4e Skill Challenge playtest

[LostSoul]

Hey All;

Inspired by this thread, I want to try out running a 4e Skill Challenge.

We'll be using the D&D XP pre-generated PCs, found here. This sets the maximum number of players at 7 - the minimum I'd like to run with is 4. (I'm including the DM in that count.)

We can either run with vagabundo's situation found in the original thread (corner the shapechanger before he kills again), or come up with something else. Either way.

We'll hammer out the exact rules we are going to use here as well.

 

[Storminator]

I'll take Erias the Sunlord.

Because I like to bellow out my title when I introduce myself...

PS

 

[Graf]

Starting a 4e game on the boards now, would really like to play/try this system out before I have to run it.
[edit: will take Tira]

 

[LostSoul]

Awesome.

Do you guys want to run through the suggested challenge ("Find the shapechanger before he kills") or do you want to come up with something else?

 

[Graf]

I really like the shapechanger idea, but partially because I have an idea for how I want to catch it.

1. I'm not playing Tira as some sort of demon-worshiping soul-eating psychotic, I know that's the norm but I think it's boring/weird. I'm thinking troubled mage-type.

I think Tira will try to work together with the border guard to spread a rumor (streetwise?) that she knows a ritual that will reveal the creature's current form to her before dusk (bluff).
She'll wander around the town acting weird and "collecting important items" and dirt from "key locations". If she's convincing she's hoping to smoke the creature out (once dusk falls she figures the creature will be able to sneak away, hide with impunity).

I haven't looked at the skill rules yet, I'm just thinking about what your average creative-player would try to do.
Key things:
Working with the border guard (both to help spread rumors and to ensure that people believe she's a "powerful mystic the king sent")
using streetwise to stir up rumors
using bluff to convince people (and hopefully the creature) that she's the real deal.

If Erias' player likes he can pretend to think that "calling upon such powerful dark forces is inappropriate" and try to convince the good towns people to tell him of strange behavior so that it's not necessary to "resort to such dark magics".

Just riffing.

 

[LostSoul]

I really like the shapechanger idea, but partially because I have an idea for how I want to catch it.

That's one vote for the shapechanger idea.

1. I'm not playing Tira as some sort of demon-worshiping soul-eating psychotic, I know that's the norm but I think it's boring/weird. I'm thinking troubled mage-type.

Why is Tira troubled? We can work that into the skill challenge.

In other words - Tira is a protagonist. What does she want?

 

[Graf]

I agree with the protagonist statemetn, I've just seen a few 4e games where people have her running around demanding souls and attacking everything in sight.
And her quote is something like "I want to eat your soul for my dark master".

Not my bag.

But a bit troubled is fine, maybe she doomed her (accepted dark power) soul so that she could save her town from a raid by gnolls. She helped drive off the gnolls but the town basically rejected her. So she's bitter about that, she likes that she's powerful and loves to project the aura of power but can take it too far refusing to admit her own flaws.

 

[LostSoul]

But a bit troubled is fine, maybe she doomed her (accepted dark power) soul so that she could save her town from a raid by gnolls. She helped drive off the gnolls but the town basically rejected her. So she's bitter about that, she likes that she's powerful and loves to project the aura of power but can take it too far refusing to admit her own flaws.

Sounds cool. I've been playing Prime Time Adventures recently, so I'm thinking of PCs as protagonists by default. (In that game, you'd have something like this on your character sheet: "Issue: Acceptance". Conflicts would focus and explore that Issue.)

So: did I get it right? Is "gaining acceptance" the reason why Tira adventures?

More questions: Who did Tira threaten - who did she scare so much that he/she forced her out of town?

At times, I'm going to throw in some DM thoughts in sblocked text. You might want to read it after we play through all this. (This one isn't a big deal, though.) Just a look into why I'm doing what I'm doing.

[sblock]I framed the question the way I did - "Who did Tira threaten" - instead of a more general "Why was Tira kicked out of town" because I wanted a leading question. I'm trying to make sure that I get some conflict, and an antagonist, out of the answer.

The reason I'm asking these questions at all, even for a single, simple "skill challenge" is because I want to know what the players are interested in. Once I know that, I can frame the challenge in a way that grabs their interest (or at least try!). For example, if Tira is interested in being accepted, failures on her skill checks will often result in having people shun her.[/sblock]

 

[Graf]

I'm very cool with that especially since you made the link to PTA.
Let's say she threatened her fiancé after he challenged her decision to pact. She was drunk on power after her victory and he was the local lay priest.
He saw her decision as a return to the worship of older darker gods.

Things got out of hand quickly. She wouldn't back down.
Maybe she'd been the town trouble-maker before and he'd helped to set her back on course?
of course developing a sense of responciblity is what drove her to pact eventually.


Love rping this sort of stuff.
(gonna be offline for 24 hours, sorry!)

 

[Storminator]

Awesome.

Do you guys want to run through the suggested challenge ("Find the shapechanger before he kills") or do you want to come up with something else?

I'm cool with the shapechanger challenge.

Now I need RP hooks heh? Alright.

Erias is a zealot. While well meaning and a do-gooder, he drove his fellow townies and the "high priest" (it was a small village, the high priest isn't very high) crazy with his aggressive sermonizing. He converted the mayor's son to Amaunator (from Bahamut), and his priestly leaders decided it was a good time for Erias to take an extended vacation.

So he was sent on a noble quest to convert people in 5 towns to Amaunator within one year's time. Come on heathens! Time to get right with God!

PS