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Help Me Make My Skill Challenge Fun
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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 6658566" data-attributes="member: 20323"><p>[MENTION=40398]Tequila Sunrise[/MENTION]</p><p>You've got some great advice so far, particularly from Manbearcat and the suggestion to check out Frylock's dungeons crawl system!</p><p></p><p>I've done pretty much <strong>exactly </strong>what you're looking to do (I think). Check out my Dragon Mountain 4e conversion PDF (link in sig); towards the front is an Exploring Dragon Mountain skill challenge on a 2-page spread, and also a Descending the Chasm smaller skill challenge. Both of these just use the general idea of skill challenges with unique mechanics. <strong>Very</strong> worth looking over for your purposes/inspiration.</p><p></p><p>Anyhow, to address two of your concerns:</p><p></p><p></p><p>A few points of theorycraft:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Different skill challenges call for different formats. Most important point.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You assume that all skills are always available for a challenge.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">You assume that all PCs have equal access to all parts of a challenge.</li> </ul><p></p><p>For example:</p><p></p><p>A trapped treasure vault rigged to blow if wrong answer is given. In this scenario an X successes before Y failures is appropriate.</p><p></p><p>A horse chase thru a river valley to cut off an escaping villain before they reach enemy territory. In this scenario X successes before 3 rounds is appropriate.</p><p></p><p></p><p>IMHO this has more to do with the insufficient guidelines in the core books to demonstrate how to tie a skill challenge to the narrative. The examples in the DMG are just bad.</p><p></p><p>My basic rule of dice rolling applies double with SCs: If you're rolling dice, something is probably going to change. That means a SC should adapt and morph to the players' decisions and the results of their rolls. Most significantly, the DM needs to come up with interesting consequences of failure that don't end the challenge entirely (before its time to end of course).</p><p></p><p>For example:</p><p></p><p>Infiltrating a rival-but-not-hostile Duke's estate to steal blackmail documents. If the rogue goes after some treasure on the side and alerts a guard, the challenge changes: The PCs now need to prevent the guard from sounding the alarm. If the alarm gets sounded, then the challenge should become much more difficult and patrols of guards will be scouring the estate for the intruders.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 6658566, member: 20323"] [MENTION=40398]Tequila Sunrise[/MENTION] You've got some great advice so far, particularly from Manbearcat and the suggestion to check out Frylock's dungeons crawl system! I've done pretty much [b]exactly [/b]what you're looking to do (I think). Check out my Dragon Mountain 4e conversion PDF (link in sig); towards the front is an Exploring Dragon Mountain skill challenge on a 2-page spread, and also a Descending the Chasm smaller skill challenge. Both of these just use the general idea of skill challenges with unique mechanics. [b]Very[/b] worth looking over for your purposes/inspiration. Anyhow, to address two of your concerns: A few points of theorycraft: [list][*]Different skill challenges call for different formats. Most important point. [*]You assume that all skills are always available for a challenge. [*]You assume that all PCs have equal access to all parts of a challenge.[/list] For example: A trapped treasure vault rigged to blow if wrong answer is given. In this scenario an X successes before Y failures is appropriate. A horse chase thru a river valley to cut off an escaping villain before they reach enemy territory. In this scenario X successes before 3 rounds is appropriate. IMHO this has more to do with the insufficient guidelines in the core books to demonstrate how to tie a skill challenge to the narrative. The examples in the DMG are just bad. My basic rule of dice rolling applies double with SCs: If you're rolling dice, something is probably going to change. That means a SC should adapt and morph to the players' decisions and the results of their rolls. Most significantly, the DM needs to come up with interesting consequences of failure that don't end the challenge entirely (before its time to end of course). For example: Infiltrating a rival-but-not-hostile Duke's estate to steal blackmail documents. If the rogue goes after some treasure on the side and alerts a guard, the challenge changes: The PCs now need to prevent the guard from sounding the alarm. If the alarm gets sounded, then the challenge should become much more difficult and patrols of guards will be scouring the estate for the intruders. [/QUOTE]
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