Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Skill Challenges: How Much Have They Improved?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="FireLance" data-source="post: 5198689" data-attributes="member: 3424"><p>I'm not sure that there are actual hard rules, but here's my take on your questions.</p><p></p><p>In general, when the players want to do something and there is some doubt whether or not they will succeed. The same approach applies to skill challenges. Sometimes, the players can come up with an idea that, in the DM's judgement, will certainly succeed or certainly fail and there is no need for a check (at least, from the perspective of that DM). However, most times, there will be varying chances for success and failure and the DM should call for a check.</p><p></p><p>The DM, with inputs from the players. The DM should have a general sense of the skills that would be useful, but the players may be able to think of an approach that could plausibly work (again, in the DM's judgement) that the DM had not thought of previously, and the DM should then decide on the appropriate skill to use.</p><p></p><p>As with the skills used, the DM should have a general sense of what a successful check or a failed check means, both in terms of the individual check, and in the broader context of the skill challenge. This includes issues such as whether a successful check results in a single success for the purposes of the skill challenge, no successes but grants some other advantage, or results in two or more successes, and conversely, whether a failed check results in a single failure for the purposes of the skill challenge, no failures but imposes some other penalty, etc. In cases where the players come up an approach that the DM has not considered, he will have to make the decision on the spot. As for how, it all comes back to DM judgement again.</p><p></p><p>You guessed it - DM judgement. </p><p></p><p>DM judg- oh, wait. Here there are two basic approaches. If the DM has already established the in-game difficulty of a task (for example, by looking up the tables of common skill DCs in the PH) he can use that to set the level of the skill challenge. Alternatively, the DM can select the level of challenge and change the DCs to make them fit with the suggested DCs for a challenge of that level. If this makes the DCs different from the suggested DCs in the PH, the DM should also come up with a plausible in-game reason for why the task is easier or harder than normal on this specific occasion.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="FireLance, post: 5198689, member: 3424"] I'm not sure that there are actual hard rules, but here's my take on your questions. In general, when the players want to do something and there is some doubt whether or not they will succeed. The same approach applies to skill challenges. Sometimes, the players can come up with an idea that, in the DM's judgement, will certainly succeed or certainly fail and there is no need for a check (at least, from the perspective of that DM). However, most times, there will be varying chances for success and failure and the DM should call for a check. The DM, with inputs from the players. The DM should have a general sense of the skills that would be useful, but the players may be able to think of an approach that could plausibly work (again, in the DM's judgement) that the DM had not thought of previously, and the DM should then decide on the appropriate skill to use. As with the skills used, the DM should have a general sense of what a successful check or a failed check means, both in terms of the individual check, and in the broader context of the skill challenge. This includes issues such as whether a successful check results in a single success for the purposes of the skill challenge, no successes but grants some other advantage, or results in two or more successes, and conversely, whether a failed check results in a single failure for the purposes of the skill challenge, no failures but imposes some other penalty, etc. In cases where the players come up an approach that the DM has not considered, he will have to make the decision on the spot. As for how, it all comes back to DM judgement again. You guessed it - DM judgement. DM judg- oh, wait. Here there are two basic approaches. If the DM has already established the in-game difficulty of a task (for example, by looking up the tables of common skill DCs in the PH) he can use that to set the level of the skill challenge. Alternatively, the DM can select the level of challenge and change the DCs to make them fit with the suggested DCs for a challenge of that level. If this makes the DCs different from the suggested DCs in the PH, the DM should also come up with a plausible in-game reason for why the task is easier or harder than normal on this specific occasion. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
Skill Challenges: How Much Have They Improved?
Top