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Message: <blockquote data-quote="overgeeked" data-source="post: 8488209" data-attributes="member: 86653">Gotcha. The skill challenge in question is from a 5E West Marches game I'm running. One of the groups randomly decided to set an ambush, so I used my incredibly loose skill challenge house rules for that. The more they described doing things (sometimes skill checks sometimes not) to push the outcome in their favor, the better the checks (when made), the more positive the outcome when they finally sprang the ambush. I called it organic because the players just decided to set an ambush and started describing all the stuff they wanted to do, adding all the details they thought were relevant, with barely a word from me. As they went I asked them to make a few rolls. To me, that's organic. As opposed to me writing up a whole thing about this or that skill working or not working for this kind of prolonged, multiple roll event and slapping that framework into the game. Then basically me pushing a skill challenge on the group. I'm not a fan of that.For the longest time I was stuck on grokking skill challenges and how to use them in games. What finally flipped the switch was to stop thinking about the rules, just think about the narrative. That's all that matters. Fiction first, rules a distant second...if at all. Is it something that's so easy or obvious that it should be automatic? Then there's no roll. Is it something that can be done in one roll? Then it's not a skill challenge. Is it something that would logically require several rolls over a longer time line? Then it's a skill challenge. Is it a one-sided thing, like setting an ambush? Then the rolls are for how well it's set up and how good the outcome will eventually be. Is it a moving, dynamic thing, like a chase through city streets? Then the rolls on both sides move the sides closer to their goals.You're having a chase through the streets. The PC's goal is to catch someone who's running away and they have a slight head start. The NPC's goal is to get away. Okay...what are you (the PCs) doing? Describe it. They describe their actions and give me details while I describe the NPC's actions and give details like knocking over an apple cart or cutting through an alley. If the check is good, it helps get them closer to their target (reduce the number of successes required to achieve their goal). If the check is bad, it pushes the target further away (increases the number of successes required to achieve their goal).</blockquote>

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