Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lord Zardoz" data-source="post: 5113655" data-attributes="member: 704">My detailed suggestionI think that you could conceivably build at least one entire game around this with the vast majority of the game consisting of undertaking the skill challenges.  There are a few elements you will need to break this down into.  The critical part is that each skill challenge should have a means of resolution, a penalty for failure, and a worthwhile reward for success.  One key point to make is that the players should be able to use straight up role playing and rituals to gain some successes.Identify the Assassination TargetThis element is the most obvious.  They need to identify the preistess who they are to kill.  Ordinarily this type of challeng would be dependant on a handfull of skill rolls.  But I suggest the following.Resolution Mechanic:  Use what I call the '3 Key Skills'.  Break this down into 3 specific tasks which require a skill DC well beyond your players best possible roll.  Then allow the players to make any number of checks aimed at granting a +2 to the Key Skill.  Allow the players a generous amount of failures for the support rolls, and to retry the key skills.Success:  The players discover the identity of the target.Great Success:  If the players never fail a key skill roll, and if the players do not fail too many support rolls, they should get +2 to all successive rolls for the next challenge.  They may also obtain either a ritual or magic item free of charge that should help with the later skill checks.  (If you do this, you may want to also give them a chance to buy it if they do not get it as treasure).Failure:  The players tip off the Priestess and are attacked if they fail too many support rolls or 1 key skill check.Failure at key Skills:  If the players fail key skills, they should suffer a -1 Penalty to later skill checks for the remaining Assassination based skill checks.Grand Bastard Failure:  Lets say you like the idea of messing with your players and consider yourself a Grand Bastard DM.  If the players fail at the key skills, you could decide they end up identifying the wrong person as the target.  In this case, when the players do succeed, run the rest of the adventure / plot as normal, except they find out they hit the wrong person later, as in after they make the attempt.Planning how to Assassinate the TargetAt this point, things will become much more open ended.  the players need to make the Priestess dead, but how they do it should matter.  This part may also blend into the actual assassination.  I would suggest you pick a maximum xp and treasure reward, and then award it in full or in part depending on how successful the players are.Resolution Mechanic:  Most of this part will be the players deciding to go fishing for hints and clues that might allow them to determine how to go about killing the Priestess.  I expect that the players will say 'Ok, we want to figure out X / do task Y', then you will do either a single skill check or a very short skill challenge (ie:  2 or 3 successes to complete the task at hand).  So with that in mind, I suggest the following;  First determine a number of potentially useful facts about the target, and assign a success value (single skill check, or 2 or 3 successes).  Then put a time cap in place, lets say 2 or 3 days.  Allow each player to perform 6 tasks in each day.  If time runs out before the players make their attempt, the players fail.  If the players fail, mostly they lose time.  If they fail alot, throw in a penalty.  Allow yourself a great deal of redundancy, and provide 2 to 5 possible means of performing the task.  Success:  The players choose a means of assassination and complete preparations before the deadline.  They gain a bonus based on how much time they have left over.Great success:  Give them some treasure and / or a bonus to the checks to actually kill the target.Alt Success:  You might find a way for the players to get more time to make their plan.Basic Failure:  Players lose time and waste a check.Bad Failure:  Wasting too much time might cause all players suffer a penalty to the checks, including the actuall checks to try to kill the target.Severe Failure:  If the players tip their hand, then the players are forced into a fight without either their Encounter powers or without some daily powers.  Or with fewer healing surges.Epic Failure:  If your players do something monumentally stupid, they may take a penalty to later checks, be forced into a fight with very few healing surges and no encounter powers.  They may also be captured / arrested.Suggested Facts:- The priestess has a drug habit.  Players may figure out who and where her supplier is.- The priestess home may have secret tunnels.- The priestess is having an affair with a member of a rival house (ooh, the scandal!).- The priestess is looking to buy slaves, giving the players a means to get close or infiltrate her home.- The priestess has a rival in her house who is willing to help kill her.- The priestess has been stealing from her clan or the church- The priestess has a particular favorite food, or likes jewelry.- The priestess may owe money around townMisc:  You need to avoid making all of these gather information checks.  The limit of X checks per player in a day should prevent a single player from trying to do all the work solo.The AssassinationThis is pretty straightforward.  Whatever means the players select to kill the priestess, the basic metric for success is if she ends up dead or not.  I would allow for the following levels of success.Killed by 3rd party:  This is basically paying an 18th level character to kill a 10th level character.  Target is dead, but it lacks style.  I would grant 1 / 7th of final XP reward and treasure.Killed indirectly by players:  Lets say the poison her, or lead her into a trap, or hand her a cursed item that does the deed.  This should get 3 / 7ths of final reward.Killed directly by players:  This is a full frontal attack.  I would grant full XP for this if they hit her at her peak.  I would go up to 5 / 7ths if they need to significantly weaken her first (poison, cannon fodder, etc).Personal Public Humiliation:  If the players ruin her reputation and standing in her clan and the town, they get 2 / 7ths of the final reward.Humiliation of Clan:  If they manage to embarass the entire clan in a public fashion, they should get 3 / 7ths of the final reward.Blackmailed into subservience:  If they can coerce or blackmail the Priestess effectively enough to turn her into a pawn of their clan, they should get 4 / 7ths.Selfish Betrayal:  If they can get the priestess to betray her clan for selfish reasons, they should get 5 / 7ths of the total reward.Betrayed by Clan:  If the PC's can create a situation where members of the priestesses own clan decide to kill her, the players should get 6 / 7ths of total experienceUnselfish Betrayal:  If they can trick the priestess into betraying her own clan while convinced she is acting to help her clan, the players should get full XP.Formal Sacrifice to Lolth:  If they can arrange to have the priestess sacrificed to Loth for the honor of their house, they should get full experience.Epic Win:  If the Pc's can convince the priestess to betray her own clan while she thinks she is helping her own clan, and then approach the priestesses clan and get them to ask the players clan to kill her quietly as a favor before she embarasses them further, and do so by sacrificing the priestess to Loth, the players should get 8 / 7ths of Max reward.Resolution Mechanic:  Whatever the players do, you should probably go with a 'Key Skill Check' type resolution for the final checks, but put a hard limit on the number of possible support checks.  There should be no retry for the Key Skill check.Failure:  If the players botch this, they need to cut and run.  A fight will probably ensue.EscapeIf the players screw up at some point, they may be thown in a personal dungeon.  Or if they succeed in the murder but need to get away, they will need to escape.Resolution Mechanic:  As a baseline, I would go with each player needing 5 successes to escape, and 3 strikes with a penalty of capture or combat leading to death.  I would permit players to use their own checks to help someone else.  I would try to limit the players from spamming a single skill though.  To that end, I would start tacking on a cumulative -2 penalty for repeated checks until it succeeds and have repeated successes count only fractionally in the following matter.1st:  A success is a Success.2nd:  -2 penalty, counts as 0.5 success. (player now has 1.5 total successes out of 5).3rd:  -4 penalty, counts as 0.5 success.  (player now has 2 total successes out of 5).4th:  -6 penalty, counts as 0.25 success.  (player now has 2.25 total successes out of 5).5th:  -8 penalty, counts as 0.25 success.  (player now has 2.5 total successes out of 5).6th:  -10 penalty, counts as 0.25 success.  (player now has 2.75 total successes out of 5).7th:  -12 penalty, counts as 0.25 success.  (player now has 3 total successes out of 5).ie:  If you fail the 3rd repeated check, you can make it again.  But you did just gain a failure.END COMMUNICATION</blockquote>

Verification