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Doh! Killed my party with a skill challenge
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<blockquote data-quote="pming" data-source="post: 7507814" data-attributes="member: 45197"><p>HIya!</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>No. Definitely a hard NO.</p><p></p><p>By having set up a "skill challenge" like you did, you are basically saying "Ok guys, we're going to completely ignore the fact that we are playing a roleplaying game, and we're going to just reduce the success/death of your characters to a small series of dice rolls. Basically, ignore everything you've done before with the PC's and we're just going to do some gambling. Hope you're feeling lucky!"</p><p></p><p>This is one reason why I've kept my "Old Skool" style these decades and decades. With an Old Skool style game, the Players are the ones that generally decide the success/fail of their PC's. The dice and skills come into play when it's at the "..hmm..." stage of DM'ing. By "...hmm...", I mean when something comes up where the DM and Players are all thinking..."Well, it could go either way, really. Not sure if that would work or not...hmm...". If the DM gets to a situation and hears what a Player wants his PC to do, and the DM thinks "Yup, sounds reasonable and doable", then the DM just narrates the PC's success. Same with the opposite. </p><p></p><p>IMNSHO, a "Skill Challenge" is an interesting idea for a GAME perspective. This is one of those things that I very rarely would use, and I would only use it in a completely non-life/death situation. I have used this to determine the results of a PC's night of gambling. Generally speaking, I had the Player make 6 rolls. DC started at 10 and upped by 2 each roll (10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20). The Player had to use his "Gambling" (Performance) skill, "Intimidation" (Intimidation) skill, and "Sense Motive" (Insight) skill each at least once. The results determined if the PC made money, broke even, or lost money. </p><p></p><p>Using a "skill challenge" this way was a nice method of letting the Player roll some dice (who doesn't like to do that?) with the results being used for primarily role-playing additions to the session and character. No life/death was at hand...just a few coins and the possibility of RP'ing seeds later (e.g., if the PC failed all but one...he might get a rep as an 'easy mark' for gambling, or maybe he'd get an uncomplimentary nick name from the locals like "Unlucky Pete" or something).</p><p></p><p>Skill Challenge to add a bit of RP'ing "story seeds"? Sure! Skill Challenge deciding the life/death of the entire group? No. Absolutely NO.</p><p></p><p>^_^</p><p></p><p>Paul L. Ming</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="pming, post: 7507814, member: 45197"] HIya! No. Definitely a hard NO. By having set up a "skill challenge" like you did, you are basically saying "Ok guys, we're going to completely ignore the fact that we are playing a roleplaying game, and we're going to just reduce the success/death of your characters to a small series of dice rolls. Basically, ignore everything you've done before with the PC's and we're just going to do some gambling. Hope you're feeling lucky!" This is one reason why I've kept my "Old Skool" style these decades and decades. With an Old Skool style game, the Players are the ones that generally decide the success/fail of their PC's. The dice and skills come into play when it's at the "..hmm..." stage of DM'ing. By "...hmm...", I mean when something comes up where the DM and Players are all thinking..."Well, it could go either way, really. Not sure if that would work or not...hmm...". If the DM gets to a situation and hears what a Player wants his PC to do, and the DM thinks "Yup, sounds reasonable and doable", then the DM just narrates the PC's success. Same with the opposite. IMNSHO, a "Skill Challenge" is an interesting idea for a GAME perspective. This is one of those things that I very rarely would use, and I would only use it in a completely non-life/death situation. I have used this to determine the results of a PC's night of gambling. Generally speaking, I had the Player make 6 rolls. DC started at 10 and upped by 2 each roll (10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20). The Player had to use his "Gambling" (Performance) skill, "Intimidation" (Intimidation) skill, and "Sense Motive" (Insight) skill each at least once. The results determined if the PC made money, broke even, or lost money. Using a "skill challenge" this way was a nice method of letting the Player roll some dice (who doesn't like to do that?) with the results being used for primarily role-playing additions to the session and character. No life/death was at hand...just a few coins and the possibility of RP'ing seeds later (e.g., if the PC failed all but one...he might get a rep as an 'easy mark' for gambling, or maybe he'd get an uncomplimentary nick name from the locals like "Unlucky Pete" or something). Skill Challenge to add a bit of RP'ing "story seeds"? Sure! Skill Challenge deciding the life/death of the entire group? No. Absolutely NO. ^_^ Paul L. Ming [/QUOTE]
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