Pbartender
First Post
I notice that Piratecat seems to have found that "open" challenges work well - meaning that he declares the relevant skills and what they do.
To quote Rel, though... "Know your players." In my group, "open" challenges kills the fun of them. Nobody ends up describing anything, no one uses anything but the most obvious skills, and characters without the best modifiers in those skill either sit out or Aid Other.
Boring.
For most challenges, I do what Quickleaf suggests...
I set up the scene and began it with the PCs in the Lower Quays. However I never said they were in a skill challenge, instead just letting the story evolve naturally.
I provide descriptions and suggestions to encourage my players toward certain skills and action that might give them successes. If the players come up with something that's not on the skill challenge list, I improvise.
Incidentally, I think that the "use my best skill or try to avoid participating" tactic is purely produced by the original skill challenge mechanics' limited failures before the entire challenge is failed. It's like telling players that if they miss with their attack, the entire party loses a healing surge each. Suddenly you're not going to have people with slightly sub-par attacks taking part in the combat. Trying and failing is worse than not trying at all.
There's plenty of ways around that, as well... For example, not too long ago, I had a skill challenge involving a parley with a red dragon in its lair -- a volcanic cave.
In addition to the usual social skills, every now and again, I had everyone in the group make an Endurance check... how well can our heroes maintain their composure in the midst of overwhelming heat and noxious volcanic fumes? In this case, the number of PCs making the check determined success or failure: Out of a group of six playres, if two or fewer failed, then it counted as a success. If two or fewer succeeded, then it counted as a failure. Anyone failing their individual check lost a Healing Surge.