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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ovinomancer" data-source="post: 8441008" data-attributes="member: 16814">Sure, although I'm talking 5e, so I'm not going to speak to player authored quests much in the context of how they work in 4e.So, using a situation-framed or fiction-first skill challenge is a matter of taking a question (and I made these questions the players wanted answered) and then framing in a dramatic situation in front of the players.  The example I'll use is one where a PC had received information that their character background nemesis was operating in Sigil.  The PC wanted to find this nemesis.  So this was the question -- is the nemesis findable in Sigil at the moment?I started by framing the situation that the initial source was located at a forgeworks with the situation being that the nemesis is a scary person and people do not like to talk about them at all.  So the first situation was "how do we get this forgeworker to spill beans?"  Since this is a skill challenge, and so has a framework (I was using 6 successes before 3 failures), the overall question cannot be answered at this point, but progress towards it can be.  The players engaged the forgeworker with empathy and diplomacy, so I called for a CHA check and the players opted to use Persuasion.  They succeeded, so the forgeworker advised them that he had heard that the nemesis was staying in a particular part of town, but couldn't narrow it down.  The PCs left, and we cut to the next scene, which was them telling me that they wanted to ask around the locals to see if they could narrow down where the nemesis was staying.  This one was a roaring success because one PC, who was a pit fighter of some reknown in Sigil, leveraged his fame with the people to find out that there was a local labor boss, the Butcher (he was an actual butcher), who knew everything in the 'hood and could be found in a local pub.  So 3 successes (the leveraging of fame was an additional success in this scene -- it was well done), no failures, off to a great start!   The PCs entered the pub, and discovered the Butcher was a massive demon, wearing a butcher's apron stained with blood, and carrying a massive cleaver at his side, currently sitting across three stools at the bar.  The PCs approached, and tried to extract information using persuasion again.  This check failed.  The Butcher rebuffed their attempts at conversation and told them to shove off.  Not wanting to take no for an answer, the pit fighter PC tried to intimidate the Butcher, and failed AGAIN!  Uh-oh, 2 failures, and now the entire thing is at risk.  This time, the Butcher didn't move or react, but the entire bar stood up and squared off at the pit fighter PC, who immediately backed down (he didn't want to have to possibly kill innocents).  The other PC tried to figure out if there was something that could be used to defuse the situation and open conversation, and succeeded at an Insight check to notice that, behind the bar, there were numerous plaques all thanking the Butcher for it's service to the community and were clearly in a place of pride.  Using this information, the PC attempted to appear to the Butcher's sense of community, and made an argument that the nemesis was bad for everyone and they just wanted to try and remove him as a threat.  This worked, and we were 5/2 on the challenge.  The Butcher opened up and said that the nemesis had indeed been operating in the area, and that the Butcher himself had to deliver multiple large orders that completely disrupted normal trade, costing him coin and hurting customers, but that he was too afraid to refuse (again, massive demon).  This led to a final check to get the exact location, but this check failed, causing an overall failure.  The overall question was "could we find the nemesis in Sigil?"  That answer was now no.  The Butcher sighed and said that the nemesis pulled up stakes and left the city the day prior, but he would provide the location the nemesis was operating out of.  The PCs got some information, and had a followup location (failing forward) that might provide additional stuff, but they failed to get what they really wanted -- to find and confront the nemesis.All of this was framed and followed in play.  I had none of it prepped.  The only backstory element that went into it was my determination, from the details of the PC's backstory (this nemesis destroyed his clan), that the threat level of the nemesis was high, hence the reluctance to talk about him and the Butcher's being afraid of him.  There was also some setting details (the forge was one of the faction bases, I can't remember off the top of my head which) and the neighborhood names.</blockquote>

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