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<blockquote data-quote="Eltab" data-source="post: 7348409" data-attributes="member: 6803337">One of the Ashes of Athas modules had a Skill Challenge that my character happened to be optimized for.&nbsp; Other players (who were much better in combat than I) had to roll a 20 to avoid failure !&nbsp; They weren't interested, because it looked to them like &quot;you are doomed auto-fail and you will drag the group down with you.&quot;When I write my own material, I try to provide something like a Skill Challenge, although I don't use the mechanic or description; I just present the PCs with a situation where &quot;I hit it with my sword&quot; is clearly inappropriate.&nbsp; Some players try anyways -sigh- .Usually I will indicate in my notes &quot;hard&quot;, &quot;medium&quot;, and &quot;easy&quot; levels for different skills.&nbsp; Sir UselessOrnamentUponSociety responds well to Diplomacy (medium) but gets his hackles up when somebody tries to Intimidate him (hard).&nbsp; But to really get his attention, bring him by a window and have your Bard play his family's ancestral anthem (if you have a copy of the sheet music, easy Perform) out on the lawn.&nbsp; Of course some NPC will 'clue in' the PCs ... but they don't HAVE to take the easy route ...I found out that newer players can get into a skill challenge more when you encourage them to use their imaginations, and/or tell them to think of how they would solve a real-world analogy (broken wagon = flashing idiot light on car dashboard).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Eltab, post: 7348409, member: 6803337"] One of the [B]Ashes of Athas[/B] modules had a Skill Challenge that my character happened to be optimized for. Other players (who were much better in combat than I) had to roll a 20 to avoid failure ! They weren't interested, because it looked to them like "you are doomed auto-fail and you will drag the group down with you." When I write my own material, I try to provide something like a Skill Challenge, although I don't use the mechanic or description; I just present the PCs with a situation where "I hit it with my sword" is clearly inappropriate. Some players try anyways -sigh- . Usually I will indicate in my notes "hard", "medium", and "easy" levels for different skills. Sir UselessOrnamentUponSociety responds well to Diplomacy (medium) but gets his hackles up when somebody tries to Intimidate him (hard). But to really get his attention, bring him by a window and have your Bard play his family's ancestral anthem (if you have a copy of the sheet music, easy Perform) out on the lawn. Of course some NPC will 'clue in' the PCs ... but they don't HAVE to take the easy route ... I found out that newer players can get into a skill challenge more when you encourage them to use their imaginations, and/or tell them to think of how they would solve a real-world analogy (broken wagon = flashing idiot light on car dashboard). [/QUOTE]

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