Random Skill Challenge Generator

[Bayonet_Chris]

Great story!

The challenge: Today is one of the largest festivals in the city's history, a feastday of the local churches, where the faithful fill the streets in revelry... all in the name of their deity of choice, of course. One of the traditional events during this party is the cross-city race, where teams try to make it through the packed roads from one side of the city to the other in the shortest amount of time. The winners are recognized by the City Council for their resourcefulness, and may be called upon in the future should anything arise that needs to be dealt with. The losers... well, at least there's plenty of ale nearby to console themselves on their loss.

That one is great! I'll have to mess around with a skill randomizer spreadsheet later on and play with different ideas.

 

[LostInTheMists]

That one is great! I'll have to mess around with a skill randomizer spreadsheet later on and play with different ideas.

Why, thank you. Today ended up being a slow day at work, so it gives me time to fiddle around with these challenges. If this afternoon is as slow as this morning was, I may try another one or two of them.

Can't wait to throw these at my group...

 

[Protagonist]

http://www.rpdoubleplus.net/randomskill.php

here's a (rather inelegant) script I wrote today because I love Asmor's idea and had time to kill during a really dull lecture on Virginia Woolf ; )

 

[Aria Silverhands]

These skill challenges where Perception is a forbidden skill remind me of the scene in Hellboy where the young FBI agent is being introduced to the big red guy and makes the mistake of staring at the grinded-down stumps of the half-demon's horns.

"What you looking at, kid?"

Hehe, that's hilarious. That reminds me, I still need to grab that movie on dvd.

 

[Ginnel]

As I've said before I quite like this method for idea generation, but I do see quite a lot of oh thats neat what if heal worked there and stuff, without it seems, any idea in how to encourage the players to investigate the use of these skills? The running one was cool and pretty much any player would have been able to try those skills in those ways

but some of the more obscure ones how would you help your players out?

would you get the PC's to make a check and if they passed it they get the description of the neat stuff?

would you present the objects in the initial description and then when they look at them say theres something unusual about them they might want to check and and let the players think of how themselves.

Would you just leave the players to it and think of ideas by themselves, which would happen in any given scenario but would kind of make your neat ideas a bit redundent

Just some food for thought

- - - - - - - - - - -

Bing!

 

[bert1000]

Ok here's another one...

“Batten Down the Hatches”
Appropriate Skills (Moderate DC): Nature, Perception, Thievery, Arcana
Unlockable Skills (Easy DC): Religion, Stealth
Forbidden Skills: Streetwise
All other skills (Hard DC)

The challenge: A tribe of local Orcs have been tracking the PCs, and are now only a couple hours behind them and closing fast. The party has found a large abandoned farm house, and decides to make their stand. They must quickly create make-shift defenses to help hold off the Orcs’ attacks.

Difficulty: 6 successes before 3 failures.

Nature: Some of the vines growing outside the farmhouse and snaking up the barn are actually “Ironweed”, an incredibly strong plant that can be used to tie close windows, doors, etc.

Perception (unlocks Religion, realize Streetwise): You notice a unusually large amount of country wards and charms scattered throughout the farm house. The local population must be highly superstitious. Maybe the Orcs of this region share those characteristics? This unlocks Religion. If a Hard DC is beaten, the character will also realize that a “Streetwise” check will not be successful in this situation, and can warn a character about to try this skill not to waste time on this activity.

Religion: You never understood why your temple elders taught you about the worship of Grumish until now. You use this knowledge to paint strong symbols of Orcish curses on the house’s entrances.

Thievery (unlocks Stealth): You construct make-shift pit traps along the perimeter of the house. You’ve now done a thorough inspection of the grounds. Although the pit traps will help stop a massed charge, you don’t think this will hinder 1 or 2 scouts from carefully approaching. Unlocks Stealth.

Stealth: You successfully sneak up on the house by using various hillocks, trees, and farm debris scattered throughout the property. Your “trial run” allows you to direct your party to destroy the cover you used, and lay additional traps near likely hiding places.

Arcana: From your knowledge of astronomy, you estimate that the Sun will be rising and particularly bright when the Orcs arrive. By making a side path facing east look like the easiest entry point into the house, you will channel the Orcs in a direction where the sun’s glare will make it hard for them to see the traps and your archery positions in the windows

Not usable - Streetwise: The rules of the city are tough to apply in a country setting, and you spend considerable time trying to block a small cellar entrance when you realize that unlike the city homes you “frequent” these country homes have 2 other larger entrances to the cellar as well...

Results

Success: The defenses make a considerable difference and 1/4 the Orcs fall prey to the traps set. The party will only have to fight off waves of 4-5 orcs at a time from two entry points.

Failure: The battle becomes much harder. Only a few Orcs fall to the traps, and almost the full Orc party makes it through to the house past the defenses. The party will have to fight off 8-9 orcs at a time from three entry points

 

[Asmor]

So I'm trying to come up with a list of ways for a skill to be forbidden. Here's what I've got so far, only one of each and I'm missing dungeoneering and and endurance:

Acrobatics: A surface the PCs may want to attempt to scale/climb/balance on is too fragile, and applying any weight to it only worsens the situation.

