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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 5225255" data-attributes="member: 82106">Don't feel bad, this is the whole core of the art of SCs and you have articulated it quite well, so I think you understand the issues. Your English is quite good too BTW, no need to apologize for it at all. I wish most English speakers would do so well... <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=";)" />Generally my approach to running SCs is very narrative. I think this is really how they should be run in almost all cases. Say with the SC above I'd imagine it going something like this:DM describes what the PCs know about the town. Presumably they are already motivated to get in and have enough information to pick one of the three approaches, so the SC itself begins when they decide to sneak in through the woods (for example).DM: Do you want to make any preparations before you attempt to sneak in? P1: Can I examine the defenses of the town. I want to know if there are patrols or anything like that visible.DM: Sure, make an Insight check.P1: (rolls a check, fails).DM: You watch for a while and notice that there are patrols. They seem to pass through the area you need to cross about once an hour (this is incorrect of course).NOTE: I already diverged a tiny bit from the author's script here by letting the PCs make a check at the very start to gather a bit of intelligence, maybe this is or isn't really appropriate (I don't have the module so I'm not really sure what the lay of the land is).P2: OK, we'll head into the woods, I'm going to take point and scout a little way ahead using Stealth.DM: Sure, you can do that, make a Stealth check.P2: (rolls, success)DM: You're quiet. I will need a Nature check from one of you.P3: OK, I have a high Nature bonus, (rolls and succeeds).DM: Fine, you manage to keep your bearings, but you almost run into a patrol, apparently you were wrong about their schedule. You're now at the edge of a river. You'll have to cross here. It would be better to cross a bit upstream further but the patrol is covering that area. I need an Athletics check from each of you to cross.P1-5: (roll dice, one player fails the DC10 check)DM: You quickly swim across before the patrol can move closer. Joe, being a poor swimmer, is just climbing out of the water when he's spotted. A harsh voice calls out "Hey, you, stop!". You all quickly move away into the undergrowth. Hopefully you can still sneak in, but as you move on through the woods you hear some voices shouting in the distance. No doubt the enemy will be more alert now!P4: Can I lay a false trail? DM: You can try to do that, make a Bluff check, and someone else make a Nature check.....Notice I don't really define for the players what the mechanics are, I just present them as RP choices and construct a specific narrative around the mechanical part of the SC itself. If I find there is some aspect of it that doesn't fit exactly with the actions the players wind up taking then I may diverge slightly from the script if it makes sense. There are other things that might come up. For instance a player might decide to use a ritual, maybe he casts Water Walk on Joe before they start, knowing that Joe has a bad Athletics score and they will need to swim the river. In that case Joe automatically succeeds in his check at that point. Alternately Joe might expend Fey Step to teleport part of the way across the river, which should be good for a +2 on his check for instance.If a party does diverge radically from a skill challenge then you have a few choices depending on the situation. You could have the challenge simply end. The PCs give up their attempt to enter the town and flee. Maybe the next day they attempt the main gate instead, but the guards will be more suspicious and they might have a harder time. Maybe the PCs decide to attack the patrol. In this case they've most likely lost the chance of sneaking in at all, but its hard to say, they may still concoct a way of doing so. You'll probably have to diverge radically from the SC at that point and maybe make up a new SC on the spot. Sometimes the players will simply come up with a solution that is so totally bullet-proof that it can't really fail. In that case the challenge just ends and the PCs succeed (this is going to be pretty rare).</blockquote>

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