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Message: <blockquote data-quote="iserith" data-source="post: 6550507" data-attributes="member: 97077">I'm going to put <a href="http://community.wizards.com/forum/dungeon-master-help/threads/4178436" target="_blank">some advice here that I gave to some posters on WotC</a> about this same issue:As much as I love skill challenges in D&D 4e, they aren't a great fit in D&D 5e mechanically. The same basic interaction holds though: DM presents a challenge, players try to overcome it, and dice come into play to resolve uncertainty. It's just not as structured in 5e. If you wanted to present a number of situations in a longer challenge or a series of complications in a shorter one, just write those down and assign a DC for task resolution if the players' solution is uncertain to work. If it is certain to work, they just succeed - no roll. if it's certain to fail, they just fail - no roll. If they get through your list of complications without failing thrice, then they achieve the win conditions for the stakes you set. If not, then (interesting) failure comes into effect. You can probably leave off on worrying about stuff like Primary Skills, Secondary Skills, and Advantages (not to be confused with advantage or disadvantage in 5e). DCs will likely be in the 10-20 range, tops, and Help action and group checks may apply if the players establish the fiction necessary to have that make sense.At this point I'm asked to workshop one with the poster:If you wouldn't mind. A town (15 or so buildings) was attacked before the players arrived. Most of the attackers have left but some are still around looting. One scene (skill challenge) I thought that the players would come upon was a burning building (most are burning or burnt out) with a family (maybe the freshly killed father clutching his pitchfork by the door and a mother and children) trapped inside.  Complications I was thinking of smoke and fire causing injury or death to the family, crumpled burning timber blocking entry to the building that they have to remove to get to the trapped family, scared children, looting bandits that might spot them. Thoughts?Here was my response:Okay, so this seems to me to be a fairly easy challenge. Let's make it Complexity 1, or 4 successes before 3 failures. Our stakes appear to be: Victory - Save the family and gain some kind of benefit; Defeat - Save the family but it costs (e.g. level of exhaustion, lost hit dice, damage, etc.) or introduces a new complication (e.g. draws unwanted attention). Complications could be Asphyxiating Smoke, Searing Flames, Choking Debris, and Frightened Folks. If you want a Complexity 2 skill challenge, add two more complications like Wandering Bandits and Collapsing Ceiling (or whatever). Now just present each complication in whatever order makes sense based on how the scene is unfolding. They are just "tags" that will help you improvise in the moment to fulfill step 1 of the basic conversation of the game: DM describes the environment. Then ask, "What do you do?" Judge their goal and approach to determine if it's a success, a failure, or uncertain and deserving of a roll. If there is a roll, assign a fair DC.  If they want to ask for help, give advantage if the person helping actually puts forth ideas that would help. If three or four PCs want to take on a complication, that can be a group check. Wherever possible, make sure nobody's hogging the spotlight. I like to give one complication to each person in the group by presenting it to them specifically based on what they're doing at the time, then asking "What do you do?"Here's what I suggest that will look like in actual play:[sblock] DM: The bandits are sacking this town. A building burns nearby - a two-story building with a shop at the bottom and a residence at the top by the looks of it. From within, you can hear the anguished cry of a child and the desperate pleas for help of a woman. Crying out for the gods' help as she is, she must have given up hope that anyone else is coming to rescue her. What do you do?Players: We go in there to save them!Fighter: I'll lead the way in.DM: What's the marching order for the rest of you?[Players sort it out with Cleric behind Fighter, then Wizard followed by Rogue in the rear who is on the lookout for additional trouble.]DM: Within the structure, you can now hear the cries of the woman and child are coming from upstairs. The smoke is thick and black, obscuring your vision and making breathing difficult. There is a risk of choking on ash and becoming a victim of this fire. How do you deal with that?Wizard: I do my endless handkerchief trick and give everyone a cloth to put over their mouths.Cleric: I yell for everyone to crawl.Rogue/Fighter: We cover our mouths and crawl.DM: Okay, that's sufficient to protect yourself from the smoke for now [marks an automatic success] but the tradeoff is that you're slower and less maneuverable. Somewhere behind you, the fire reaches something combustible which explodes, scattering the flames around you. They block your path to the stairs now, their searing heat threatens to burn and blister your flesh. What do you do about that?Cleric: I look around for something like a barrel of sand or water or the like - anything that could be quickly thrown on the fire.DM: You find a barrel of water - it's big and heavy. What do you do?Fighter: I'm going to give that thing the old heave-ho and smash it on the floor, spilling the water in all directions.DM: Okay, it sounds like you're making a Strength check. Because you're going to have to stand up into that smoke again, it'll be at disadvantage. If you succeed, you'll clear the area of the stairs and then some with the water. If you fail, you put the water out, but will become exhausted from smoke inhalation as you exert yourself.Fighter: Would my Athletics skill apply here?DM: Sure.Fighter: Okay, heave! *rolls twice* And so on. If Fighter fails his check here, that accrues a failure for the challenge in addition to his level of exhaustion, bringing them closer to the Defeat conditions (whatever they are). After they get past the stairs, the rogue catches sight of some bandits that enter having heard the disturbance the fighter made. So I'd spotlight him to deal with it. Then upstairs, the others can deal with flaming debris between them and the woman and child.[/sblock]And this is what the poster reported after running it the way I suggested:I just wanted to report in. I ran my first Skill Challenge as a GM, as I posted earlier I had never played with a GM that did skill challenges the "right" way before. It was awesome, the players where really engaged and two of them after the session said that was their favorite part of the game.Hope that helps!</blockquote>

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