Sounds like how I use to rp in pen and paper rp's and on mushes/muxes, mucks where I use to rp online.
There they way folks would post would be often something like:
Littlefoot tries to push the log into the river.
Littlefoot whips his tail, trying to hit the fastbiter in the ankle to trip him.
Then the person running the rp (called at TinyPlot or TP) would describe what happened, if the attempt was successful or not, a partial success, ect.
Not sure if that is what you mean.
Also when I gmed a bit I tired to cut down on dice rolling if I could. Like if the chars watched the pattern of the guards and waited a minute after he was around the corner, or 2 minutes and knew he'd not be back for say 20 minutes and 1 tried to pick a lock I'd not have them roll, especially if they were experts or masters at lock picking I'd likely say they succeeded, picking an amount of time it took, say 2 minutes roughly, since they could pick it faster, but maybe were a bit nervous so ti took longer, it's a high security lock ect. If it were the door to Darth Vader's or the Emperor's throne room or bed room, that would take a lot longer and being at least Masters if not higher then a master & would take longer then a minute or 2.