Ok just added the updated PDF: I've pretty much finished the Intro & Part 1, so any feedback on those is appreciated.
Also I've started working on treasure tables and some new minor magic items from the Planescape setting. Fans of the CRPG will also recognize some charms.
And now I'm going to ramble a bit about how I'm approaching skill challenges....
[sblock=Design Thoughts on Skill Challenges]
There are 4 skill challenges in this adventure, and I've approached each in a different manner. While they're all recognizable as skill challenges, I've taken liberties with the rules to make them work for each scenario.
Chasing Far'bulaz: This chase skill challenge is sort of a prop-based mini game which relies on moving minis on an abstract city block map in flip over tiles with signs of their quarry. An obstacle table suggests what skills you might use to evade the obstacle, and the consequences for failure. How well you succeed on a skill check determines how many tiles you can flip over, though they must be in or adjacent to your current city block. Tiles with matching hints/signs can be removed to gain a success. Also, it is measured in rounds not # of failures.
Negotiating with the Marraenoloth: Normally I don't use skill challenges for what are essentially role-playing scenarios because I find them too limiting. However, in reading the old PS entry on "marraenoloth" about % chances of betrayal, and I realized a regular skill challenge could do it very well. What I changed was ways to score automatic successes by paying the marraenoloth, making it easy to get aboard (4 successes) but harder to get the marraenoloth to guide them honestly (8 successes), and degrees of failure corresponding to increasing levels of betrayal.
Long Table of the Hungry: This one is still a work in progress, but the basic idea is there is a damned soul at the feast table of the goddess Hel and the PCs either want information or to recruit /free her. To model this I'm thinking of using degrees of success/failure for different strategies, such as negotiating with Hel, using a ghost disguise, negotiating with the damned soul, etc.
Infiltrating Mentiri: Taking cues from a skill challenge designed by Mike Mearls, this one uses alertness levels and random encounters to model the PCs infiltrating the infernal prison Mentiri. Different areas will have varying conditions on skill checks. There won't be a finite number of failures before the skill challenge ends; rather each failure leads to a random encounter, and depending on how the PCs handle the encounter, the alertness level may or may not rise. Once the alertness level is at maximum, however, things can't get much worse.[/sblock]
