Need help with a possible skill challenge

[jhilahd]

Hey all,

I have an upcoming game where the PC's have followed the tracks of a band of goblin raiders back to their lair. This "lair" has been mentioned/referred to for some time in found notes and letters. It's a variant on the Barrow of the Ogre King from the FRCS.

Basically, they've followed the tracks the goblins left back to the "barrow", which has 7 mounds on top. The site is actually the entrance to a forgotten Dwarven fortress. Only one mound is the true entrance, the others are just false areas or guard rooms.

There are 3 roaming goblin patrols around the mounds. The group has also detected large amounts of magic(just effect) and are concerned at what this is.


So basically, they need to sneak inside the right building, make it past the lock/trap, not encounter(if possible) the guards and find clues to uncover what the place is.

Is this enough to qualify for a Skill Challenge?
I've only ran Kobold Hall and one other adventure. So this would technically be my first challenge. I'm still unsure how to proceed on these.
I love the concept, but the mechanics still eludes me to a degree.

Thoughts/suggestions?

 

[Rel]

I'd say sure. Why not?

But my take on skill challenges is a bit more loose than the RAW. Rather than set up some kind of rigid framework for the challenge I am more in favor of some loose guidelines. I think of this in terms of applicable skills and what happens if they bungle them. So in this case:

Stealth - This is clearly useful in evading the guard patrols. I could see it being used not simply to get quietly past them but also (possibly at a higher DC) used to cause a distraction so that the whole party has an easier time evading them. If they botch this then they have to fight the guards.

Arcana - From your description this is useful and necessary so that they get into the correct entrance and not one of the false ones. If they botch it then they wind up in the wrong place which at least requires another Stealth check to get to the correct one and may lead to a fight or trap.

Perception - Once inside the correct mound this is useful for locating the trap as well as discovering the nature of the place. If botched then they suffer the effects of the trap and possibly remain clueless about the nature of the location. I'll note here that if your adventure hinges on them going inside this place or at least figuring out that it was an old Dwarven Fortress then I'd give them that much for free but have some extra information about hidden dangers inside that they could uncover as a bonus.

Thievery - Obviously this helps them get through the trap and lock. If botched then they suffer the effects of the trap. If botched on the lock check then maybe they are stuck inside the outer chamber and they are discovered by one of the patrols.

Of course you should also try to consider what other skills they might use and keep an open mind about allowing stuff you didn't expect if it seems plausible. One guideline I use on that type of thing is that if I consider a skill to be of very marginal utility then rather than allow it to count toward success I allow it to give a bonus to another skill.

In this situation perhaps Insight might be used by a PC who speaks Goblin in order to determine that the patrols are talking about taking a break to have some beer at midnight. So that gives a bonus to the Stealth roll because it'll be easier to evade them while they are drunk. Nature might be similarly used to plot a path through the ruin that has good cover (bushes have grown up in various places) and with plenty of grass growing on the ground (making their footsteps quieter) and also giving a bonus to the Stealth roll. But that one is very iffy so I'd also make it so that a failed Nature roll means that one of the patrols saw their footprints on the trampled grass and discovered them.

Anyway, hope that helps.

 

[jhilahd]

Great suggestions. I tried them in the game tonight.

sigh... I had mixed reactions. My group is still focused on the immediate style of a skill check instead of challenges.

One even called it artificial compared to regular play.


I must admit, I'm still not sure how to run these things. I've read the DMG portion over and over and it still doesn't click exactly with me on how to do these, I guess.

Hopefully, I'll either get it, or find someone who's written a guide to doing these.

Thanks, Rel, for the help.

 

[Syrsuro]

My recommendation is to turn the Skill Challenge mechanic on its ear.


Have the players play through the 'skill portion' of the adventure exactly as they would normally - giving them lots of opportunities to use skills.

But make what happens and whether or not their reach their goal depend on what they do, not some arbitrary skill challenge complexity value.

But while they are doing this, track their successes and failures. Specifically how many successes they achieve before reaching three failures.

And plug that number back into the table on page 72 to determine how much experience they get. In other words - the ingame success is determined by what they did and how well they did it. And the metagame success (how much experience they got for it) is determined by the arbitrary skill challenge concept.

Carl