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Need DM help: Skill Challenges, encounters and story transitioning
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<blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6348130" data-attributes="member: 6696971"><p>If I may, check out <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?342174-Skill-Challenge-Depot&p=6193291&viewfull=1#post6193291" target="_blank">this</a> post and thread, <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?333786-Pemertonian-Scene-Framing-A-Good-Approach-to-D-amp-D-4e&p=6073810&viewfull=1#post6073810" target="_blank">this</a> thread, and <a href="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?334553-Pemertonian-Scene-Framing-and-4e-DMing-Restarted&p=6088492&viewfull=1#post6088492" target="_blank">this</a> thread. The first post I linked should be quite helpful. I would recommend getting DMG2 if you do not already have SS </p><p>TLDR advice I could give would be:</p><p></p><p>1) Always escalate and drive play toward conflict. Keep the heat on, the play dynamic, and the pace electric. Scenes should have rising action, falling action, climax, and denouement.</p><p></p><p>2) Make them feel the emotionally provocative weight of choice and have failure feed back into more exciting stuff. When they succeed, come up with new, exciting adversity. </p><p></p><p>3) Make sure you understand their intent for each action declaration and what is at stake. Have the fiction follow that and ensure that new, dynamic, genre-relevant stuff keeps happening until the final win/loss condition has been met and the scene resolves itself. Interpret resolution not just based on process but on player intent, the stakes, and the dramatic tropes inherent to the scene.</p><p></p><p>4) Don't be afraid of decoupling an outcome of a check from a binary pass/fail interpretation. Consider 3 above. Think of challenges that interpose themselves between heroes and their goals in classic genre tropes. Train chase? On top of the cars and trying to advance? Maybe a failed Acro check means they're shunted off, hanging by an arm and they have to climb up or be assisted by another PC. Orrrrr, maybe the complication is the car has been unlatched and the foe has flipped the switch for the tracks after his cab has gone through. If they don't make a ranged attack, or manipulate the trigger at range somehow, they'll be on the wrong tracks and the foe will be long gone. Orrrr maybe the foe sabotaged the machinery and it needs to be addressed/repaired immediately or a deadly crash is in the cards. Orrrr maybe the PC has a vision of an ill omen and must interpret it. It might be a missive from their god or primal spirits. Orrrr maybe a brutal change in weather and a primal PC can try to use it to foil the enemy's escape (binding winds or driving rain).</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Manbearcat, post: 6348130, member: 6696971"] If I may, check out [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?342174-Skill-Challenge-Depot&p=6193291&viewfull=1#post6193291"]this[/URL] post and thread, [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?333786-Pemertonian-Scene-Framing-A-Good-Approach-to-D-amp-D-4e&p=6073810&viewfull=1#post6073810"]this[/URL] thread, and [URL="http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?334553-Pemertonian-Scene-Framing-and-4e-DMing-Restarted&p=6088492&viewfull=1#post6088492"]this[/URL] thread. The first post I linked should be quite helpful. I would recommend getting DMG2 if you do not already have SS TLDR advice I could give would be: 1) Always escalate and drive play toward conflict. Keep the heat on, the play dynamic, and the pace electric. Scenes should have rising action, falling action, climax, and denouement. 2) Make them feel the emotionally provocative weight of choice and have failure feed back into more exciting stuff. When they succeed, come up with new, exciting adversity. 3) Make sure you understand their intent for each action declaration and what is at stake. Have the fiction follow that and ensure that new, dynamic, genre-relevant stuff keeps happening until the final win/loss condition has been met and the scene resolves itself. Interpret resolution not just based on process but on player intent, the stakes, and the dramatic tropes inherent to the scene. 4) Don't be afraid of decoupling an outcome of a check from a binary pass/fail interpretation. Consider 3 above. Think of challenges that interpose themselves between heroes and their goals in classic genre tropes. Train chase? On top of the cars and trying to advance? Maybe a failed Acro check means they're shunted off, hanging by an arm and they have to climb up or be assisted by another PC. Orrrrr, maybe the complication is the car has been unlatched and the foe has flipped the switch for the tracks after his cab has gone through. If they don't make a ranged attack, or manipulate the trigger at range somehow, they'll be on the wrong tracks and the foe will be long gone. Orrrr maybe the foe sabotaged the machinery and it needs to be addressed/repaired immediately or a deadly crash is in the cards. Orrrr maybe the PC has a vision of an ill omen and must interpret it. It might be a missive from their god or primal spirits. Orrrr maybe a brutal change in weather and a primal PC can try to use it to foil the enemy's escape (binding winds or driving rain). [/QUOTE]
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