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From my blog: Orc and Pie: The Skill Challenge | RPGCentric
One the most famous and shortest, yet technically complete, adventures written by Monte Cook is Orc and Pie. It is so well written that there is no way I could update it to 4E. Then I asked myself, what if someone wanted to talk to the orc instead of fighting it in 4E? I know! Let’s make it a skill challenge! So here it is. Orc and Pie as a skill challenge usable by any party of any level.
Setup: An orc has a pie. You are hungry and want the pie. You need to convince the orc to give you the pie.
Level: Appropriate level for the party.
Complexity: 3 (8 successes before 3 failures).
Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight.
Bluff (moderate DC): You tell the orc that he is no longer required to guard the pie and needs to go help his comrades who seem to have fallen under mysterious circumstances.
Diplomacy (moderate DC): The orc can possibly be convinced to hand over the pie without incident. The first success in this skill opens up the use of the History skill (the orc describes, in detail, the long and sordid history of pie-guarding orcs throughout orcish lore).
Insight (moderate DC): You realize that the orc really doesn’t like his duty because he is allergic to boysenberries, the filling of the pie. The first success with this skill reveals that any offers of a slice of pie to the orc will result in an automatic failure.
History (easy DC): You make an insightful remark about a significant pie-guarding event in orcish history. This is available only after a character has gained a success using the Diplomacy skill, and it can be used only once in this way during the challenge.
Intimidate: Any use of this skill results in an automatic failure unless the pie is somehow physically used during the intimidation, at which point it becomes an automatic success. It can only be used once and grants the successful PC a +2 to further Diplomacy checks with the orc.
Success: The party gets the pie.
Failure: The orc continues a long tradition of valiantly guarding pies, quickly grabbing handfuls of pie and stuffing them down his throat. He immediately goes in to anaphylactic shock and dies, but not before ruining the pie for the PCs.
One the most famous and shortest, yet technically complete, adventures written by Monte Cook is Orc and Pie. It is so well written that there is no way I could update it to 4E. Then I asked myself, what if someone wanted to talk to the orc instead of fighting it in 4E? I know! Let’s make it a skill challenge! So here it is. Orc and Pie as a skill challenge usable by any party of any level.
Setup: An orc has a pie. You are hungry and want the pie. You need to convince the orc to give you the pie.
Level: Appropriate level for the party.
Complexity: 3 (8 successes before 3 failures).
Primary Skills: Bluff, Diplomacy, Insight.
Bluff (moderate DC): You tell the orc that he is no longer required to guard the pie and needs to go help his comrades who seem to have fallen under mysterious circumstances.
Diplomacy (moderate DC): The orc can possibly be convinced to hand over the pie without incident. The first success in this skill opens up the use of the History skill (the orc describes, in detail, the long and sordid history of pie-guarding orcs throughout orcish lore).
Insight (moderate DC): You realize that the orc really doesn’t like his duty because he is allergic to boysenberries, the filling of the pie. The first success with this skill reveals that any offers of a slice of pie to the orc will result in an automatic failure.
History (easy DC): You make an insightful remark about a significant pie-guarding event in orcish history. This is available only after a character has gained a success using the Diplomacy skill, and it can be used only once in this way during the challenge.
Intimidate: Any use of this skill results in an automatic failure unless the pie is somehow physically used during the intimidation, at which point it becomes an automatic success. It can only be used once and grants the successful PC a +2 to further Diplomacy checks with the orc.
Success: The party gets the pie.
Failure: The orc continues a long tradition of valiantly guarding pies, quickly grabbing handfuls of pie and stuffing them down his throat. He immediately goes in to anaphylactic shock and dies, but not before ruining the pie for the PCs.
