Trevalon Moonleirion
Explorer
Hey ENWorlders,
I’ve been mulling over a skill challenge for my group the past few days and I’m not entirely sure how I want to run it. Your help and input is greatly appreciated.
If you play in my game, GTHO of this thread.
My last session ended with an almost-bungled plan by the PCs going off more or less successfully. They’ve successfully used the abilities of our changeling artificer to impersonate a “lieutenant” in a crime ring that they killed week before last. The guy’s a ranger named Lander who takes stolen goods delievered to him in a halfling town, and teleports them to a secure location for the big boss in this crime ring. Trying to get to the bottom of all of this, the PCs are impersonating Lander to figure out where more of the bandits are setting up shop and preying on people. To make a long story short, they met up with some nervous, new bandits back in the halfling town, lured one of them away from the other, and now the changeling is impersonating bumbling bandit #1, (we'll call him Mark) and together, they’re heading back home.
The rest of the group wants to tail them.
I’ve more or less decided that the best way to handle it is to run two simultaneous challenges, one for Jacobius the changeling as he tries to keep his cover and build his traveling companion’s trust, while perhaps choosing to help the group trailing him—at the risk of revealing himself. The other of course would be for the remaining PCs as they try to follow the two bandits.
These are the rough outlines I have of the challenges so far. Feel free to scrap them if you think you’ve got something better, or just comment and tweak where necessary. Apologies for random grammar styles--it's quick brainstorming!
Skill Challenge:
Jacobius has to keep up his disguise and build his traveling companion’s trust.
Primary Skills
*Bluff: How well can you convince Grim that you’re Mark? Each failure on these checks give every skill check other than Insight a cumulative −2 penalty.
*Diplomacy? Not sure how to describe this as being different from Bluff
*???: What else could I use here?
Secondary Skills
*Insight: You’re getting to know Grim by traveling with him, and have a much better sense of. Success on a check gives you a +2 to your next Bluff check, but you can’t make another check until you’ve made another successful Primary check
Helping your friends Track you (should this be a separate challenge?)
*Stealth? More bluff?
*Failures for any of these skills should make Grim more suspicious of Jacobius.
Part II: Keeping up with the Bandits
I’m not sure if this should be a series of group checks or a more abstract challenge where each person is making different checks to somehow help the overall goal of keeping pace with the bandits without being noticed. I’m thinking it’ll be complixity 5 (12 successes before 3 failures)
Primary
*Stealth: Help the group stay hidden from your quarry
*Endurance: The weather outside is cold, and it’s starting to snow—is that going to slow you down? Failure here could result in penalties to other skill checks, or loss of a healing surge?
*Athletics: Move fast and deftly over rough terrain, muscling over hills, jumping streams, etc.
*Nature: Use knowledge of the terrain to help you stay hidden and keep pace with the bandits
*History: (could be used like nature???)
I’ve been mulling over a skill challenge for my group the past few days and I’m not entirely sure how I want to run it. Your help and input is greatly appreciated.
If you play in my game, GTHO of this thread.
My last session ended with an almost-bungled plan by the PCs going off more or less successfully. They’ve successfully used the abilities of our changeling artificer to impersonate a “lieutenant” in a crime ring that they killed week before last. The guy’s a ranger named Lander who takes stolen goods delievered to him in a halfling town, and teleports them to a secure location for the big boss in this crime ring. Trying to get to the bottom of all of this, the PCs are impersonating Lander to figure out where more of the bandits are setting up shop and preying on people. To make a long story short, they met up with some nervous, new bandits back in the halfling town, lured one of them away from the other, and now the changeling is impersonating bumbling bandit #1, (we'll call him Mark) and together, they’re heading back home.
The rest of the group wants to tail them.
I’ve more or less decided that the best way to handle it is to run two simultaneous challenges, one for Jacobius the changeling as he tries to keep his cover and build his traveling companion’s trust, while perhaps choosing to help the group trailing him—at the risk of revealing himself. The other of course would be for the remaining PCs as they try to follow the two bandits.
These are the rough outlines I have of the challenges so far. Feel free to scrap them if you think you’ve got something better, or just comment and tweak where necessary. Apologies for random grammar styles--it's quick brainstorming!
Skill Challenge:
Jacobius has to keep up his disguise and build his traveling companion’s trust.
Primary Skills
*Bluff: How well can you convince Grim that you’re Mark? Each failure on these checks give every skill check other than Insight a cumulative −2 penalty.
*Diplomacy? Not sure how to describe this as being different from Bluff
*???: What else could I use here?
Secondary Skills
*Insight: You’re getting to know Grim by traveling with him, and have a much better sense of. Success on a check gives you a +2 to your next Bluff check, but you can’t make another check until you’ve made another successful Primary check
Helping your friends Track you (should this be a separate challenge?)
*Stealth? More bluff?
*Failures for any of these skills should make Grim more suspicious of Jacobius.
Part II: Keeping up with the Bandits
I’m not sure if this should be a series of group checks or a more abstract challenge where each person is making different checks to somehow help the overall goal of keeping pace with the bandits without being noticed. I’m thinking it’ll be complixity 5 (12 successes before 3 failures)
Primary
*Stealth: Help the group stay hidden from your quarry
*Endurance: The weather outside is cold, and it’s starting to snow—is that going to slow you down? Failure here could result in penalties to other skill checks, or loss of a healing surge?
*Athletics: Move fast and deftly over rough terrain, muscling over hills, jumping streams, etc.
*Nature: Use knowledge of the terrain to help you stay hidden and keep pace with the bandits
*History: (could be used like nature???)