D&D 4E D&D 4e Dungeon Crawl as a skill Challenge

[doctorbadwolf]

I agree with the others that the failures shouldn't lead to combat encounters. 4e doesn't do "time-wasting" encounters very well. So random encounters are just something I'd avoid.
I'd consider having the cost of failures take away Healing Surges or other resources.

I think it's fine to use combat encounters as long as you cannot take a short rest between them. Perhaps you can choose to increase the DC of a check in order to still make the check and get a rest, but that risks another resource draining obstacle. And I wouldn't make them fights that will last long, make them glass cannon fights that hit hard by where team monster has small HP numbers.

 

[cavalier973]

I think it's fine to use combat encounters as long as you cannot take a short rest between them. Perhaps you can choose to increase the DC of a check in order to still make the check and get a rest, but that risks another resource draining obstacle. And I wouldn't make them fights that will last long, make them glass cannon fights that hit hard by where team monster has small HP numbers.

The combat encounters would be minion only fights, or maybe minions and one brute, or something.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

The combat encounters would be minion only fights, or maybe minions and one brute, or something.

Absolutely great call.

 

[vagabundo]

I had good success using Obsidian skill challenge system. Also I found that players choosing just from a menu of skills dont really add anything interesting. Could be my group just didn't get skill challenges.

I might try a scene framing one and pick skills depending on their narrative choices. Its hard to square sometimes how successes connect with each other to solve the problem in a satisfying way.

On the dungeon keeping it short and sweet, combining smaller encounters and areas into a single 4e encounter seems to work better. The challenge I find is translating that to a satisfying way at the table so it gets the sweet spot between gamist and narravitist.

 

[pemerton]

I am pretty sure this topic has already been covered at some point in the ancient past, but how would one use the 4th edition skill challenge rules to mimic a dungeon crawl for a group of players?

Does one use a map, or something more like a flow chart, and only bring the map out for fights?

Does a fight happen after each failure, or only at the end of three failures? Or, does a failure split the party by dumping half of them down a pit trap to a lower dungeon level?

Any other ideas?

I did it a bit differently from what you're describing. Examples here, here and here. Overall, a bit less structured than you're canvassing, and using the "map", where there is one, simply as an aid to narration but not really as a constraint on success or failure.