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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BoldItalic" data-source="post: 6551356" data-attributes="member: 6777052">We have the problem of "how do we make skill challenges more fun?". Now, there's a problem-solving technique much used by mathematicians, which involves transforming a problem you don't know how to solve into an equivalent problem that you do know how to solve, solving that, and transforming the solution back again. Let's try that.A skill challenge is functionally equivalent to a dungeon. It may not look like a dungeon, or sound or smell or feel like a dungeon but at an abstract level, they are the same thing. The difference is, that we all know how to make dungeons fun, don't we? So let's transform a skill challenge into the equivalent dungeon, add some fun, and then transform the fun dungeon back into a fun skill challenge. Make sense?A skill challenge can be mapped out on paper with a bubble for each check and arrows connecting them representing successes and failures. Maybe you actually do that on paper, or maybe you just do it intuitively in your head. Try drawing one on paper and stare at it for a moment. It's the map of a dungeon. Each bubble is a room and each arrow is a door or passage connecting the rooms. There aren't any monsters in this dungeon, but instead there is an obstacle in each room that requires the use of skills to overcome. One room might have a chasm that requires Athletics to cross, another might have a talking statue that you have to Persuade to tell you a magic password to open a secret door in another room. And so on. Suppose that there are eight rooms and in each room, instead of treasure, there is one piece of a treasure map, that you can collect if you get past the obstacle in that room. The players' goal in this dungeon is to reach the exit, having collected all eight pieces of the treasure map. Seven pieces is partial success, you can still use the map but you might have to make a long detour round the missing bit.Now, we have a dungeon that is equivalent to a skill challenge but it's just a set of room with obstacles. How do we make that dungeon fun? How do we make any dungeon fun? We add things that make the players nervous, or puzzled, or amused. Do that. Maybe a door slams in the distance. Does it mean anything? Do we have to hurry? Maybe the talking statue tells really bad jokes and won't help you unless you laugh. Maybe in one room, there are buttons on the wall that activate haunting music. Is it a clue? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe in another room, there's a ladder propped up against a wall, with a bucket of water next to it. Are they important? Are the PCs supposed to use them somehow? That's for the players to decide. They might think of a way to use the ladder to help cross the chasm. Or they might succeed without it. These are just examples, off the top of my head. The point is, it's easy to decorate dungeons to make them interesting and fun.Now translate the fun elements back into the skill challenge. The NPC who cracks terrible jokes. The NPC who is in a farmhouse on the wrong side a a raging torrent, and the bridge has been swept away in a flood. You see five crows flying eastwards. Is it an omen? The hurdy-gurdy player in the village square who suddenly stops and plays a different tune when you pass by. Is it important? And so on.In short, decorate your skill challenge as you would a dungeon.</blockquote>

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