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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Manbearcat" data-source="post: 6069908" data-attributes="member: 6696971">Is it this extended Exploration Skill Challenge that you're referring to?A couple of generalities about Skill Challenge handling first:1)  There needs to be stakes.2)  Those stakes need to be explicitly conveyed at the table; you can use purple prose replete with foreshadowing and literary conventions, or you can overtly reference the metagame.  Given what you have outlined about your table's interests, it is almost assured that the route that you typically go is the former.3)  You need to have conditions for success and conditions for adversity/complication should failure arise the first go around.4)  You need to have mechanical and mapped narrative results for those two resolutions.  As in 2, you need to convey them (there is likely no getting around at least a tacit reference to the metagame here as the player's need to be made aware of the mechanical influence from their side of the screen.)Now that that is over, a few questions:- Is this Exploration Skill Challenge micro-region driven; eg, one skill challenge per tribal region or dwarven ruin regionor- Is it level (physical level) driven?Personally, at my table, I would make it the former.  The stakes could be set each time the PC's enter a new micro-region.  You could set them as you're relaying the color (sights, sounds, smells, lighting, topography, atmosphere, implied/potential threats) of the new locale.  If I were doing it, I would relay the color then place my Success die and Failure die on the table after that is done (my  metagame expression that the PCs have just entered a Skill Challenge).  I would then regale them with a narrative that encapsulates all of that color and the potential dangers; that clearly outlines the stakes and alludes to the implications of success/complications of failure.  What would ensue would be a closed scene where the PCs would navigate/explore the region.  When those conditions for success are reached, the would move to the next closed scene (the next micro-region and the next Exploration Skill Challenge).  If the conditions for failure are met instead, then the complications/adversity scenario would ensue; a new Skill Challenge which would attempt to resolve the complication/adversity and get them to the next micro-locale...or more failure for more complication/adversity.  Insert feedback loop.I'm pretty sure you've got complications/adversity outlined somewhere upthread:- One or more PC getting lost.- One or more PC getting kidnapped.- A combat encounter with one clan or another or with the strike force.- Exposure to a hazardous environmental condition/disease track.- Moving along the Eyes of the Mountain track.- Accidentally activating dwarven tech, drawing from nearby monsters/predators or having to deal with the tech/constructs themselves.- Cave-In/Avalanche!- Elaborate Kobold Trap, etc.I'm pretty sure you've got all of that stuff.  The most important part of "framing" a Skill Challenge at the table is making sure your players intimately understand the nuance of the concept; from a mechanical resolution standpoint, from when they are actually in one, from when/how they progress or regress, the stakes, the conditions for success/failure, how to properly compose and frame a single step/task (one check) of the overall conflict resolution mechanic (the skill challenge which resolves the exploration).If you have specific questions that I didn't address in the above post, go ahead and ask it and I'll see if I can answer in a way that illuminates.</blockquote>

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