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<blockquote data-quote="Morrus" data-source="post: 4975898" data-attributes="member: 1">The way I do it:&nbsp;1) Never, ever, ever mention or hint to your players that they're in a skill challenge.&nbsp; &nbsp;2) Never let them see you recording successes or failures.&nbsp; Never give them a list of available skills.&nbsp;3) Use the available skills as guidelines for how to set DCs for things your players think of.&nbsp; Don't get too strictly caught up with what's on the page.&nbsp;4) Your players should suggest what they're doing, and then you tell them what skill to roll; not the other way round.&nbsp;5) Feel free to provide stimulus to your players to prompt them to tell you what they're doing.&nbsp; If one of the options is &quot;History DC 15: A character remembers that the Duke's father was killed in a battle 20 years ago&quot;, then you casually mention &quot;You see a portrait of a man who looks similar to the Duke hanging above the fireplace&quot;.&nbsp; If a player asks about it, THEN tell him to make a History check.&nbsp; If he succeeds, tell him what he remembers.&nbsp; If he fails, tell him that despite searching his brain, he doesn't recognise the portrait.&nbsp; Secretly record the success of failure.&nbsp;6) Feel free to break skill challenges up.&nbsp; I ran one which lasted the entire session (a travel skill challenge), and broke it up with a couple of mini-encounters in the middle of it.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;7) Again, NEVER mention the words &quot;skill challenge&quot; to your players!&nbsp; From their point of view, you are just asking them for skill checks occasionally when they say they want to do something.&nbsp;8) Narrate, narrate, narrate.&nbsp;8) If stallling, throw in something to create the skill roll.&nbsp; In my journey skill challenge there was a vague description about how an Athletics check could help overcome obstacles.&nbsp; So I said &quot;There's a snowdrift blocking your way&quot; and they immediately threwa bunch of suggestions as to what they were trying at me.&nbsp; One wanted to use Nature to find a better path, another wanted to use Perception to do same, another wanted to use Athletics to climb around it, etc.&nbsp; So they all made their checks, I described the result, they got past the snowdrift and I marked down a couple of successes.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Morrus, post: 4975898, member: 1"] The way I do it: 1) Never, ever, ever mention or hint to your players that they're in a skill challenge. 2) Never let them see you recording successes or failures. Never give them a list of available skills. 3) Use the available skills as guidelines for how to set DCs for things your players think of. Don't get too strictly caught up with what's on the page. 4) Your players should suggest what they're doing, and then you tell them what skill to roll; not the other way round. 5) Feel free to provide stimulus to your players to prompt them to tell you what they're doing. If one of the options is "History DC 15: A character remembers that the Duke's father was killed in a battle 20 years ago", then you casually mention "You see a portrait of a man who looks similar to the Duke hanging above the fireplace". If a player asks about it, THEN tell him to make a History check. If he succeeds, tell him what he remembers. If he fails, tell him that despite searching his brain, he doesn't recognise the portrait. Secretly record the success of failure. 6) Feel free to break skill challenges up. I ran one which lasted the entire session (a travel skill challenge), and broke it up with a couple of mini-encounters in the middle of it. 7) Again, NEVER mention the words "skill challenge" to your players! From their point of view, you are just asking them for skill checks occasionally when they say they want to do something. 8) Narrate, narrate, narrate. 8) If stallling, throw in something to create the skill roll. In my journey skill challenge there was a vague description about how an Athletics check could help overcome obstacles. So I said "There's a snowdrift blocking your way" and they immediately threwa bunch of suggestions as to what they were trying at me. One wanted to use Nature to find a better path, another wanted to use Perception to do same, another wanted to use Athletics to climb around it, etc. So they all made their checks, I described the result, they got past the snowdrift and I marked down a couple of successes. [/QUOTE]

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