Skill Challenge question

[Lojaan]

Sorry folks, for some reason it wont let me search the forums so sorry it this has been answered a thousand times before. Anyway, here we go.

Skill Challenges - how do they work? I've been over them a lot in the DMG, been through all the errata and I'm still confused.

Say you have a two-player chase challenge, primary skills are streetwise, perception and endurance. DCs are set, # sucesses all set, now... what happens?

Do each character take it in turns to roll dice? What if one character is better set to succeed than the other, say their perception bonus is way higher than the other character's skill bonuses? Does one character do nothing while the other rolls the dice? Is there an initiative order? I don't get it.

Help?

 

[Gruns]

There used to be an initiative order, but as you probably saw, it got erratted out. I'm not sure why this happened. Whenever I run Skill Challenges (which I admit isn't very often) I still use a normal initiative order. Makes a lot more sense this way.
Later!
Gruns

 

[Baumi]

There is no initiative order anymore but people are still supposed to do something. Just let them decide who goes first but then ask around what the others want to do. If they just want to run beside the perception-master then at least force a endurance or athletic check and if they are weak with these skills then they should try to come up with a more character-fitting (a wizard might help with some knowledge skills or spells).

Just don't be to strict about primary skills, if the Idea from a player sounds good then let him roll it (usually at medium difficulty) even though you have not declared it before.

I haven't tried it so far but I have read the suggestion that it is best if you simply don't declare a skill-challenge and just go with the flow. So just inform them of the situation and ask everyone what they want to do, like the usual non-combat scene and secretly note how many successes/failures they archive and tell them the outcome according to the situation. The great thing about this is that it doesn't feel forced and you can easily abandon or lengthen the skill-challenge if you see it fit (after all the skill-challenge is only a tool to help not enforce).

 

[tgayoso]

I haven't tried it so far but I have read the suggestion that it is best if you simply don't declare a skill-challenge and just go with the flow. So just inform them of the situation and ask everyone what they want to do, like the usual non-combat scene and secretly note how many successes/failures they archive and tell them the outcome according to the situation. The great thing about this is that it doesn't feel forced and you can easily abandon or lengthen the skill-challenge if you see it fit (after all the skill-challenge is only a tool to help not enforce).

I've been having discussions in my gaming group about this very concept. I'd be interested if anyone has a link for a further discussion about this. IMO, the table mechanics of social Skill Challenges are too clunky. By social Skill Challenges I mean the negotiations/interrogations/information gathering. Social interactions are too fluid and don't lend themselves a pure initiative order system. People naturally interrupt each other and often interject things, thus a system that does not allow this will always feel unnatural.

 

[Nail]

I've been having discussions in my gaming group about this very concept. I'd be interested if anyone has a link for a further discussion about this.

yep.

This is a pretty good discussion/revised system, by stalker0: http://www.enworld.org/forum/4e-fan...skill-challenge-system-new-version-1-2-a.html

My take, overall, is that you just go with a series of skill checks around the table, as each player explains how his PC will participate in solving "X" ( running after "Y", or persuading "Z"). Track how many successes and failures, then decide what that means.

 

[tgayoso]

Thanks, Stalker0 has made some great contributions. I'm just surprised there aren't more discussions about how to deal with the table mechanics of SCs'.

 

[Syrsuro]

Lots of blog posts about skill challenges: Skill Challenges | Critical Hits

Carl

 

[Paul Strack]

To determine who goes first in a skill challenge, I have the PCs make an appropriate ability score check (Dex for physical challenges, Cha for Social Challenges, Int for mental challenges, etc.). The high roller goes first. Thereafter I go clockwise around the table. I prefer using an initiative order, because it helps keep my extroverted players from monopolizing the game time over the introverts.

 

[Lojaan]

Wow. This is really interesting stuff. I'm surprised there isn't more on it on the boards. I'm definitely hoping to make SC's a big part of my game.

 

[Ds Da Man]

Does everyone actually use skill challenges? I find this to be such a boring way to do things. Some of them from adventures are really stupid. One was like 7 sucesses before 5 failures. We failed like three times in a row, and the rolling really took too much time. Just skip the stupid skill challenges unless your players are really into rolling dice, just have them tell you what they want to do, such as a tracking check, or intimidate, whatever, then roll.