Do you use skill challenges?

I need to do more of this myself. I tend to set a DC for using a check and let the players tell me how it ties in and how they are using it. In the wagon example I may let the mage use an Intelligence check to see if he has seen other do this or can come up with a way. Sometimes I set DC's up or down 2 if it should be something the PC can do. If the fighter wanted to cut down a tree (DC10), with his sword (DC12), with the ax from LMoP that has advantage vs. plants (Auto success). I do not usually give advantage, but the +/-2 modifier from older editions. Sometimes I give PCs trained in a skill advantage or 2 successes shortening the time.

I like how this guy in the link below (I feel like he’s familiar... like he’s up to something these days... something big) has ported skill challenges into 5e. I’ve already incorporated a few of my own design into our current campaign and they’ve gone well. I like [MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]’s suggestion not to announce “now it's time for a skill challenge!” to the players. Seems pretty obvious, but pretty sure I did just that... so could have gone even better! Lol

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GvOeqDpkBm8

Hiya!

In 5e? Nope. Not that I'm aware of anyway. I mean, there are successive skill rolls sometimes "Stealth to duck down in time, Stealth again to sneak over to the corner, Stealth again to move quietly to the other side of the corridor"...not really a "skill challenge" I guess.

Now, when I play any Masterbook (and sometimes non-Masterbook session...the whole "skill challenge" is sort of built in. At least during 'exciting' times (rounds...when time is important), a task can be given a "letter rating" of A, B, C, or D. The Drama Deck (cards) flip over by the GM each round. On them is a "Skill Challenge" line, with letters (A to D, obviously). There is also a 'favoured skill', which can also be used. Anyway, if a task is set at "B", the face-up card has to have an A in the Skill Challenge line. If it does, the PC can try and succeed in a skills check (whatever the player deems appropriate and the GM agrees). If there is no A in the Skill Challenge line, the character does NOT get to check...something is preventing/hindering too much. Anyway, if/when an A comes up, and the PC succeeds, the next letter he needs is B. If cards keep flipping up without a B on the Skill Challenge line, things keep the PC from succeeding. When a B comes up, he makes a check. If he fails, he has to wait until the next card with a B shows up.

Sounds more complicated that it is. What I really like about this system is that it adds a lot of drama to the situation. I recently had a game (Shatterzone; uses the Masterbook RPG rules) where the PC's were trapped in an elevator that was going down into a flooded level. Water was flooding in, the lights shorted out so they had to use their glo-sticks or flashlight (can't remember). They kept failing, each round the elevator went down about a foot. They kept failing their rolls, so they started to get "creative" with trying different things (skills) to get a success on their A, then B, then C (the difficulty I had set before hand). One PC died, one NPC died, and the remaining PC survived...but how he was stuck, alone, in a secret underground military base infested with bio-zombies, 60' down from the closest elevator door/level...oh, and he ended up with the "Fleet/Alien" card! (a special card that adds that sort of "movie twist" where something unexpected happens/shows up).

Wow...kinda went off on a tangent there! So anyway...no. Not for 5e or any D&D version. But Yes when playing Masterbook or using the Drama Deck (I have used it for other games like Star Frontiers and my "Gamma Mutant Epoch World"...combine Gamma World and Mutant Epoch together).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

I use the three way checks (multiple checks three win or three loses) very frequently for basically any complex non-action task. I set the time per check sat 1/4 the typical time (for say crafting etc) so that good results are done ahead of expectation etc.

Most of the time a failure is treated as complication, so the player has to change things as that "well has run dry" and more of the same approach will be disadvantaged.

Example research into unknown ancient shield may start at local temple library of elven but once a gail happen there thry can continue st disad, make big donation for access to personal tomes, or maybe go to elven hemit mentioned in the tomes that lives nearby etc.

So each success gives you info and leads, each fail "urges/forces new approach etc."

Morrus said:

I’m not playing 4E. I’m playing 5E and describing how I’ve done them for many years. Why did you think I was playing 4E?

Click to expand...

I have no clue if you are playing D&D 4e or not. Which is why I made that statement as a contingency, here rephrased: IF you're still playing D&D 4e, I recommend checking out the Rules Compendium. IF you are not playing D&D 4e, then disregard.

I'll show myself out of this thread now. If anyone wants to discuss this matter further, please PM me. I'm happy to talk about it with you.

Not really. I set a single DC modified by role play, good ideas, etc and we roll the dice.

I like your idea though Morrus.

Yes and no. I have players use skills to achieve goals, but I don't put the formal X Wins before Y loss mechanic in play. Instead, I just role play the scenario and allow the role playing, the rolls, and the character abilities to flow naturally to resolve the situation.

Sometimes that means a single sentence and a single roll - or sometimes it means a series of rolls with the rolls being made setting up part of a solution, and failed rolls creating challenges.

I do not use this approach. It feels a bit too game-y and contrived.

