Help Required - Design me a Skill Challenge

vagabundo · Apr 27, 2008

I'm running a 4e game at the moment and I am designing a skill challenge for next weeks game.

Here is the setup, all ideas gratefully accepted:

A small fortified village in a dangerous area. Just before the PCs arrive a situation has developed. When the PCs arrive an elder in the village, a retired Border Ranger, interviews the PCs at the gate. He is expecting them and has a mission for them. However before he can discuss it the situation must be resolved.

He is only back in the village an hour before, out training Border Ranger initiates, when he is informed that a traveler arrived that morning claiming he is injured. He was permitted access, in spite of strict rules for dealing with strangers. The Elder believes that the gate guard was influenced magically. He went immediately to the Inn, where the stranger was given a room. The stranger was gone, he is loose in the village.

The Elder believes that this human was in fact an undead shapeshifter and the hunt for the creature is on. The creature has killed a seamstress in a small house, next to the Inn and hidden the body in the crawl space under her house. He is now masquerading as the seamstress.

I want the Skill Challenge to expose the shapeshifter. The challenge is time sensitive, if the shapeshifter is left too long it will dispose of the body and will psychically perfect it's disguise from others in the village. It's target is the Elder. The village will assume that the Traveler left the village, a mystery, and soon forget.

Anyway, I'm looking for some ideas if the PCs start flagging and some structure (DCs) for the challenge. I'm not actully sure how skill challenges work, Ive check the treads on them but they lack details.

Thanks

The Little Raven · Apr 27, 2008

Personally, I'd handle the investigation through the characters, not the Elder. Have the Elder be told that the policy on strangers was violated, but he doesn't have time to deal with what could be a small matter, so he hires the PCs to do it. They should be the ones to discover the mental influence on the guard, and whatever clues lead the Elder to believe it's an undead shapeshifter (that's quite an unexplained jump in the Elder's conclusions).

Turn the Skill Challenge into multiple small challenges, divided by phases in the investigation. For example, "phase 1" would be "discover mental influence on the gate guard," which could be done with Arcana checks (you notice the lingering effects of a charm or whatever), Insight (the guard seems to be acting a bit strange), Diplomacy (talk the guard into sharing the event with you, and you find discrepancies and oddities in the story), or whatever. Then, you move on to "phase 2," where you need to "discover the stranger's true nature." Does his room provide any details (Intimidate/Diplomacy to convince the innkeeper, Perception to search the room)? Are any of those clues magical in nature (Arcana)? Does the innkeeper or any citizen remember anything strange about the fellow (Diplomacy)?

I hope that helps.

Rechan · Apr 27, 2008

Okay. As far as I understand skill challenges, they don't measure "Failure vs Success of the mission", so much as Failure = Setback. The example in Escape from Sembia is that if the party doesn't succeed at the Skill Challenge, the guards get a look at them - thus the border guards get a surprise round against the PCs, noticing who they are. If the PCs succeed at the challenge, they get a surprise round on the guards.

So with that, decide what the Success vs. Failure outcomes for this are. Success is "You catch the Skinwalker", but failure shouldn't be "It kills the Elder and now you don't get your job or whatever". Perhaps the shapeshifter is waiting on reinforcements, intent on letting them inside, or some other nefarious plan. Or the PCs could take the Elder and watch him, waiting on the assault that the skinwalker is prepared for.

Skill challenges, at least from my understanding, is how the PC chooses to use their skills. It's up to them how creative they want to be. So you could conceivably use Arcane or Nature if you think of a creative use for it.

With that said:

First, ask the PC if they want an Easy, Medium, or Hard gauge for their roll. Easy has a lower DC, but failure goes double against the end result. Medium is medium, and Hard is harder, but offers a double success.

Easy DC: 15.
Medium DC: 19.
Hard DC: 23.

Some possible skill uses:

Religion - A crow perches on a tree across the street from the inn. This is an omen of the proximity of death. (This could hint to the players where to look).
Insight: To notice the flaws in the seamstress's disguise.

vagabundo · Apr 28, 2008

Mourn said:
Personally, I'd handle the investigation through the characters, not the Elder. Have the Elder be told that the policy on strangers was violated, but he doesn't have time to deal with what could be a small matter, so he hires the PCs to do it. They should be the ones to discover the mental influence on the guard, and whatever clues lead the Elder to believe it's an undead shapeshifter (that's quite an unexplained jump in the Elder's conclusions).

