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Message: <blockquote data-quote="wcpfish" data-source="post: 5375485" data-attributes="member: 74849">I think I have to second the skill-challenge notion.  Let's use the example of a city.  The players are trying to "flush-out" some corrupt officials who are part of a bigger plot that connects them to the thieves guild.  Obviously several factions could be interested here....The legit members of the government, the corrupt members, the thieves guild, a rival gang to the thieves guild, the typical city nobles/courtiers/busybodies, and maybe some more.  So I suggest setting up a nice default of three levels of activity.  Unaware (the group in question has little interest in the PCs and is unaware of their involvement).  Aware (the group in question recognizes that the PCs have been "snooping around" and "picking up clues").  The third is Active (the group in question is aware of the PCs and has a vested interest in taking actions involving the PCs).  Notice in the third stage I said "taking actions "involving" and not necessarily taking actions "against" the PCs.  The rival gang may wish to see the thieves guild exposed and the corrupt officials discredited and thus may take actions to aid the PCs.  These sort of tangled interactions can drive a story for quite some time.  Set up the default level on a brief table of the involved factions.  Along with a note or to regarding consequences.  Ex:  Thieves Guild - Aware- The Thieves Guild knows of the PCs meddling due to their extensive information network.  When they move to the Active level they will send a pair of elite assassins to deal with with party.  This is all the more complex your set-up needs to be.  Now the next step is putting together some skill challenges (and the nice part here is you can reskin some of these to get multiple uses out of your work).  Here's an example:  Skill Challenge :Greasing the PalmsIn this challenge the players must smoothly bribe an official to get dirt on the corrupt officials.  The individual must want to help (diplomacy or intimidate look like good starts).  The party must offer a proper "level" of bribe (perhaps insight helps determine the right amount).  And then the party must determine if the information they have bought is good or not (History?)  Of course the party could bribe a courtier or rival gang member as well. This allows you to get more mileage out of your work.  What about lowering your profile?  This will be the third and final part of my advice.  I suggest skill challanges that allow your PCs to lower a particular factions "level of interest".  Perhaps the Thieves Guild is at "aware" level.  The party then pays a group of similar looking adventurers to dress as them and leave town amongst much fanfare to "search out the evil dragon's lair far away in the Misty Mountains".  The party will be gone for weeks and surely won't be around to cause trouble for the Thieves now, right?  The Thieves Guild drops back to unaware level.  Use your imagination and think about measures and countermeasures real world intelligence agents use.  The skill challenges should come fairly easily and the three-tiered system brings the enemies' collective awareness to the forefront without burdening you as the DM with more than a simple page or two of notes and some pre-made skill challenges!Best of luck and happy gaming!William C. PfaffPresident of <a href="http://www.escapevelocitygaming.com" target="_blank">Escape Velocity Gaming</a></blockquote>

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