where multiple guards patrolling, the player character is in a room. the player objective is at the lower level, there is an open window at the other room....using the current system surely the player have two option that is kill them all, or sneak to bypass the guards reaching the exit
Now what about...in the room where the player character is, there are some clothes lying around, in the other room there is a heavy statue next to the open window. The player character have an option to collect those clothes, tie them up together making a "rope", then slowly sneak or by using good timing to bypass the patrolling guard to get into the next room, tie the "rope" to the statue, and climb down through the open window....
Another situation...the player need to be diplomatic with an NPC to get the objective...using the current system, we only have one shot in persuade, intimidate or bribe.
Now what about...if we failed the first attempt, there are several dialogue options to trick, barter or plea....i mean it is like this below
PC : (persuade) I need to get inside, i have some news to X person (failed)
Guard : Uh'uh...no one may enter
PC : {plea) Pleaseee...this is important (failed)
Guard : No!
PC : (trick) Look over there, what is that? (success)
Guard : What..what..?
While the guard distracted the player character run into the building. Of course all the attempts will take count on perks or speech level
I think, it will be more interesting and alive