Turn the Skill Challenge into multiple small challenges, divided by phases in the investigation. For example, "phase 1" would be "discover mental influence on the gate guard," which could be done with Arcana checks (you notice the lingering effects of a charm or whatever), Insight (the guard seems to be acting a bit strange), Diplomacy (talk the guard into sharing the event with you, and you find discrepancies and oddities in the story), or whatever. Then, you move on to "phase 2," where you need to "discover the stranger's true nature." Does his room provide any details (Intimidate/Diplomacy to convince the innkeeper, Perception to search the room)? Are any of those clues magical in nature (Arcana)? Does the innkeeper or any citizen remember anything strange about the fellow (Diplomacy)?

I hope that helps.

I could definitely run it this way. Seems like a better way to run the encounter. It may take a full session now, rather than half the session.

I've designed a Solo Lurker for the encounter, it should be challenging final combat, if they expose the Helghast. If not then the Seamstress will go missing and the Elder will have a very different mission for them (evil laugh)... Thanks for some of the skill suggestions.

vagabundo · Apr 28, 2008

Rechan said:
Okay. As far as I understand skill challenges, they don't measure "Failure vs Success of the mission", so much as Failure = Setback. The example in Escape from Sembia is that if the party doesn't succeed at the Skill Challenge, the guards get a look at them - thus the border guards get a surprise round against the PCs, noticing who they are. If the PCs succeed at the challenge, they get a surprise round on the guards.

So with that, decide what the Success vs. Failure outcomes for this are. Success is "You catch the Skinwalker", but failure shouldn't be "It kills the Elder and now you don't get your job or whatever". Perhaps the shapeshifter is waiting on reinforcements, intent on letting them inside, or some other nefarious plan. Or the PCs could take the Elder and watch him, waiting on the assault that the skinwalker is prepared for.

Skill challenges, at least from my understanding, is how the PC chooses to use their skills. It's up to them how creative they want to be. So you could conceivably use Arcane or Nature if you think of a creative use for it.

With that said:

First, ask the PC if they want an Easy, Medium, or Hard gauge for their roll. Easy has a lower DC, but failure goes double against the end result. Medium is medium, and Hard is harder, but offers a double success.

Easy DC: 15.
Medium DC: 19.
Hard DC: 23.

Some possible skill uses:

Religion - A crow perches on a tree across the street from the inn. This is an omen of the proximity of death. (This could hint to the players where to look).
Insight: To notice the flaws in the seamstress's disguise.

Thanks for the suggestions, there is definitely a "nefarious plan". These undead are spys/assassins in the campaign for a greater evil. They do not want to destroy the village yet, rather use it to gather information on future targets. The elder is the target if the PCs do not expose it.

So the wager is:
Failure/Success
Easy -2/-
Mod -1/+1
Hard -1/+2

Is that too harsh?

I also read that Easy/Hard give a -2/+2 on future checks.

EDIT:Oh, I like the crow skill check

.

katahn · Apr 28, 2008

1. "Injured old man" arrives in the village and uses a minor charm to convince the guard to let him in and escort him to the inn where he can "recover" but with no guards (that should be a red flag given their policy on strangers) because "he really is quite harmless".

2. The "old man" was seen entering his room, but hasn't been seen since. There's no sign of him anywhere.

3. Someone had a case of "deja vu" as they saw one of the guards that escorted the man walk down the stairs and head out the front door of the inn twice (at this point, he hasn't seen the seamstress so can't impersonate her - besides I like the whole "glitch in the Matrix" idea of deja vu).

4. The guard was seen heading to the seamstress' shop/house which happens to be quite close to the inn. No one noticed the guard leaving. The guard, actually the shapeshifter, quickly killed the seamstress, assumed her shape, and has hidden her body in the crawlspace under her shop/home. He plans on disposing of it come nightfall.

Based on the above chain of events here's the skill checks I can imagine.

Gate Guard = Diplomacy check to get full story from him, alternatively bluff or intimidate are possibilities but with worse consequences for failure (ie. guard refuses to ever talk to them again). An arcana check might notice his odd decision making was symptomatic of a charm-type spell, but in the hours it has been since it happened all trace of magic would have faded.

Inn = Again, diplomacy-type checks can get the details of the story. While collecting the information, one of the patrons can make the "I had the weirdest case of deja vu" comment. The room rented shows no signs of having ever been inhabited.

Seamstress = Based on the deja vu comment, or by questioning local shopowners the players can learn that someone saw the mentioned guard heading into the seamstress shop. Another shopowner mentions seeing the guard walking past the seamstress shop and towards his post by the gate. The seamstress (actually shapeshifter) will not want to let anyone inside, she'll confess she is "not feeling well". A bluff or intimidate roll can get them in anyway, an arcana check can reveal the presence of disguising or shapeshifting magic on her perhaps.

Duplicated guard = Is currently off-duty and at home with his family. He will know nothing of entering the seamstress shop and on a botched diplomacy check will think the players are trying to accuse him of having an affair.

vagabundo · Apr 28, 2008

katahn said:
1. "Injured old man" arrives in the village and uses a minor charm to convince the guard to let him in and escort him to the inn where he can "recover" but with no guards (that should be a red flag given their policy on strangers) because "he really is quite harmless".

