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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Skyscraper" data-source="post: 4519586" data-attributes="member: 48518">Examples of two skills challenges run in my games:1) Escape from prisonI had PCs wake up in a prison. They had been drugged, the jailers are now dead, the sleep-inducing drug doesn't affect them anymore, so all they need to do is get out of there. The prison cell doesn't have any windows and the single way out is a door that includes a lock and magical runes to protect it. (Obviously, windows would allow an eladrin to simply teleport out, so prisons don't include windows.) The PCs said they wanted out, of course. I asked how they went about it (not stating that it is a skill challenge.)So one PC decided to try to decipher the runes (Arcana). Another, knowing they were in the temple, tried to make some sense out of the religious meaning of them (religion). I can't remember who made what check, but they managed to remove some magical protection on the door but not unlock it, said I. Another PC used a brazier that had contained the sleep-inducing incense to bash the door (Althletics DC). He damaged it, but didn't get through. Another disassembled the brazier and broke it down until he had make-shift thieve's tools to open the door (making it a harder DC without proper tools). In the end i can't remember what the last check was that made it, but the point being: each intermediate success or failure was described by me as having some incidence on the door. I would have allowed re-rolls of some skills until they got out; however for each 2 failures before 4 success, it would cost everyone a healing surge as their morale went down and fatigue kicked in. They managed their 4 success with a single failure.2) Escape from a zombie mobIn this skill challenge, the PCs are alone in a city filled with zombies. They get spotted and hundreds of zombies come from all directions to kill them. They just battled 8 or 9 of them and had a hard time: they know they have to flee. I ask them how they go about doing that. (Not stating that it is a skill challenge. I have set this to require 6 successes. For each failure, they'll have to confront a group of 8 zombie minions at the end. So 3 failures makes it 24 minions, which should be a fair fight.)Obvious they start by running. I have their athletic PC make an Athletics check. They make it and outdistance some zombies, but they're coming in from all directions. The PCs tell me that they try to go through hazardous terrain, over fences and the like. I have their agile PC make an Acrobatics check (they make it again). Many zombies are slowed down by the obstacles. One PC says that they'll even run over house roofs. I consider that to be included in the previous "obstacle" check and don't have them roll another check for this one. One PC tries to find shortcuts. Okay, roll a Streetwise check. They make it and find advantageous shortcuts to loose still more zombies.  I'm forgetting one or two, but they ended up at one point with five success and a single failure, with numerous zombies still coming at them. But they lost a large group of them at least. They decided to find a suitable rooftop on which they'd climb and snipe zombies with arrows, magic missiles and eldritch blasts. Okay, say I, roll a streetwise check to find a proper rooftop (i guess it could have been an athletics check to climb there also, in hindsight: but it doesn't matter really): they make the (hard) check, find a roof top on which they climb by first using a pile of crates and then throwing it down. They then snipe away and kill scores of zombies. Now, how was it to have my final battle with the 8 minions, since they did have one failure? I could have had the zombies find a concealed doorway to the rooftop, but we were playing a zombie-flick type adventure, so i went all out: as they sniped the zombies, the zombie corpses piled up until finally a few of them managed to climb on the roof by stepping on their fallen comrades (does a zombie have comrades?) to engage the PCs in battle. Only a few: the 8 minions that made it were killed rapidly, as could be expected. Good for them, they rolled well in the skill challenge.Examples of skills that i had thought could be used but were not: religion, to anticipate the zombies' actions; endurance, to outdistance the zombies.Example of an action that i had definitely not anticipated: sniping the zombies from a rooftop. I fought my knee-jerk reaction to refuse it ("if you can climb, so can they") and transformed that into an action that got a good laugh out of everyone (this was not a serious game, we're a bunch of zombie-flicks amateurs).The point being: by not asking for specific skills to be used, you open up the skill challenge to player creativity, which is great. And you also open up the skill challenge to DM creativity as you need to narrate on the fly the results of those unforeseen skill uses.3) ConclusionI never told the players they were in a skill challenge. At least one of them knew, both times. He didn't mention it either. It serves no purpose for him to delcare "i know what rule the DM is using now!" He just played along, and everyone seemed to have fun.I am now on the point of running an investigation skill challenge in another game with other players. It requires information to be gathered to solve the investigation. I plan on the main information becoming available only when the fourth successful skill check (i plan for a 4/2 skill challenge) is made. In-between, they'll only find clues. It will be up to me to see what "intermediate" clues i'll provide, i'm still designing the challenge now. And also what will failures mean. Since an investigation is a long-winded event, i can't have them pay up healing surges for failures. Perhaps they'll be greated by more enemies for each failure they get (enemies learning that the PCs are trying to solve the issue), i'm not sure yet.Sky</blockquote>

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