Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Rel" data-source="post: 4674797" data-attributes="member: 99">I simply say, &quot;This is a skill challenge&quot; to let them know it is started.There are a couple things I do to more clearly define them and track success in a slightly different way:At the very start I make the group decide on a goal that is an ideal outcome for them.&nbsp; For the first one I ran it was &quot;We want to get out of this river we're being washed down&quot;.&nbsp; More recently we had &quot;We want to find our way through these mines, hopefully to the top of the plateau.&quot;&nbsp; Since I then have a clear endpoint I am more easily able to visualize and narrate their progress toward that goal.In terms of tracking their progress, I've kind of discarded the PHB method of X Successes before Y Failures.&nbsp; Instead I have a positive and negative number in mind.&nbsp; Each success adds one and each failure subtracts one.&nbsp; If they ever get to the positive number they win and if they ever reach the negative number they fail.&nbsp; So tracking it might look like this if my target for success was 4:success (1) failure (0) failure (-1) success (0) success (1) success (2) failure (1) success (2) success (3) success(4)-&gt; Win.Then I kind of include some benchmark events.&nbsp; For example in my &quot;find the way out of the Mines&quot; challenge, I decided that if they ever went into the negatives that they would get to a dead end and be attacked by Stirges and Kruthiks.&nbsp; First roll of the challenge was a failed Dungeoneering check by the Paladin and triggered that encounter right away.&nbsp; I knew that getting into the positives would let them find some plot-related carvings on a wall.&nbsp; Getting three successes would get them to another combat encounter.&nbsp; Four successes would get them to the elevator up to where they wanted to go.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Rel, post: 4674797, member: 99"] I simply say, "This is a skill challenge" to let them know it is started. There are a couple things I do to more clearly define them and track success in a slightly different way: At the very start I make the group decide on a goal that is an ideal outcome for them. For the first one I ran it was "We want to get out of this river we're being washed down". More recently we had "We want to find our way through these mines, hopefully to the top of the plateau." Since I then have a clear endpoint I am more easily able to visualize and narrate their progress toward that goal. In terms of tracking their progress, I've kind of discarded the PHB method of X Successes before Y Failures. Instead I have a positive and negative number in mind. Each success adds one and each failure subtracts one. If they ever get to the positive number they win and if they ever reach the negative number they fail. So tracking it might look like this if my target for success was 4: success (1) failure (0) failure (-1) success (0) success (1) success (2) failure (1) success (2) success (3) success(4)-> Win. Then I kind of include some benchmark events. For example in my "find the way out of the Mines" challenge, I decided that if they ever went into the negatives that they would get to a dead end and be attacked by Stirges and Kruthiks. First roll of the challenge was a failed Dungeoneering check by the Paladin and triggered that encounter right away. I knew that getting into the positives would let them find some plot-related carvings on a wall. Getting three successes would get them to another combat encounter. Four successes would get them to the elevator up to where they wanted to go. [/QUOTE]

Verification