Help me create a Skill challenge

[Delgar]

Okay planning on running a 4E playtest on Friday and I want to try and run a skill challenge (If you're playing in my game please stop reading here, you know who you are)




Alright. Okay anyway my setup for the game is that the six pregens will have been hired to recover an object. They are told that the object is hidden in an old forgotten burial chamber. My plan is to have them go through a skill challenge to discover the location of the chamber.

My problems are:

What do I need to know to set this up properly?
How can they go about doing this?
What skills are appropriate?
Is this even a good reason to try out the skill challenge system?

Anyway any ideas or help are most welcome.

 

[LostInTheMists]

Alright. Okay anyway my setup for the game is that the six pregens will have been hired to recover an object. They are told that the object is hidden in an old forgotten burial chamber. My plan is to have them go through a skill challenge to discover the location of the chamber.

My problems are:

What do I need to know to set this up properly?
How can they go about doing this?
What skills are appropriate?
Is this even a good reason to try out the skill challenge system?

Anyway any ideas or help are most welcome.

Here's my question... if the purpose of the challenge is to find the burial chamber where the item is hidden, and they fail, then what happens? In my humble opinion, setting the plot for the game up to be the result of something that may potentially fail isn't a good idea, since failure = no game.

Instead, perhaps there's a general idea of where this chamber is ("it's hidden in the foothills somewhere"), but the skill challenge (using things like History, etc.) could find out exactly where it's located, what's been seen around it, any legends about the place or the items, etc. This way, if they totally fail the challenge, they can still go look for it, but they'll be facing the drawbacks of their challenge loss by essentially stumbling around and going in uninformed... but the game goes on.

Just my 2 coppers worth.

 

[Delgar]

oops I forgot to add that the chamber is located somewhere in the city. Also, I envision that failure won't mean they didn't find it, just that they perhaps alerted someone else to it's presence and may create an additional encounter.

 

[Saishu_Heiki]

The skill system is one of my favorite changes to 4e. All you need to know going in is what the end goal is (find the McGuffin) and some ways for them to obtain the goal.

My advice is to break it down into bite-sized pieces.

The Location: a petty noble has an extensive library that probably contains some clue to the resting place. You could break in, bribe him, impress him... but he is proud of his "kingly" heritage and will not pass up a chance to show it off.

The Traps: a group of hunters and trappers have been working that area for generations. They know the areas ot avoid and have noticed some odd sounds and creatures in the area. They can be paid for the info, or they could be followed, etc.

The Item: the locals all have myths and legends about this burial chamber and the horrors that occur there. They are loathe to talk about it, but can be cornered and pressed if one were so inclined. A more perceptive person might notice that the children's hopscotch song bears an odd resemblance to this very legend...

And continue from there. Whatever they want to do, you can find a skill and a way to implement it.

 

[Hella_Tellah]

Maybe I'll be proven wrong by the system as written, but for now, I'm using it this way:

• Define the players' goal. The DM decides how many successes he wants to require, and what the threshold for failure should be. The DM could verbalize this or not, her call. Ex: "We want to find the Black Alter of McGuffin." The DM thinks, "That should take them some time--maybe six successes--but it'll take at least three failures to really set them off course.".
• Let the players come up with uses for their skills. If they seem strange, say, "Convince me." Ex: "I use History to see if I know something about its past." Ex2: "I use Acrobatics." "Really? How?"
• Players and DM together decide the difficulty of the task, and whether they want to go ahead with it. This reflects my playstyle, by the way--you might just decide the DC in your head and not inform the players, if that helps maintain verisimilitude. Ex: "That History check is going to be hard, but it'll give you a boost to subsequent checks." "Ooh, okay, I'll do a Religion check" "Yeah, that's an Easy check."
• Roll.
• Move on to the next player. The most fundamental part of this system is that it calls for whole-party creativity.
• Whether the PCs fail or succeed, make the outcome fun and interesting. Ex: Your research leads you to a glade a few miles into the king's hunting grounds. There doesn't seem to be any alter here, but you do see a hunting party a couple hundred yards off. Roll Stealth to see if they find you here.

This is how I'll be using the Skill Challenge framework in any game I run, not just D&D.