Most of the people I play with in Society seem very adamant that there is only one way to accomplish many Factions goals and it is often by making a single skill check. This idea seems very wrong to me for a few reasons. I would like some outside input.
I have been running Non-society games for years, and after a while I stopped planning solutions to many problems because my players always came up with creative ways of solving things that I didn't anticipate. This was a lot of fun for all of us.
I think Piazo likes to encourage this type of creativity and Role Play, as expressed in the Guide to Society Play paragraph "Creative Solutions Sometimes during the course of a scenario, your players might surprise you with a creative solution to an encounter (or the entire scenario) that you didn’t see coming and that isn’t expressly covered in the scenario. If, for example, your players manage to roleplay their way through a combat and successfully accomplish the goal of that encounter without killing the antagonist, give the PCs the same reward they would have gained had they defeated their opponent in combat. If that scene specifically calls for the PCs to receive gold piece rewards based on the gear collected from the defeated combatants, instead allow the PCs to find a chest of gold (or something similar) that gives them the same rewards. Additionally, if the PCs roleplayed past an NPC who carries a specific potion or scroll that the PCs might be granted access to on the scenario’s Chronicle sheet, don’t cross that item off the sheet—instead, allow the PCs to find the item elsewhere as a reward for creatively resolving the encounter without resorting to combat. Pathfinder Society Organized Play never wants to give the impression that the only way to solve a problem is to kill it—does rewarding the creative use of skills and roleplaying not only make Society games more fun for the players, but it also gives you, the GM, a level of flexibility in ensuring your players receive the rewards they are due."
While this paragraph directly talks about combat and loot, it also says "for example" and directly lends itself to other problem reward systems like faction prestige.
In the last two games I have played, I have had faction missions that seemed best accomplished by my character with means outside of the listed "DC X, Y check".
One scenario I needed to make a Knowledge Arcana check to discover a gem inside of a small item that could be removed and given to my faction leader. There were enough details in my initial instructions that I was 90% certain that the gem she wanted was in this thing. Why couldn't I just bring the whole container back to her and let her mages pop it open? There was nothing to keep the whole container in the area.
In the very next scenario I played, I needed to appraise an extremely large item, a task that I thought best accomplished by charming a skilled NPC (there were lots of people in the area that knew a lot about this object; arguable that could tell me everything I needed to know about it without even looking at it) into doing the appraisal after event A had occurred. However, the book states that I personally get free appraise checks on it daily when trying to accomplish a menial task prior to event A. I even told the GM that I would convince the more knowledgeable NPCs (via charm and diplomacy) to appraise this for me before or after event A (even though after made much more sense), but he insisted that it could only be done by me during the degrading other task that really didn't have very much of anything to do with an appraise check. Ultimately, he did let me make the check in the time it would have taken to do the other "ditchdigger job" without having to actually get my hands dirty, but would not allow me to employ a local specialist to provide my leaders with a more accurate appraisal report.
In both cases, my solution perfectly met the demands of the challenge as described by my mentors, but everyone else at the table that spoke up seemed to think that in Society play it is less about creative (and in the last example better) solutions, and more about "can you make a skill check to get a prestige point."
Thoughts?
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There have been lots of discussions of this in the past. The bottom line is : Expect extreme table variance in what is allowed.
The issue isn't straight forward. One persons "creative solution" can be another persons "cheesy attempt to get around the module".
Or opinions can just disagree as to whether the leader would find something acceptable
For example, I find your first example questionable. Your faction leader expected to be handed a small gem. Instead, they get a large container that they then have to get analyzed (presumably by hiring an expert or calling in another favour). I can certainly see them being less impressed than if you just gave them the gem.
Speaking personally, I'll allow considerable variation from what the scenario says but not infinite variation. Sometimes I say yes, sometimes no.
I'll allow more variation if the given solution is really silly.
I can somewhat see your point on the first example. Obviously my solution met the end goal, but it was ever so slightly less desirable if for some reason my leaders couldn't make the check. In that case I would have been willing to get someone to open it prior to giving it to them.
I wasn't trying to Cheese any goals. In the second example, I was actually just a charm spell away from erasing 3/4 of the entire scenario (We had to do a large favor for a lady so she would give the Pathfinders something. I considered having her hold up her end of the bargain first and us being free to walk away), but I told the DM up front "I don't know how much this would bypass and I am fine with just saying it doesn't work." Ultimately I am glad he didn't let us just skip the scenario, but I don't think that charming someone else into using their skills in a non-threatening, non-plot altering way for you is cheese, it is simply.....charming.
I have tried looking for some older threads about this subject that you mentioned, but I am having problems locating them. If you could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it.