Help with Mad Kings Banquet Act 1 Skill Challenge

My group has mad it to Bresk and we cut the session just as they got their rooms for the night. I had thought of doing the pre-audience prep via PBEM between sessions but have recently been inspired by the 4e thread on skill challenges to adapt the mechanic for this game.

Please sblock anything that might be spoilerish as a few of my players lurk here sometimes....

I am looking for some ideas on what sort of options to use.

This is not the exact 4e ruling, but how I intend on using the concept...
A skill challenge is an 'encounter' in which the characters attempt various skill checks. THe group 'wins' by racking up a given number of successes before 'losing' by racking up a number of failures.

The players are given the scenario and choose what to try. A skill check is assigned and the player has the option to select easy, normal, or hard. Succeding at a hard check nets two successes. Failing an easy check nets two failures.

So my question to all y'all intelligent folks out there, what sorts of skill attempts do you think are valid, what should x number of successes provide the group, and what should x number of failures cause?

[sblock]
The obvious first is Knowledge: Nobility that can be used to determine which nobles support which faction

If the Rogue is there, Gather Info will be used but the options are pretty open on this depending on what sort of questions he asks.

With 6 players and 2 hours in game before curfew is called I plan on having up to 12 skill checks involved.

As the group is 6th level, I plan on setting the DCs at:
Easy - 12
Normal - 16
Hard - 20
{thats 50% chance for a normal check at max cross class skill... does this look right?}
[/sblock]

Thanks in advance for the help. I hope to be able to turn this encounter into a good 'different' start to the session.

Wow, very cool idea...
[sblock]Though I'm not sold on the Players having the choice or an easy, normal or hard check... I seem to recall a 5 was the DC for an easy skill check in the DMG... even untrained. I would probably set the normal DC as 15. Success by 10 or more equals 2 successes and failure by 10 or more nets 2 failures. Whichever side reaches the goal first determines the outcome. You don't even have to balance the sides... for instance 10 successes would make the noble trust the PC's enough to reveal anything he may know... whereas 5 failures either offends him or gives him enough cause to walk away. Give an obitrary +2 for good roleplaying and the heroes should still come out on top.

Since I haven't made it to that adventure yet... I can't help you with what skill checks to use. Though I tend to treat Gather Information & Knowledge checks as small talk... Diplomacy & Intimidate as more detailed information. As always a Sense Motive to counter a Bluff check though NPC's would rather say nothing than lie to Mercenaries... bad things tend to happen otherwise.[/sblock]Hope this helps more than hinders,
William Holder

EDIT: Added to advice

Preciate the post

Since you haven't made it to that point yet, I will be sure to post up an after-action so you know how it went!

The game went well last Friday, and my 'beer and pretzal's group was a bit surprised to have an entire session without a battlemap

I ended up only giving a short description of how the challenge worked and a couple examples of what actions might be available. Then I let the players run with it...starting with the ones I know have more experience at off-the-cuff roleplaying.

Here is a snippet of the recap email I send {mainly to keep people on track with what happened from month to month}


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The evenings repast finished, the group split ways to try to gather information that would assist them in the audience with King Steppengaard.
Devon and Eid went to visit the house of Lord Iz, a barbaric lord of the steppes to the northwest. Devon demonstrated the martial strength in an attempt to encourage the house to side with Seaquin. At the brink of failure, Eid offered to demonstrate both the courage and martial skill by striking Devon's cat* from across the courtyard....while Devon still wore it!
The laughter and cat-calling of the watching mercenaries turned first to silence, and then to resounding cheers as the arrow sped across the yard and precisely skewered the cat, with nary a flinch from Devon.
Galen first went to the house of Lady Timor, attempting to convince her that the safety of the Glassteel cliffs would not protect her from the depredations of the Ragesians. He then approached Lord Megadon, the merchant lord of the coast, in an attempt to curry his favor. Despite a well worded presentation, the proxy for the lord was not impressed.
Soren went to the gamekeeper for Lord Rego and learned that the house was on good terms with Lord Megadon and Lady Namin. None of the three are appreciative of Seaquin.
Arcanis went from place to place and regaled folks with tales of past years and battles. Years of aggression from Ragesia and how only the combined forces of the southern nations were able to convince Emperor Coaltongue to call a truce.

Once the 10th bell rang, the group gathered in their room and talked over how to approach the king. The debate lasted well into the night with many chances to tell both Devon and Soren that drawing steel in the courtroom would not be a good thing to do...

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My group was hesitant at first, trying to tie actions to skills that were maxed out on thier character sheet, but eventually loosened up. After the game it was mentioned that now that they have a feel for how the system works they will be much more into the action the next time I use a skill challenge.

The successes changed how the story line went, for instance Lord Iz was convinced to not join in with King Steppengaard's march against Lord Gallo and instead prepare to join against the Ragesians... altho the PCs dont know that yet.
The failures, the few there were, happened to be with a goal that didn't really affect much. The most critical was the attempt to talk Lady Timor out of the glassteel cliffs. That will make a future encounter a bit more of a chilled reception.

For DCs, I ended up going with level +10 as the normal check, +/- 4 for hard/easy. This was mainly to allow cross-class and non-class skill checks. I think under 4e it will be easier for players to stop looking at thier character sheet for inspiration and just go for it.


* er, I suppose I have to explain Devon's cat...remember the dead mage in module #1, frozen with the dream shroud and his familiar cat? well... um, Devon is a totemic barbarian and he decided to keep the frozen dead cat as a charm. Since then the cat has been burned to crisp in module #2, gnawed on by a rat swarm in module #3, and finally taken to a taxidermist. Now it has a neat arrow hole in it.