Arcana: Some arcane paraphenlia has been placed as a red herring, possibly by someone with reason to fear wizards.

Athletics: Something the PCs may want to move/push is simply impossible.

Bluff: The PCs are unaware that the person they're dealing with already knows about them and why they're here; should they attempt to lie, he'll know it.

Diplomacy: Someone the PCs must deal with is absolutely dead-set against helping them in any way.

Dungeoneering:

Endurance:

Heal: What appears to be a relatively simple medical issue (such as a cold) is actually significantly worse and any attempt at treating the symptoms only exacerbates the underlyind affliction.

History: The current situation is remarkably similar to a famous historic situation. It is purely coincidence, though, and any knowledge of the historic situation is entirely unapplicable.

Insight: Someone the PCs must deal with is a master of manipulating others, and is subtly bluffing them. Any attempt to glean insight from him will only cause them to play into his hands.

Intimidate: Someone the PCs must deal with will under no circumstances allow himself to be bullied.

Nature: Something which appears natural is not, and behaves strangely and counterintuitively.

Perception: The PCs are being observed, and if they appear to be prying too much will be shooed off.

Religion: Some religious paraphenelia has been placed as a red herring, possibly by someone with reason to fear religious folk.

Stealth: The PCs are being observed so well that any attempt at stealth would be immediately foiled.

Streetwise: The PCs are in a situation where "street smarts" are simply unapplicable, such as in a noble court or in a wildly-different culture.

Thievery: Something the PCs might want to steal or manipulate is being too well-observed or protected for it to have any hope of success.

 

[LostInTheMists]

As I've said before I quite like this method for idea generation, but I do see quite a lot of oh thats neat what if heal worked there and stuff, without it seems, any idea in how to encourage the players to investigate the use of these skills? The running one was cool and pretty much any player would have been able to try those skills in those ways

but some of the more obscure ones how would you help your players out?

Those are only the "primary" skills, if you will, that could be used for the situation... the ones that would most directly have an impact on the scene at hand. There's really nothing saying that other skills can't be used - it would just take some creativity on the part of the players, and perhaps a bit of a higher DC to use that skill due to its imperfect fit with the task at hand.

In the example I posted before, about the cross-city race, the four "main" skills were Endurance, Perception, Religion, and Streetwise. However, there's absolutely nothing stopping a character from trying to Intimidate people to get out of the way, or Bluffing a guard on horseback to clear a path for them with the claim of an emergency, or anything else for that matter. Some skills just work better, and it's up to the DM to be the arbiter of what's feasible ("Trying to Intimidate the crowd to clear a path? Sure, that could work, but it'll be a little more difficult since you have to get a LOT of people to move.") and what's much less likely to work ("And how, exactly, do you think a Heal check will help you get further in the race?").

 

[bert1000]

As I've said before I quite like this method for idea generation, but I do see quite a lot of oh thats neat what if heal worked there and stuff, without it seems, any idea in how to encourage the players to investigate the use of these skills? The running one was cool and pretty much any player would have been able to try those skills in those ways

but some of the more obscure ones how would you help your players out?

Well, the exercise we are doing here helps with ideas but I think the way the challenge unfolds live really depends a lot on a group’s playstyle.

For a real game I would modify things a bit. I'd add a description hinting at the more obscure appropriate skills. Also, I'd expand the appropriate skills beyond 4 if that seems right. For the example I posted above, I might describe the scene as:

“You come across a long-abandoned farmhouse just inside the woods. Thick vines cover the house and small barn on the property. The house is a large two story structure with faded paint and some damage to the front entrance and windows. However, the structure of the house appears strong. There is a soft glow on the horizon as morning slowly comes”

The moderate and easy DCs reward players for getting the clues, but I'd allow any other ideas that makes sense. If a player wants to try to use nature to capture a wild animal to use as part of a trap - fine but it's a hard DC. If they wanted to use nature to determine which of the trees near the house could hold the weight of an orc, so they can chop it down, I’d allow a moderate DC. It’s not what I put down on my list, but seems reasonable enough.

As for who describes what, here's a couple ways I could see the resolution going:

1) Player's give vague description of how they use skill, and roll. Outcome is described entirely by DM. The pre-determined descriptions would come in handy the most here.

Player: “I use Nature to try to find some material around here that could help with the defenses”. If player rolls higher than moderate DC, use your pre-planned description of finding the “Ironwood” vines.

2) Player's give description of how to use skill and roll. DM says success or failure. Player describes result, with maybe some color added by DM.

Player: “I’m going to use Nature to determine which trees pose a danger; you know, can hold enough weight for an Orc to scale and get into the 2nd floor of the house”. [player rolls]

DM: “Success”

Player: “Great, I get Ernie and we chop down the trees near the house that I identified”

DM: “You are sweaty and tired, but are confident that the Orcs won’t be able to use any of the nearby trees as ladders into the house”

3) Player describes what they want to do without naming a skill. DM determines skill appropriate to actions. Player rolls. Description of action as one of the above, either player led or DM led.

Player: “I want to find suitable, heavy wood to reinforce the windows and doors”

DM: Ok, that’s a nature check. Roll...