Stalker0's Obsidian Skill Challenge System (NEW VERSION: 1.2!!!)

Primitive Screwhead · Jun 17, 2011

For the chase, I tend to fall back on 'Hot Pursuit'..

But yes, the current rules lack a good system for handling a single character exploring in advance of the group.. whether it be a rogue sneaking ahead in a dungeon, a thief scouting in town, a wizard researching in a library, or the bard working the court for information...

Basically some means to avoid having most of the table bored to tears while one character works through details.. without skimping the players opportunities to enjoy the skills they invested in or losing details of the world they adventure in.

Should we split this idea out and see what folks here can come up with?

AbdulAlhazred · Jun 17, 2011

I think where I would have difficulty with it is where exactly does it start and end? 'Scouting' covers a fairly wide range of situations. A character could be scouting the countryside ahead of the party over a period of hours or even days. OTOH the rogue could be checking out which of 2 corridors the party should traverse in a dungeon. There's a rather different scope of action there. I'm not sure you can have one system that covers both of those very easily, so does there need to be a narrowing of focus? Or at least a toolkit that has various knobs that can be tweaked.

Personally I've found I use SCs more than ever, but I now tend to define them more in terms of what is to be gained, what is at stake, and what resources are available (beyond the characters themselves). The idea is to erase the boundaries between the challenge and the rest of play. I doubt the players in my game have any idea that most SCs are even happening. In essence they are more valuable as a design tool for the DM than anything else.

Morfedel · Jun 29, 2011

I've been trying to download the file, but it's coming in corrupted.

Stalker0 · May 17, 2012

So...its been nearly 4 years since I wrote this. Wow, time flies!

I thought I would peak back in and gather any feedback from people still using the system. Do you still use it, still like it? Do the DCs feel right?

RangerWickett · May 17, 2012

I've used your system as the baseline for skill challenges in ZEITGEIST, though things get tweaked and shuffled to keep things interesting. Normally I keep the challenge invisible, and just work the checks needed into a narrative, but some big montage events I make clear are skill challenges.

Like, "You have 7 weeks to prepare for an overseas spy mission. Each week you can make one effort to acquire resources, improve your cover, or keep enemy spies from finding out your plans." Then I use your system to determine how hard the checks should be and what the odds are of success, partial success, and failure.

AbdulAlhazred · May 17, 2012

Stalker0 said:
So...its been nearly 4 years since I wrote this. Wow, time flies!

I thought I would peak back in and gather any feedback from people still using the system. Do you still use it, still like it? Do the DCs feel right?

I found it to be useful as a system for challenges that were fairly linear and had fixed endpoints (a chariot race is a perfect example). It is a good alternative to the official system, though I think experience has shown the official system is more flexible when you really use all of its capabilities.

I think the DCs are not bad. You might consider revising them upward a tad. PCs these days in 4e tend to have a bit higher skill bonus. 1-2 points should be enough, though it is hard to generalize about high level PCs. You'll probably find that in Epic you'll have a few PCs that succeed 100% on the lead skills and the rest have no chance and have to find some secondaries to work with. Not really sure there's a fix for that, if one were needed. Kind of in the nature of the way 4e skills are designed.

Stalker0 · May 18, 2012

RangerWickett said:
I've used your system as the baseline for skill challenges in ZEITGEIST, though things get tweaked and shuffled to keep things interesting. Normally I keep the challenge invisible, and just work the checks needed into a narrative, but some big montage events I make clear are skill challenges.

Like, "You have 7 weeks to prepare for an overseas spy mission. Each week you can make one effort to acquire resources, improve your cover, or keep enemy spies from finding out your plans." Then I use your system to determine how hard the checks should be and what the odds are of success, partial success, and failure.

I think Zeitgeist has been a wonderful module so far, so I'm honored by the inclusion!

Primitive Screwhead · May 18, 2012

I use these rules and dcs for all skill challenges, with alterations to emulate skirmish combats. Love it and will port to 5e if wotc wont adopt it!

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Dannyalcatraz · May 22, 2012

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jayoungr · Nov 17, 2012

I see this thread has been quiet for a while, but I hope someone can help me. I'm running a Star Wars Saga Edition game, and I've already tried running one Obsidian challenge in it. I'm basically pleased with the result and would like to do more, but there are some things about the system as written that I still don't get. I was hoping someone with experience could describe how it works in a little more detail.

1. How does having the whole group roll at once for a round actually work, in practical terms? Does this mean that nobody in the group can build off anyone else's action until the next round, when they find out whether it succeeded? Does it mean that the GM has to keep track of exactly who succeeded and who failed, and if so, isn't it easier to remember if they roll one by one? (I ended up having my group roll one at a time when I did my challenge, but I did feel that spoiled a bit of suspense.)

2. In a basic three-round challenge, do you typically introduce new circumstances with each round, or do you save that for the "large challenges"?

3. If anyone's tried using Obsidian with SWSE, do you feel that the DCs are appropriate or too high? I dropped the DCs for my level 1 party from 18 to 15. They didn't blow the challenge away, getting exactly the number of successes required to beat the challenge, but perhaps the math works better leaving the DCs where they are and I shouldn't mess with it?

Any help would be much appreciated! A recording or roll-by-roll transcription of a sample Obsidian challenge would be ideal, if anyone knows where such a thing could be found.