Any New Info on Skill Encounters?

hbarsquared · Mar 4, 2008

Has anyone returned from D&DXP that played Escape from Sembia have any additional thoughts on the "chase scene" and the use of skills therein?

I think I've gleaned the basics... DC 11, 15, 19 for easy, medium, hard attempts, and characters can use practically any skill to gain any advantage (Acrobatics to climb rooftops, Stealth to lose oneself in the crowd, History to find an entrance to the underground sewers).

But what were the specifics of our experiences? Did the character describe the action, the DM, or both? What were the mechanical results of each of the three type of checks? How did they interact with the guards?

We have the character sheets, the monsters, and various other samples to construct an at-home delve... but we don't have the full experiences of the Skills, yet, which I am very much interested in compiling and implementing.

So, who out there would like to expound on this?

Christian · Mar 4, 2008

C'mon, somebody must have something!

Benimoto · Mar 4, 2008

That was about what I got out of playing. Failing an easy check gave you a -2 on future checks, and succeeding on a hard check gave you a +2. We described what our character was doing and the DM described the results.

I got the vague impression that there may have been something else going on, like that only certain skills would actually count towards success in the encounter, but that's only a hunch.

hbarsquared · Mar 5, 2008

Well, that's a useful clue... A -2 on future checks on a fail, +2 for a success.

So: failing on an easy gives you a future -2 ...
What about a fail on a medium or hard?

And: succeeding on a hard gives you a future +2 ...
What about succeeding on an easy or medium?

Am I correct in understanding this?

It seems like I'm missing something... Why choose easy if you have no penalty by failing at the medium DC? What's the point of getting +2 on future checks if you are already succeeding at a hard check?

Thanks for the info, though!

Primitive Screwhead · Mar 5, 2008

jeremy_dnd said:
What's the point of getting +2 on future checks if you are already succeeding at a hard check?

A medium check would be the 'norm'. Making a hard check would get you a leg up on the pursuit, so it gets easier to get away from or close with your enemy. Same deal with failing an easy check..

This sounds alot like Hot Pursuit

Any other details on the scene?

JVisgaitis · Mar 5, 2008

The mechanics were interesting. The DM I had wasn't very good and he didn't describe much at all. He pretty much moved a "miniature" closer to us if we failed the roll. He didn't really explain much about what was going on until we got away. Can someone explain this a bit more indepth? I'd love to know how a good DM handled it.

FadedC · Mar 5, 2008

From what I was told everyone makes a skill check in turn. You needed 4 successes to win and 4 failures to lose. If you fail an easy check "something bad" happens. If you succeed at a hard check "something good" happens. I suspect the DM has a fair amount of freedom in deciding what something bad or something good means.

This is all based on second hand info so I can't vouch for it's accuracy.

keterys · Mar 5, 2008

Yeah, basically we went around the table making stuff up. A couple of us were better at it than a couple others, so when they were confused we moved to the next. Everything at my table was done by description, with the player thinking up the idea and a description (usually) and the DM describing the results.

Lessee - if I recall correctly...
Insight was used to find a group of greedy merchants who fought over some coins tossed in the street
Bluff was used to convince some people the guards were doing something bad
Streetwise was used to figure out a good way to go
Acrobatics and stealth were used to elude guards
History was used to find a sewer entrance
Athletics was used to hurl the grate to the sewer entrance at the one lone guard who was still following

A couple times the DM gave us +2 to the roll if it sounded particularly good (DM's Friend). The DCs could have been 10/15/20, but never rolled the #s needed to verify

cdrcjsn · Mar 5, 2008

lussmanj from the forums over at giantitp.com says the following about his experience at DDXP.

We had one event in the module "Escape From Sembia" in which the players had to make a number of skill checks in order to get out of the city unseen. Each player made a wager on what skill check they could hit hit (easy was 11, moderate 14, and difficult 18) and then rolled the check. If they beat their wager on moderate, the team got a success, and if they missed it, they got a loss. If they made it on easy, they got a success but if they missed it, they got 2 losses. If they succeeded at hard, they got a chance to make a 2nd skill check in another skill for a bonus point. The goal was to get to a certain amount of successes before getting a number of defeats. Our team failed because we got 4 defeats before we got to 6 successes (had 5!) and because of that, we got out, but our faces were seen. Later, we had an encounter with some people who started out as hostile to us because they knew who we were and were waiting for us. Since they had us pinned at a bridge and we had a letter they wanted, we had to fight them. If we had been successful earlier, we could have bluffed them with a "these are not the droids you are looking for" ruse. It was kind of fun, and involved the whole group in skill checks instead of just 1 face character.

Examples of checks made
The Eladrin Ranger hid, and because his hide was so high chose difficult, and when he made the check got a free preception check to notice a short cut out for a bonus success.
The dwarf just booked it, making endurance checks to outrun the guards. He chose moderate and succeeded and got the hell out of Dodge.
I as the paladin tried to use diplomacy to find someone to help us, but failed my moderate check and the person I asked tipped off the guards.
etc...

I find the concept of skill wagers interesting, and is apparently used in some other RPGs. Anyone else have any experience with such a system?

Derren · Mar 5, 2008

So instead of reacting to the actual situation you simply say "I want to roll skill X" and when you succeed 6 times you have "won" this skill encounter?

Any New Info on Skill Encounters?

hbarsquared

Quantum Chronomancer

Christian

Explorer

Benimoto

First Post

hbarsquared

Quantum Chronomancer

Primitive Screwhead

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JVisgaitis

Explorer

FadedC

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keterys

First Post

cdrcjsn

First Post

Derren

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