(OOC) Scourge of Daggerford (Full)

[TaranTheWanderer]

It was never my intention to let this game stall out, so I'm going to push things forward. I was recently rereading the beginning of this game (Wow, there was some great stuff!) because I'm going to run a version of it for the customers of my game store, and I was taking notes on characters and situations that I made up that aren't in the adventure material.

And I found a way that I ran a sort-of "skill challenge" that I really like. I'll use it to get this chase done. I'd wanted to use the actual 2014 Chase Rules for it, but I find that I not only don't like them, but I don't really understand them either. (Hopefully the 2024 DMG will include something like, but better done. We'll have to see).

I called it a "3-Segment Challenge", which is similar to other, more recent, and surprisingly less developed ideas I've used, where I've called it, variously, a "3-Check Challenge" or a "3-Round Challenge". They're all very similar, but I honestly think that while I like the NAME, "3-Round Challenge" best, I like the METHOD of the much older "3-Segment Challenge" that I used early on in this game.

Here's how it works. Each Round (or Segment) represents a different narrative piece of the Challenge, and you can plug whatever you want into it. Each round, the players roll Ability Checks based on what they are trying to do to achieve that segment's goals, and at the end of the Third Round, the DM adds up the total number of successes and checks it against a number of successes that they determined ahead of time would result in overall success, and narrates accordingly.

Yes, this means that you can never "win" before the end of Round Three, but the rounds are NOT the equivalent of combat rounds, and can be differing lengths based on the needs of the story (they don't need to be the same length as each other, which is one of the reasons that I called it Segments, rather than Rounds. Perhaps the ideal name would be "3-TURN challenge" because each player gets three turns to be involved? I think I will go with that. (I'm thinking out loud and if you have little-to-no-interest in this, feel free to ignore me) - speaking of which!

It is possible (perhaps even likely) that a Player might choose to opt-out of the challenge entirely, or choose to do something that might be interesting, but doesn't really have much to do with the challenge itself. That's okay! While I imagine that the set number of successes would ought to be set regardless of the number of participants (rather than float based on party size) - meaning that more PCs would generally mean that there is more chance of success. (I think that it's fair to say that there are few situations where more hands wouldn't be useful, except in the kitchen, and even then...) I think that it works.

Example! THIS CHALLENGE.

This challenge can be defined as "Catch Lionel before he escapes with whatever he stole from the Altar".

We've already done Turn One (for the most part). Turn One is "Figure out what's going on". I'll narrate the results of Turn One in the IC in a moment. Then we'll move on to Turn Two: "Keep up with and keep track of Lionel as he tries to escape the Lodge". Then Turn Three will be "Catch Lionel before he escapes into the Forest". After which, if you fail, it will be too late. You could choose to track him, and we'll move to another sort of challenge, but he'll be gone for the time being if he gets that far. So... you'll want to try to stop him. (I think. If your character doesn't care, well, feel free to do something else).

If you don't like the above, feel free to let me know, but we'll go with it for now so that we can keep moving forward. If you have comments, or suggestions, feel free to let me know here, or privately, or whatever you choose.

Hopefully I got the spirit of the challenge. Although, I may have made the wrong assumption....maybe I should have left it more open ended....I will edit...

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I don't know what it said before you edited it, but it sounds fine to me.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

I don't know what it said before you edited it, but it sounds fine to me.

My post had made the assumption he was escaping out of the complex instead of further in. I hadn’t thought of the well, though!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I honestly don't expect anyone to remember anything, not even me! Things that were mere hours ago for the characters are now many months gone by.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Out of curiosity, @jmucchiello - are you still with us, planning to play?

 

[jmucchiello]

I am trying to keep up and even at this snails pace it isn't easy. I have trouble with medium term memory. I have to back track often to keep up with these long delays.

I am curious what happens if the wizard casts web on Lionel.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I am trying to keep up and even at this snails pace it isn't easy. I have trouble with medium term memory. I have to back track often to keep up with these long delays.

I honestly know how you feel. It's a bit of a vicious cycle - the longer things take, the longer they take, because I have to double, and triple-check where we are at and what's going on, because I can't remember. Sometimes that leads me to leave it for longer, because I don't feel that I have time right at that moment, which only makes it more work when I get back to it, which spirals into a delay on my end. On top of that, then the players get slower at posting, and we wind up where we're at today. And PBP is slow at the best of times.

Still, even with all that, I kind of love it. I certainly don't want to quit.

I am curious what happens if the wizard casts web on Lionel.

Lionel burned the web, I'm afraid.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Challenge Results: It's no surprise that you won the challenge. The DC was 15, and the vast majority of your checks came back over 20. I'll have to tinker with the format in my head a bit - narratively, I think it worked well and easily enough, but I'm not sure that it's mechanically satisfying. Let's see what the new DMG says on the subject. I really like the idea of a "skill challenge", but I have yet to find a format that really fully speaks to me. I hope it worked well enough for you all.

 

[TaranTheWanderer]

Challenge Results: It's no surprise that you won the challenge. The DC was 15, and the vast majority of your checks came back over 20. I'll have to tinker with the format in my head a bit - narratively, I think it worked well and easily enough, but I'm not sure that it's mechanically satisfying. Let's see what the new DMG says on the subject. I really like the idea of a "skill challenge", but I have yet to find a format that really fully speaks to me. I hope it worked well enough for you all.

I liked the challenge and it was as kind of what I was suggesting when I said “cat and mouse”.

Maybe use that format but also have the other person make different dc 15 rolls too.

So every time we succeed we get a +1 but every time he succeeds he gives us a -1

Then Your threshold is +\- 0. Over 0 we win, below 0 he wins. You’d need the same number of rolls per side per round though. Idk. The way you did it, I kind of liked how everyone could participate each round. In my suggestion, you might have to choose one person to make a different roll each round and have it be for the group.
***
The down side of catching him is, if he’d escaped, that would be one less NPC to run. And Lunn is currently being played by someone.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I'm kinda hoping that Lunn will make his save, myself, but we'll see what antics occur.