If the wagon breaks down due to a busted X, then somebody needs to fix or replace X before the wagon will move again, and no amount of chopping down trees will solve that (although it might be a good first step).

I could never quite get my head around skill challenges, neither the early 4e version (I haven't looked at the Rules Compendium version [MENTION=97077]iserith[/MENTION] mentions) nor the SWSE version. That is, I got them on paper, and I liked the idea and wanted to use them, but every time I tried them out in the game, they just fell flat.

So no, I don't (consciously) use them in my 5e games, and I'm not likely to do so either. Mostly because I only run official 5e adventures, none of which come with any obvious skill challenges built in.

Every other or every third session features something which has grown from the idea of skill challenges. But it's much more organic and inclusive.

First, dispose of the entire formalized 4e structure.

Second, it's not a "skill" challenge - you can do a heck of a lot besides skills. Have consumable resources you want to bring to bear like an appropriate spell or magic item usage? Sounds good. Knowledge or resource like a map of the reefs that you've previously found out that you're bringing to bear in an appropriate way. Yup, that's worth a success. Great planning can add successes.

But that's just using the term successes when really these are all based on what they do for the situation. Some things bring success, others make it easier to get successes, other pursue side goals. Often there's more than one track they need to resolve as well as potential side goals.

And roll with the players. Often it's splitting the party as they handle different parts of whatever is going on. Often they will come up with alternate route to solutions. And frankly formal structures aren't the best for that. My very first 4e skill challenge experience was in a official event at my FLGS that had us splitting the party, and half was trying to get information out of a minir dock official. After it wasn't moving well that aprty of the party tried to intimidate him which was an automatic failure at the whole skill challenge - and the DM wouldn't le the other part of the party approach him in any way at a later point because we had "failed that encounter" and it "wasn't fair to let us have a redo". Regardless that it made no narrative sense.

Two sessions ago we had a great example of a Challenge. After bombing the orken supply depot and taking out their transport barges at a major river, their crippled airship was crashing but managed to get some distance. They were pursued by orc scouts on giant bats as well as orcish riders.

This became a game of trying to escape. But they also were buying time with booby traps and false paths, as well as trying to bring with them the wounded crew and the utmost important part of the cargo to the dwarven stronghold they were trying to get to a secret way in. Choices like to slow down for injured, ditching cargo or not, these made big differences in the difficulties. They also had the side goal of not leading the orcs to the secret entrance, otherwise it would need to be collapsed behind them which would be a blow to the besieged stronghold.

Part way through they heard answering search drums from roughly ahead of them as another of the orc warbands started to search backwards toward them. They ended up taking out a scouting party and then had to make a call should they ignore the signal drums - which would let them know a party was down and help the orken scout steer more towards the party, or attempt to beat the right patterns and keep them in the dark - or mess it up and let them know "here is where we are right now".

Oh, and this ended up going from the airship attack before dawn, to almost midnight (when a special group invisibility would expire), so near the end there were also exhaustion checks which threatened to make everything worse, plus re-introduced issues like ditching the cargo as wounded crew couldn't keep the pace.

And much was not black and white - they ended up making a travois so as not to have to abandon anyone, but it made it much harder to cover their tracks which lead to the airborne scouts finding their trail even though they didn't spot them.

Now, that Challenge was a full session extended effort, but sometimes they are much more compact.

A memorable one was that after killing the semi-vampiric Frost Giant "King" and "Queen", their frozen ice castle kept up by magic was collapsing. The party's route in had been blocked (by the party trying to keep out Zombie Frost Giants) and they needed to get out quickly before the ice castle collapsed on them, with both an unknown route and Frost Giant Zombies to deal with. That was a skill challenge, and ended up with the party split. Two members were leadign the way, sledding on the fighter's magic shield down ice stairwells and through rooms towards the outside, drawing off zombies so the others could follow behind as quickly as possible. The session feel was like a classic mine cart chase -- not at all what I was expecting by once the players started the sledding I kept the pace up and just ran with it.

The finally navigated well enough to see doors with daylight behind them and sledded through them at great speed. Unfortunately it was a balcony several frost giant stories up. Whee!

The final characters were following, and they were basically just doing actions to take care of themselves, with the rogue falling behind and no one spending their action to help him catch up. We get to the final bit for them and they each make their individual checks to get out in order they get to the balcony with a horde of frost giant zombies right behind them. Success, success, and ... did you just roll a 1?

So the rogue is flat on his back, surrounded by frost giant zombies and the tower collapsing on him, with everyone else several stories down. At this point I broke out of the Challenge to give everyone else one last action to save the rogue.

As an aside, we got one of our memorable quotes. The wizard was worried about the zombies and started casting. Another character said "I can't watch him die" - and that's when the invisibility went off.

We still don't let him live that down.

Not to leave you in suspense, it went around the table with no one able to get him out until the last, our sorcerer. Who had a special swap positions teleport.

He got the rogue out, and was then buried in tons of falling ice.

Songs were sung.