| I recently used a mash up of this idea, obsidian and my own quirk and used it with pretty good success.
Three obstacles or agents of failure to overcome.
DC is set per Obsidian with a quirk that the force/obstacle rolls a d20 to see if the DC changes by -2, 0, +2. (This is more to make it an dynamic rather than a flat static DC).
Players all roll once against each obstacle/force. One skill is primary and adds +2 to the roll.
Total successes overall are what matter and used Obsidian recommended success numbers. Partial successes would have resulted in lost surges or extra encounters. I award XP based on quest so there's no 'farming' of encounters for xp using a challenge result.
There was no question they'd make it to the lair, just what shape they'd get there in.
Example:
Find the swamp lair.
Obstacles/Forces Against the Players -
Find the trail.
Avoid the dangers of the swamps.
Approach undetected.
A handwave of the success count on the three obstacles would have resulted in non-hardcoded results. Example if they got the fewest successes on the find the trail check then they arrived later with bad consequences. Fewest on the avoid the dangers and they show up with fewer surges. Fewest on the approach undetected and lair guards know they're coming or they run into an unecessary fight (patrol) that saps their resources.
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