For what it's worth, I like the notion of skill challenges, because there is only so much dramatic tension you can put into a single die roll. However, the implementation of 4E seemed to me unnecessarily complicated.
Here is a possible alternative method. Let's call them "dramatic skill checks".
Dramatic skill checks are intended to model tests of skill in certain high-tension situations, especially ones in which success or failure is not immediately known. Some good examples: a foot chase, a game of Chess or Go, an arm-wrestling match, navigating a maze or solving a puzzle under time constraints, attempting to manipulate an animal's attitude, and performing for an audience. Despite the name, these rules can also be used with ability checks, caster level checks, and so on.
A dramatic skill check consists of a series of individual skill checks using the same skill, made by the acting PC (or NPC), against a given DC; if this is an opposed check against another character, the opposing character also participates in the dramatic skill check. Dramatic skill checks are best used with any skill for which multiple retries are possible and overfailure (failing the prescribed DC by a certain minimum amount) does not impose a serious penalty on the character (such as falling due to an overfailed Climb check), and for situations in which the outcome is either total success or total failure, with no ties, "partial success," or mixed results possible.
To succeed on a dramatic skill check, a character must earn a certain number of points as determined by the GM, one point for each individual successful skill check. This minimum score is the Success Class (SC). One failure earns a negative point and cancels one success, so that the cumulative score might sway back and forth many times before the dramatic skill check is resolved.
Penalties from repetitive skill checks still apply. For example: penalties imposed on a retry due to a previous failure, and penalties that accumulate due to character fatigue or exhaustion.
Ordinarily, if the character earns enough negative points from failed checks to equal the SC of the dramatic skill check, then the character fails the entire dramatic skill check. Of course, the GM is free to define a separate "Failure Class" threshold for failing the dramatic skill check. If the GM wishes to use dramatic skill checks for skills that have dire consequences for overfailure, where an overfailed individual skill check would impose a penalty that makes it impossible for the character to continue, then overfailing an individual skill check could cause the character to automatically fail the dramatic skill check.
As a game mechanic, particularly when opposed checks are involved, dramatic skill checks function similarly to a "tug of war" in which the winner is the one who can bring the center of the rope across their finish line first.
The lowest possible Success Class for a dramatic skill check is 2. (In this sense, an ordinary skill check is simply a dramatic skill check with an SC of 1.) A Success Class of 3, 4, or even 5 points may be appropriate for increasing the tension of the situation. However, the GM should be mindful that if the acting PC or NPC has an odds of success approaching 50% against a given DC (i.e., the minimum roll on the d20 to succeed on the individual skill check falls within the range of 9-12), then the rate at which successes and failures with cancel each other out will be greater than normal.
Here is a possible alternative method. Let's call them "dramatic skill checks".
Dramatic skill checks are intended to model tests of skill in certain high-tension situations, especially ones in which success or failure is not immediately known. Some good examples: a foot chase, a game of Chess or Go, an arm-wrestling match, navigating a maze or solving a puzzle under time constraints, attempting to manipulate an animal's attitude, and performing for an audience. Despite the name, these rules can also be used with ability checks, caster level checks, and so on.
A dramatic skill check consists of a series of individual skill checks using the same skill, made by the acting PC (or NPC), against a given DC; if this is an opposed check against another character, the opposing character also participates in the dramatic skill check. Dramatic skill checks are best used with any skill for which multiple retries are possible and overfailure (failing the prescribed DC by a certain minimum amount) does not impose a serious penalty on the character (such as falling due to an overfailed Climb check), and for situations in which the outcome is either total success or total failure, with no ties, "partial success," or mixed results possible.
To succeed on a dramatic skill check, a character must earn a certain number of points as determined by the GM, one point for each individual successful skill check. This minimum score is the Success Class (SC). One failure earns a negative point and cancels one success, so that the cumulative score might sway back and forth many times before the dramatic skill check is resolved.
Penalties from repetitive skill checks still apply. For example: penalties imposed on a retry due to a previous failure, and penalties that accumulate due to character fatigue or exhaustion.
Ordinarily, if the character earns enough negative points from failed checks to equal the SC of the dramatic skill check, then the character fails the entire dramatic skill check. Of course, the GM is free to define a separate "Failure Class" threshold for failing the dramatic skill check. If the GM wishes to use dramatic skill checks for skills that have dire consequences for overfailure, where an overfailed individual skill check would impose a penalty that makes it impossible for the character to continue, then overfailing an individual skill check could cause the character to automatically fail the dramatic skill check.
As a game mechanic, particularly when opposed checks are involved, dramatic skill checks function similarly to a "tug of war" in which the winner is the one who can bring the center of the rope across their finish line first.
The lowest possible Success Class for a dramatic skill check is 2. (In this sense, an ordinary skill check is simply a dramatic skill check with an SC of 1.) A Success Class of 3, 4, or even 5 points may be appropriate for increasing the tension of the situation. However, the GM should be mindful that if the acting PC or NPC has an odds of success approaching 50% against a given DC (i.e., the minimum roll on the d20 to succeed on the individual skill check falls within the range of 9-12), then the rate at which successes and failures with cancel each other out will be greater than normal.
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