Please critique my first go at a skill challenge

[RichGreen]

Hi,

I've been working on a 4e adventure set in my new campaign city of Parsantium which involves the PCs solving the murder of Ashna, an orphan girl. I thought it would be a good idea to have the first part of the investigation be a skill challenge and it would be great to get some feedback on how to do this better. My first draft follows:


The Water Boys Houseboat: Skill Challenge

The Water Boys are a group of around 20 orphaned human children of mixed (but mostly Sahasran) origin, aged between seven and fourteen that live on a large ex-fishing boat in Flotsam. These kids get by begging, running errands and messages, pulling stuff out of the water to sell, and by the odd bit of pickpocketing and petty theft. Their informal leader is Girish, the oldest at 16 at the most responsible; he makes sure that everyone gets something to eat and that any disputes among his charges are resolved either peacefully or at least after a brief bout of fisticuffs.


Setting
Describe houseboat, all the orphan kids living there, sleeping in hammocks and on crude cots below decks. Lots of stolen goods (eg lamps, tapestries, silk cushions, stuffed birds etc)

Set-up: this encounter is resolved by a skill challenge; if the PCs succeed they will gain valuable clues from the Water Boys.
Level: 1st
Complexity: 2 (6 successes before 3 failures)
Primary Skills: Diplomacy, Heal, Religion


Heal (DC 10): with a success, a PC examining Ashna’s body can tell she’s been strangled. With a second success he notices blood and skin under Ashna’s fingernails – it looks as if she fought back against her killer, scratching him.

Religion (DC 15): unlocked if Heal is used successfully. With a success, the PC knows that strangulation is the mark of the thuggee.

Diplomacy (DC 10): with each success, the PCs can find out the following information from the Water Boys:
• Ashna liked to sit and listen to Tew Pennyfeather playing tunes on the dockside at night
• Ashna had a row with Girish a few days ago and ran off into the night. She didn’t come back until morning and seemed very on edge when she did. She wasn’t herself up until her death.
• Ashna fell out with Shivji (another Water Boy) over some loot a week ago. Girish ruled in the other kid’s favour and this is why Ashna argued with him.
• Shivji made up with Ashna yesterday; she really wanted the hippo carving they had argued about so he gave it to her in an attempt to cheer her up. They became friends again but Shivji could tell something wasn’t right with her.


Intimidate (DC 10): by threatening the Water Boys, the PCs can learn the same information but a failure closes off this approach and increases Diplomacy DCs to hard (15)

Success: the PCs gain a vital clue. Girish shows them Ashna’s personal possessions, hidden under her mattress in a small leather bag. Among these are a piece of charcoal, a crude charcoal drawing of a pelican sitting on top of a doorway, some gold and copper coins, a greenstone carving of a hippopotamus , a couple of fancy stones and a cheap tin whistle (given to her by Tew)

With a successful Intelligence check (DC 20) a PC might remember seeing this pelican before – over a doorway not far from the Black Dolphin’s Wake Tavern.


Any feedback gratefully received!

Cheers


Richard

 

[Mentat55]

I like it!

Re: the Int check to remember seeing the pelican before -- maybe a Streetwise check might also be appropriate?

Streetwise might also be a useful skill -- perhaps it can be used once to recall some of the customs of the Water Boys, and maybe a success grants the next Diplomacy check a +2 bonus or something.

 

[RichGreen]

I like it!

Re: the Int check to remember seeing the pelican before -- maybe a Streetwise check might also be appropriate?

Streetwise might also be a useful skill -- perhaps it can be used once to recall some of the customs of the Water Boys, and maybe a success grants the next Diplomacy check a +2 bonus or something.

Thanks! I like the idea of using Streetwise.

So, the Success part becomes:
"With a successful Intelligence check (DC 20) or Streetwise check (DC 15), a PC might remember seeing this pelican before – over a doorway not far from the Black Dolphin’s Wake Tavern."

During the challenge, how about:
Streetwise (DC 10): You recall what you know about the customs and "pecking order" within the Water Boys. Using this skill doesn't count as a success or failure for the challenge but if you succeed you gain a +2 on your next Diplomacy check.

Cheers


Richard

 

[arcanaman]

Looks like fun nothing bad to say about it

 

[mostholy2]

I'm also putting together my first skill challenge, and had questions for the DC's set.

From the Table in the DMG for Difficulty DC (pg. 42) it says to add 5 to the DC values for skill checks. I assumed that this applies to the skill challenge DCs also.

However, you've place the DCs for easy at 10 and mediums at 15. These look like straight values from the table without adding the +5 to the check for skill checks.

 

[RichGreen]

Looks like fun nothing bad to say about it

Thanks!

 

[RichGreen]

I'm also putting together my first skill challenge, and had questions for the DC's set.

From the Table in the DMG for Difficulty DC (pg. 42) it says to add 5 to the DC values for skill checks. I assumed that this applies to the skill challenge DCs also.

However, you've place the DCs for easy at 10 and mediums at 15. These look like straight values from the table without adding the +5 to the check for skill checks.

I got the DCs from the errata on the WotC website. Basically, they reduced all the DCs and did away with the extra 5 on skill checks. I'm not sure of all the background but I think this is because it was felt the DCs were too high.

Cheers


Richard

 

[fissionessence]

I got the DCs from the errata on the WotC website. Basically, they reduced all the DCs and did away with the extra 5 on skill checks. I'm not sure of all the background but I think this is because it was felt the DCs were too high.

Indeed. The new values are (5 :: easy) (10 :: moderate) (15 :: difficult) with no changes for skill check vs non-skill check. This is as opposed to the previous 10-15-25 difficulty and 15-20-25 difficulty for skills.

However, this makes me ask about your Intelligence or Streetwise check for the pelican. Are you intentionally making the Intelligence check much harder than a Streetwise? For a DC 20 Int check, even a 1st level character with 18 Int has to roll a 16 or better, whereas a trained Streetwise character with +2 Cha only needs to roll an 8 or better for your DC 15. That seemed a little backward to me, as I'd at least like them to be approximately equivalent to each other, but if you did it on purpose then never mind

~ fissionessence

 

[RichGreen]

However, this makes me ask about your Intelligence or Streetwise check for the pelican. Are you intentionally making the Intelligence check much harder than a Streetwise? For a DC 20 Int check, even a 1st level character with 18 Int has to roll a 16 or better, whereas a trained Streetwise character with +2 Cha only needs to roll an 8 or better for your DC 15. That seemed a little backward to me, as I'd at least like them to be approximately equivalent to each other, but if you did it on purpose then never mind

I wanted the skill check to be easier than a straight Int check but there may be too much of a difference. What do you suggest?

 

[2eBladeSinger]

It's actually a better skill challenge than anything I have seen from WoTC, particularly in the way you have used the 'unlocking' and 'closing' features in which I had never seen any sense. As for the last bit: remembering the Pelican, I would say make it either a (DC 20) History or (DC 15) Streetwise.