2. The "old man" was seen entering his room, but hasn't been seen since. There's no sign of him anywhere.

3. Someone had a case of "deja vu" as they saw one of the guards that escorted the man walk down the stairs and head out the front door of the inn twice (at this point, he hasn't seen the seamstress so can't impersonate her - besides I like the whole "glitch in the Matrix" idea of deja vu).

4. The guard was seen heading to the seamstress' shop/house which happens to be quite close to the inn. No one noticed the guard leaving. The guard, actually the shapeshifter, quickly killed the seamstress, assumed her shape, and has hidden her body in the crawlspace under her shop/home. He plans on disposing of it come nightfall.

Based on the above chain of events here's the skill checks I can imagine.

Gate Guard = Diplomacy check to get full story from him, alternatively bluff or intimidate are possibilities but with worse consequences for failure (ie. guard refuses to ever talk to them again). An arcana check might notice his odd decision making was symptomatic of a charm-type spell, but in the hours it has been since it happened all trace of magic would have faded.

Inn = Again, diplomacy-type checks can get the details of the story. While collecting the information, one of the patrons can make the "I had the weirdest case of deja vu" comment. The room rented shows no signs of having ever been inhabited.

Seamstress = Based on the deja vu comment, or by questioning local shopowners the players can learn that someone saw the mentioned guard heading into the seamstress shop. Another shopowner mentions seeing the guard walking past the seamstress shop and towards his post by the gate. The seamstress (actually shapeshifter) will not want to let anyone inside, she'll confess she is "not feeling well". A bluff or intimidate roll can get them in anyway, an arcana check can reveal the presence of disguising or shapeshifting magic on her perhaps.

Duplicated guard = Is currently off-duty and at home with his family. He will know nothing of entering the seamstress shop and on a botched diplomacy check will think the players are trying to accuse him of having an affair.

V.nice indeed. This is all getting yoinked

One thing to note the creature has a Psychic ability that allows his to read surface thoughts and emotions. This allows him to impersonate individuals that he has just met for a short time. However they will be very one-dimensional. It usually perfects the disguise over time by reading people who knew the individual and what they would expect of him or her in different situations.

The creature did not charm the Gate Guard but was close enough to read him and used good ould Dip' (with +10 from the read) to persuade him to ignore the rules.

Storminator · Apr 28, 2008

I would avoid having the encounter scripted out too tightly. If the events are too tightly defined, the solution to finding them is also tightly defined. I think this defeats the purpose of a skill challenge.

Frex, why does it have to be the seamstress? Can you be ready to change your story if the PCs do some cool and interesting investigating without ever visiting the seamstress? Sure it's some townie, but you don't need to define which one ahead of time. Perhaps if the PCs get to close (some number of successes), the shapeshifter gets spooked and jumps bodies, leaving additional clues to be found.

In another vein, what if the PCs arrive first, and are held outside the gate until the Elder can return, then the shapeshifter shows and is escorted right in? The PCs don't know at the time that the shapeshifter is a stranger, but when the Elder returns the pieces start to fall together...

PS

LostSoul · Apr 28, 2008

All of this is what I think from having run/played other games with similar mechanics.

Your responsibilities as DM:

Set up an exciting conflict with consequences for failure. It works best if it's an obstacle in the path of a PC's goal.
Know the general setting and communicate this to the players. You don't need to know everyone's name in town, or the dimensions of every house, but whether it's a fishing village in peaceful lands or a mining boomtown in the goblin-infested frontier, you'll need to get across.
Come up, on the fly, with interesting results for failure/success based on what the PCs do. This is the hardest thing to do, and the most rewarding. Remember that success means the PCs accomplish whatever you set out in the skill challenge - in this case, success means they will find the shapeshifter before he kills the Elder. Maybe, if they just barely squeak out success, they'll find the shapeshifer with a knife to the Elder's throat.
Decide, on the fly, the DC for each individual skill check.
Decide, on the fly, if the action taken by the PC makes sense.

Don't pre-plan skill checks to be made. Don't think up a path that will solve the problem. If a player hesitates, tell the other players to give him some help.

I would like to run a PbP skill challenge - if you're up for it, I'll run this one with you.

Storminator · Apr 28, 2008

LostSoul said:
I would like to run a PbP skill challenge - if you're up for it, I'll run this one with you.

I'll get in on this...

PS

Help Required - Design me a Skill Challenge

vagabundo

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The Little Raven

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Rechan

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vagabundo

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vagabundo

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katahn

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vagabundo

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Storminator

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LostSoul

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Storminator

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