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Help Me Make My Skill Challenge Fun
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<blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6660073" data-attributes="member: 996"><p>I think it can be perfectly legit to let them know they're in an SC. It can become like a game-within-a-game, giving a nice break from the usual D&Disms.</p><p></p><p> Have a number of different skills that can be used, and place limits on how many times the same skill can be used. That way it's not just Mr. Wizard rolling arcana 8 times. I also always go around the table and have everyone do something in the context of the challenge. Even if it's only an aid another roll (pretty easy, not a failure in the SC if they manage to blow it). </p><p></p><p> I do like to describe a result for each roll, when it makes sense.</p><p></p><p>I've done the kind of SC you're doing, before. It's a nice way of handling exploration that doesn't get tedious with mapping and poking every flagstone with a 10' pole. For each success, describe the party making progress - finding a secret door, disarming a trap, bypassing an encounter, gleaning some useful information, etc... For each failure, have one of those isolated micro-encounters jump the PCs with surprise, or have a trap or other danger catch the character who failed. </p><p></p><p>At three failures, you have a choice - just keep going with the micro-encounters & whatnot and grind them down until they get the requisite successes, penalize them with loss of surges or other resources and proceed to the climax, trigger a time-important event that affects the climactic battle or the party's objectives, or just bring the climactic battle to them, in some disadvantageous area of the dungeon (like, oh, an underground arena) or have them fall into a trap which dumps them, battered, prone, and in fireball formation at the feet of the BBEG, ready to be blasted.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Tony Vargas, post: 6660073, member: 996"] I think it can be perfectly legit to let them know they're in an SC. It can become like a game-within-a-game, giving a nice break from the usual D&Disms. Have a number of different skills that can be used, and place limits on how many times the same skill can be used. That way it's not just Mr. Wizard rolling arcana 8 times. I also always go around the table and have everyone do something in the context of the challenge. Even if it's only an aid another roll (pretty easy, not a failure in the SC if they manage to blow it). I do like to describe a result for each roll, when it makes sense. I've done the kind of SC you're doing, before. It's a nice way of handling exploration that doesn't get tedious with mapping and poking every flagstone with a 10' pole. For each success, describe the party making progress - finding a secret door, disarming a trap, bypassing an encounter, gleaning some useful information, etc... For each failure, have one of those isolated micro-encounters jump the PCs with surprise, or have a trap or other danger catch the character who failed. At three failures, you have a choice - just keep going with the micro-encounters & whatnot and grind them down until they get the requisite successes, penalize them with loss of surges or other resources and proceed to the climax, trigger a time-important event that affects the climactic battle or the party's objectives, or just bring the climactic battle to them, in some disadvantageous area of the dungeon (like, oh, an underground arena) or have them fall into a trap which dumps them, battered, prone, and in fireball formation at the feet of the BBEG, ready to be blasted. [/QUOTE]
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