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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ExploderWizard" data-source="post: 4896158" data-attributes="member: 66434">I think one of the most important things to think of when designing any skill challenges is determining what exactly is gained by success (other than-The PC's win <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" />) and what happens in the case of epic fail.  Ideally, unless the challenge is literally life or death, the PC's move on after failure and continue somehow. This is why information based challenges are so.......umm......challenging. How do the events of the campaign move forward when the purpose of the challenge was to gain vital information that the completion of an important task depends on?  The answer is simple-do do that. If the PC's need X, figure out how objectives can be completed without X. It might be tougher, and the rewards of achieving the goal might be of less value but it should be possible.  Some challenges are more binary such as a timed challenge. Don't be afraid to let the PC's utterly fail from time to time. It makes the victories sweeter and seem more well deserved. When I design NPC plots and plans I always include a rough idea of what is likely to happen if the PC's do not get involved. Utter failure should result in a very similar situation. Sometimes there can be no silver medal.<img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

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